Indholdsfortegnelse for 04/04/19 i Autosport

We all expected Charles Leclerc to demonstrate his star quality at Ferrari in 2019, but to put in such a fine performance in just his second race with the team was remarkable. As Lewis Hamilton pointed out, Leclerc really deserved to win the Bahrain Grand Prix. Although Leclerc was cruelly denied, there were lots of positives from last weekend. First of all, the racing was much better than in Melbourne – the DRS was too strong on the main straight, but there was some great battling into Turn 4. Secondly, Ferrari showed that testing pace was no fluke and that it will be in the championship fight with Mercedes this season. And, finally, Leclerc’s performance demonstrates that we’ll have an interesting dynamic to watch at Ferrari. Sebastian Vettel is in…

MOTOGP Honda has managed to get its own version of the controversial Ducati winglet homologated after the FIM ruled the Italian manufacturer’s device legal. Last week the FIM responded to an appeal lodged by Honda, Suzuki, Aprilia and KTM after their protest against the controviersial appendage was thrown out by Qatar race stewards. The FIM backed the stewards’ verdict. Andrea Dovizioso’s Qatar victory was declared final and Ducati was given clearance to use the winglet (below), which it claims is to cool the rear tyre. Ducati’s rivals are adamant the piece’s true purpose is to generate downforce. Since this decision, Honda submitted a design of its own in Argentina last weekend to MotoGP technical director Danny Aldridge, the person who first gave the Ducati winglet the all-clear. Aldridge refused to…

DTM Three Super GT cars will race in the 2019 DTM finale at Hockenheim as a precursor to the first joint race of the two series at Fuji in November. The Japanese and German championships have long been working on a collaborative rules package in the hope that it would allow both to add more manufacturers to their grids. Autosport revealed in February that the likelihood was that there would be just one joint race in Japan in 2019. But the hope was for some Super GT involvement at a DTM event, and that plan was confirmed by the two series on Friday. Three Super GT cars will enter the 5-6 October DTM final round, before teams from both series combine for a joint race at Fuji on 23-24 November.…

MCLAREN PUSHES ON WITH BARGEBOARD DETAILS The absence of the massively complex front wing furniture has given much more of a role in this year’s aerodynamics package to the bargeboards. It’s an area in which the bulk of the teams are pouring vast amounts of resources to shave off fractions of a second. McLaren, en route to its best result since Fernando Alonso’s fifth place in Australia last year, emerged in Bahrain with a revised bargeboard concept aimed at better controlling the wake from the front wheels. Featuring a more detailed leading edge compared with the original specification, there are seven horizontal slots at the very front, paired up with six cascading fins that form a mini-bargeboard. This is a hugely aggressive attitude to turning around the airflow emanating from…

Short answer to making F1 better The comparisons between Formula 1 cars and IndyCars at Austin make for fascinating reading. Sure, IndyCars are ‘too slow’ for some F1 folk, but they look great and are spectacular, as Edd Straw so eloquently put it in his column last week. The answer to this conundrum for 2021 is staring everyone in the face – shorten the wheelbase to something comparable to IndyCar (and what F1 had since the year dot, before the stupidity of aero overtook the situation!). The Mercedes F1 car is nearly 25% longer – just plain daft… Lewis Hamilton has often said that shorter cars would be more fun, and spectacular, to drive – and watch. Why, oh why the hesitation to make the change (I don’t even read…

Nico Hulkenberg and Daniel Ricciardo both retired from points positions at the start of the 54th lap of the race with engine-related problems. Hulkenberg started 17th after a combination of an engine mapping problem and a second, mechanical issue meant he fell in Q1. But after climbing to 11th on the first lap he was running sixth when he pulled off the track just after Turn 1 with four laps remaining thanks to a loss of power. Simultaneously, Ricciardo pulled off at the entry to Turn 2 with smoke coming from the back of his car after an MGU-K failure. The MGU-K has been a weak point in terms of reliability for Renault this year, with a similar problem putting McLaren driver Carlos Sainz Jr out of the Australian Grand…

MERCEDES 10 Shaded Bottas by 0.066s in qualifying. The Mercedes wasn’t as quick as the Ferrari but, while he couldn’t keep Vettel behind after undercutting him at the first stops, Hamilton’s attack after the second stops earned him second, which became first when Leclerc slowed. 8 Bottas was close to Hamilton in qualifying, and the race started well before he lost two places as a result of misjudging the wind into Turn 1. He was 22s behind Hamilton in second when the safety car was deployed, but the gap was partly explained by a plastic bag lodged in his front wing. FERRARI 4 Vettel only occasionally looked to have the same speed as Leclerc, and never when it mattered. Although he did ace the start to jump into the lead,…

FORMULA 2 SAKHIR (BHR) 30-31 MARCH ROUND 1/12 Most of the pre-event attention might have been lavished upon Mick Schumacher, but it was another Ferrari-backed driver with Prema Racing pedigree who led the way in Bahrain. While Charles Leclerc was busy writing a new chapter in his career by taking pole position for the grand prix, one of his former rivals was imitating his F2 race-winning strategy from two years ago. Back in 2017, Leclerc opened the F2 season with a stunning sprint race win in Bahrain after pitting – a counter-intuitive tactic in the shorter reversed-grid race. The man he beat that day, Luca Ghiotto, had to watch the young Monegasque breeze by with fresher tyres. But Ghiotto put that pain to good use by pulling off the same…

MOTOGP RIO HONDO (ARG) 31 MARCH ROUND 2/19 Marc Marquez opened his 2019 MotoGP win account in emphatic style last weekend in Argentina, banishing memories of his Termas de Rio Hondo meltdown last year by taking one of the most dominant victories of his entire grand prix career. The contrast with 2018 – when Marquez stalled on the grid, earning himself a ridethrough penalty that precipitated his infamous clash with Valentino Rossi – couldn’t have been greater. The Honda rider made the perfect getaway from pole and simple rode into the distance, pulling clear by as much as one second per lap in the early stages. “Honestly, after last year I wanted to do a race like that; I wanted to show my speed and my precision,” said Marquez. He…

COLIN TURKINGTON The reigning champion “WSR has a new car for this season but, very much like us, it has a lot of proper people involved in the team. It might struggle for the first race weekend from a lack of testing, but by the time we get to Donington Park and Thruxton, WSR is going to be there. Turkington is a class act so he’s definitely going to be one to watch and tough to beat.” ASH SUTTON 2017 title winner “Team BMR always seems to struggle at the start of the year but conveniently comes good at some point. You never really know what’s going on with that team. There’s not been a huge amount of development done on the Subaru Levorg visually, or that we know of,…

There is a distinctively Swedish theme among the incomers for the 2019 WTCR season, with two ‘new’ teams and two new drivers hailing from the Scandinavian nation. Cyan Racing has dropped its incognito status after a year running customer Hyundai i30 Ns under the banner of Yvan Muller’s YMR squad, in which it won the teams’ title. Now it will debut the new Lynk & Co 03 (bottom, left), giving the Chinese make – part of the Geely group that owns the squad’s former partner Volvo – a foothold in the championship for the first time. Cyan has retained the services of World Touring Car champions Thed Bjork and Muller, with Muller’s talented nephew Yann Ehrlacher jumping ship from Honda outfit Munnich Motorsport and three-time WTCC champion Andy Priaulx joining during…

CLASSIC FF1600 Former British Touring Car star Tim Harvey secured a podium finish at Silverstone last weekend in his first Formula Ford 1600 race for 33 years. The 1992 BTCC champion qualified fifth and finished fourth in the opening Classic FF1600 race driving a Van Diemen RF81, before taking second in race two. “I raced an F1 Cooper at the Classic meeting two years ago, but my last serious single-seater race was in British F3000 in 1989, and in Formula Ford it was three years earlier,” Harvey said. “Buying this Van Diemen RF81 took me back to where it all started for me, racing one of these in the Champion of Brands. “I’ve always had a love for Formula Ford and to come back again now and race against Rick…

MGCC The MG Car Club has had to cancel its popular MG Live event for 2019 after being unable to find a suitable replacement for its June Silverstone date. MG Live was one of two mid-June club meetings to be cancelled by Silverstone last month because the facility will be closed while the circuit undergoes resurfacing work. The MGCC worked to try and find a replacement date and venue but was unsuccessful. MG Live and its antecedents had been a fixture at the Northamptonshire circuit for the past 68 years. In a statement, MGCC general manager Adam Sloman said: “We are very sorry to be updating everyone with such disappointing news. “The club has been incredibly determined to find an alternative solution for MG Live this year and, sadly, the…

KIRKISTOWN 500MRCI 30 MARCH Picking up where he left off at the end of last season, Alan Davidson opened his Kirkistown account with a brace of pole positions, followed by a pair of wins to put him firmly ahead on the Northern Ireland Formula Ford 1600 chart. But it wasn’t as simple as it looked. In race one, his well-sorted 1989 Mondiale had company all the way, with the 2001 Van Diemens of David McCullough and Will Herron in very close proximity for the full 15 minutes. McCullough, in fact, was the pacesetter, leading over the line on almost every lap. That was until the last one. Herron led the charge going into the Hairpin, and got his nose ahead for a moment, but the wily Davidson, who had been…

SILVERSTONE INTERNATIONAL BARC 30-31 MARCH Tim Gray’s Praga romped to victory in the first Britcar Endurance race, which featured an impressive 35-car field. Ross Wylie’s Ferrari 488 Challenge was a comfortable second during the first half of the contest, but it was Marcus Clutton who came to the fore after taking over John Seale’s new Lamborghini Huracan. Seale had duelled with Lucky Khera’s McLaren 650S for third, then Clutton chased hard to secure a clear second. The McLaren picked up a late puncture in the hands of Lee Frost, which handed third to the charging Taranis of Jonny MacGregor and Ben Sharich. There was to be no repeat for Gray in race two though, after the electrics failed on his steering wheel and left him gearless after 15 laps. Wylie…

BOOK REVIEW SECOND TO NONE: THE EUROPEAN FORMULA 2 STORY RRP £40.00 First of all, an apology. This twin-book ‘box set’ has been on sale for a couple of years now, but we didn’t review it at the time because we were anticipating a joint critique alongside an eagerly awaited tome from Chris Witty, the former Autosport journalist who was there in the paddock during the golden era of Formula 2. But Witty’s interview material is so vast that the project is still ongoing, so let’s allow Chris Ellard’s work its long-belated place in the sun. Addicts of the more cobweb-strewn byways of single-seater history will already know Ellard’s work from his book The Forgotten Races, which shone a light on the myriad non-championship Formula 1 races from the dawn…

Jean Alesi (Tyrrell-Ford 019) spins out at the start of the 1990 Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez, after being squeezed into the path of Riccardo Patrese’s Williams-Renault FW13B by a jockeying Gerhard Berger (McLaren-Honda MP4/5B) – Patrese’s front wing clipped Alesi’s left-rear tyre, causing an instant deflation. Alesi had qualified in an impressive fourth place, behind the polesitting McLaren of Ayrton Senna and the Ferrari 641/2s of Alain Prost and Nigel Mansell. The race was won by Prost; Senna dropped out after 53 laps with a punctured radiator. For classic 1990s Formula 1 DVDs head to bit.ly/Duke1990sF1 For more great photographs, visit motorsportimages.com…

P16 OPINION FORMULA 1 Formula 1’s planned 2021 rules overhaul took a step forward at a key meeting between the rulemakers and its stakeholders last week, with several details emerging over the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend. One year has passed since F1 presented its first idea for a technical, sporting and financial revolution, and the championship’s participating teams and manufacturers have finally been presented with their first look at the full framework. This occurred at a meeting of the Strategy Group and the F1 Commission in London last Tuesday (March 26). Those present will now have the chance to consider the details before continuing discussions over the coming weeks. Possible intentional chassis rules delay Details such as a cost cap and new revenue distribution need to be finalised, but several…

FORMULA E The Nelson Piquet Jr and Jaguar relationship is over. It began as a high-profile move for 2017/18, in which the inaugural Formula E champion joined Jaguar after its disastrous first campaign in the series. To begin with, the new partnership started well. Leaving the 2017/18 season’s fifth round in Mexico, Piquet was fifth in the standings and not far from the title fight. But when the championship returned to Europe things started to unravel. He ended up ninth – behind team-mate Mitch Evans, who finished seventh and took Jaguar’s first podium and pole. The slump continued into the Gen2 era. Evans has scored 36 points from the opening six races – with a best finish of fourth – and has taken points at every round. Piquet has just…

WTCR Three-time British Touring Car champion Gordon Shedden was fastest in the World Touring Car Cup’s two-day Barcelona test. He set a best time of 1m54.434s in his WRT Audi RS3 LMS on the second day, outpacing the Munnich Motorsport Honda Civic Type R of Nestor Girolami by 0.074 seconds. WRT and Munnich locked out the top four positions in the combined order, with Girolami’s team-mate Esteban Guerrieri and the second WRT Audi of Jean-Karl Vernay next up. Team Mulsanne pair Ma Qing Hua and Kevin Ceccon, driving new Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce cars built by the Romeo Ferraris team over the winter, were fifth and sixth. The test gave squads one last chance to add to what for most has been a winter of significant mileage, but it was…

After qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix, Nico Hulkenberg said that Renault team-mate Daniel Ricciardo’s feedback comes from a “spoiled, a kind of better car” starting point. It was a light-hearted comment rather than a dig, made in response to a question about Ricciardo feeling the car wasn’t perfect over the bumps, but Hulkenberg’s words encapsulate an irrefutable truth. Ricciardo’s shock decision to sign for midfield Renault meant turning his back on a series of Red Bulls that were, at times, the class of the chassis field. The evidence so far suggests adapting to life in the midfield has been more difficult than anticipated, hence the decision to participate in this week’s Bahrain test. Ricciardo is no fool and went into this with his eyes open. But knowing you are…

History will record the 2019 Bahrain Grand Prix as another victory for Lewis Hamilton, his 74th. Considering he was in the second-fastest car and forced Sebastian Vettel into a mistake in battle to ensure he inherited the lead late in the race, it was a fine win. But what the record books won’t reflect is that this was the moment a star was born in Charles Leclerc, whose maiden Formula 1 podium deserved to be a victory of consummate skill worthy of Hamilton at his best. That Hamilton magnanimously raised his hand as he apologetically passed the stricken Ferrari tells you everything you need to know. The agonisingly slow death of Leclerc’s race was thanks to his V6 engine dropping a cylinder on lap 46. Associated problems, such as not…

Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz Jr’s clash while battling for fifth place on the fourth lap of the race was investigated by stewards, who took no action because neither driver was “wholly or predominantly to blame” for the collision. Sainz attempted to go around the outside of Verstappen at the Turn 4 right-hander. The Red Bull driver made contact with him and caused a front-right puncture. Sainz limped back to the pits, but later retired with a gearbox problem. Sainz labelled his clash with Verstappen as “racing”, but said the Dutchman had hit him very hard. “It’s racing, it’s incidents,” he said. “All I can say is that I started well, I did all I had to do and tried everything I had to try and I ended up worse…

Second-guessing rallies is a dangerous business. Formbooks, like scripts, can be tossed aside in an instant. So much for Sebastien Ogier and Citroen, or for Ott Tanak and Toyota. Instead, it was a Belgian who topped the podium. The same one who’d been blown away in the final stage, turning the air blue with a particularly expletive-laden analysis of his own time. And the Hyundai – the one which was nowhere last time out in Mexico, was fully expected to be embarrassed on asphalt, and which understeered its way through shakedown? Yes, that one. It won. And Thierry Neuville, third in the table and staring down the barrel ahead of last week’s Tour of Corsica? Championship leader. Same for his Korean employer. Third to first in three days. But Hyundai…

INTERCONTINENTAL GT CHALLENGE LAGUNA SECA (USA) 30 MARCH ROUND 2/5 The HubAuto Corsa Ferrari 488 GT3 won the second round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge at Laguna Seca as Nick Foster, Tim Slade and Miguel Molina beat the GruppeM Mercedes-AMG of Maxi Buhk, Maxi Goetz and Raffaele Marciello by 12.5 seconds. Remarkably, there were no cautions in the entire eight hours, but the Balance of Performance ensured the race still swung back and forth between different cars. The KCMG Nissan GT-R of Alex Buncombe, Katsumasa Chiyo and Joshua Burdon passed the polesitting Acura NSX of Mario Farnbacher on the opening lap to head the first hour, while Molina’s Ferrari 488 then also passed Farnbacher, and assumed the lead when Buncombe pitted. Thanks to a slow stop from KCMG, the Ferrari…

P80 SUPPORTS PREVIEW The modern-day British Touring Car Championship is all about the fractions. As races are settled by ever-smaller margins, it’s the tiniest detail that makes the biggest difference. So jumping into a new season with a brand-new car is a huge ask for any team, and that’s exactly the position WSR finds itself in for 2019. Reigning champion Colin Turkington, along with team-mates Andrew Jordan and new recruit Tom Oliphant, will take to the Brands Hatch Indy Circuit this weekend in the BMW 330i M Sport, which has been turned around in record time by the team to replace the successful 125i M Sport. The trio of saloon-shaped cars ran faultlessly at the championship’s media day at the Kent track last week, and the drivers are bubbling with…

AmD TUNING’S SWITCH TO RAPID HONDA CIVICS Sam Tordoff has a particular reason for wanting to get behind the controls of the new AmD Tuning Honda Civic Type R this year. He will pilot one of the crew’s FK2 models (above) alongside Rory Butcher. “I got beaten to the title by one of these cars, so I know how good it is,” says 29-year-old Tordoff, who was then driving a BMW 125i M Sport. He finished second to the works Team Dynamics Honda of Gordon Shedden in 2016. “I spent some time looking at the back of it during that season,” adds Tordoff. “I know it’s one of the finest, and most well-developed, chassis on the grid and I’ve always wanted to drive one. This whole deal made perfect sense…

GINETTA GT5 CHALLENGE Ginetta Junior champion Adam Smalley has secured a late deal to race in the Ginetta GT5 Challenge this year, laying to rest fears that he would not be competing at all. Smalley had targeted a move into the Ginetta GT4 Supercup for this year, but struggled to find budget over the winter and has now opted to join the popular GT5 grid, remaining with Elite Motorsport. “I’m not from a massive money background, and I wouldn’t be racing cars if I hadn’t won the Ginetta scholarship,” Smalley said. “After the high of winning the championship you’ve got to move on to the next thing. It wasn’t until probably the last two or three weeks we were getting some more interest from sponsors. I was expecting I probably…

MGCC Tributes were paid at Silverstone’s opening BCV8 race of the 2019 season to the MG Car Club championship’s popular long-time coordinator Pam McCarthy, who died on 5 March. All BCV8 drivers got out of their cars on the grid before the race, assembling at the front for a minute’s silence, and the cars also had stickers in McCarthy’s memory. “It’s really sad news, a massive shock for all of us. We are, as a championship, all mourning it a little bit at the moment,” said BCV8 chairman James Wheeler. “But the key thing is to try to keep going, keep strong and enjoy it, because if she’s looking down at us she’ll want the championship to be as successful as it’s always been and I’m still carrying on to…

750MC MILES AWARD IS BACK The John Miles Award, named in honour of the former Formula 1 driver who died last year, will be awarded again in 2019 through the 750 Motor Club. The award will continue to nurture promising up-and-coming talent within the club. The winner will receive a £1000 cash prize, which will be matched by the 750MC with £1000 credit against entry fees for 2020. WHITELEGG TO SCOTLAND National Legends frontrunner Steve Whitelegg will make a switch to the Scottish championship for 2019. Whitelegg finished second in the National series last season behind John Mickel, earning a test in the HMS Alfa Romeo Giulietta BTCC car after his best result in the category. His team will be rebranded to Bridgeman Motorsport and the reins handed over to…

One qualified a brilliant eighth for their Formula 1 debut. One has become the youngest ever Indycar winner. One is potentially next in line for a Toro Rosso F1 drive and has twice won the Macau Grand Prix. One has shown flashes of speed in Indycar. Four others were deserving McLaren Autosport BRDC Award finalists, although ultimately defeated. One has won the Formula Ford Festival and landed a McLaren Junior Performance Academy spot. And the list goes on. Exactly four years ago today, FIA Formula 4 arrived in Britain for the first time. And Lando Norris, Colton Herta, Dan Ticktum, Matheus Leist, Ricky Collard, Enaam Ahmed, Sennan Fielding, Toby Sowery and Josh Smith ensured that the grid of the 2015 MSA Formula (as it was then known) was bursting with…

DONINGTON PARK GUARDS TROPHY Mike Gardiner/Dan Cox (TVR Griffith) HISTORIC ROAD SPORTS Kevin Kivlochan (Morgan +8) 70s ROAD SPORTS John Dickson (Ferrari 308GTB) HISTORIC TOURING CARS Martin Strommen (Ford Lotus Cortina) CLASSIC FORMULA 3/CLASSIC FF2000 Adrian Langridge (March 803) HISTORIC FORMULA FORD 2000 Andrew Park (Reynard SF81) HISTORIC FORMULA FORD Cameron Jackson (Winkelmann WDF2) FORMULA JUNIOR Sam Wilson (Lotus 20/22) For full results visit: tsl-timing.com KIRKISTOWN NORTHERN IRELAND FF1600 RACE 1 & 2 Alan Davidson (Mondiale M89S) LIBRE SALOONS RACE 1 & 2 Ciaran Denvir (Honda Civic) ROADSPORTS RACE 1 & 2 Ivor Greenwood (Radical Prosport) FORMULA VEE B & C Jack Byrne (LOH Sheane) A Anthony Cross (Sheane FV94) MAZDA/FORD FIESTAS RACE 1 Stephen Murray (MX-5) RACE 2 David Cousins (MX-5) For full results visit: speedhive.mylaps.com…

SILVERSTONE NATIONAL MG CUP RACE 1 & 2 Richard Buckley (Rover 220 Turbo) BCV8 CHAMPIONSHIP Rob Spencer (MGB GT V8) MG METRO CUP RACE 1 & 2 Jack Ashton (Rover Metro GTi) COCKSHOOT CUP Paul Clackett (MG ZS 180) EQUIPE PRE 63 Neil Fisher (Austin Healey Sebring Sprite MkI) EQUIPE GTS B Olivia Wilkinson/Austin Kinsella (MGB Roadster) EQUIPE GTS A Lee Atkins (TVR Grantura 1800S) MINI WINTER CHALLENGE RACE 1 Colin Peacock (Miglia) RACE 2 Joe Thompson (Miglia) SILVERSTONE INTERNATIONAL BRITCAR ENDURANCE RACE 1 Tim Gray (Praga R1T) RACE 2 John Seale/Marcus Clutton (Lamborghini Huracan) CLASSIC FORMULA FORD 1600 RACE 1 & 2 Rick Morris (Royale RP29) 2CVs RACE 1 & 2 Pete Sparrow MICHELIN CLIO CUP SERIES RACE 1 Luke Pinder RACE 2 Simon Freeman MG OWNERS’ CLUB RACE…

WHO IS THIS? This racing visionary has gone on to achieve more outside of the cockpit than he managed inside it. From a stony beach, he made a spritely start as he balanced racing with working on an oath. But once his mind was set, he made a rapid rise, claiming the key series as he became a gold-star success. This led to a one-off at home as a racing reserve, which he rammed home the following year as a full-timer. He sped into a teutonic berth with limited success before an avuncular presence allowed him to pay homage to former greats. When a hotshoe put him in his place, he reverted to his past in the background, while teaming up with a national hero in a new position. He…

FORMULA 1 Fernando Alonso has been back driving a contemporary Formula 1 car for the first time since the 2018 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The two-time world champion participated in Pirelli’s tyre testing programme for McLaren at the Bahrain circuit this week. Alonso’s testing opportunity has arisen through a new ambassadorial and advisory role he has taken on for McLaren after stepping away from F1 at the end of last year. He hopes to understand the “limitations” of the 2019 car, even though the team might have “more interest than myself” in the run. Alonso drove an older, Mercedes-powered McLaren during a car swap with NASCAR star Jimmie Johnson in Bahrain the day after the Abu Dhabi finale, but the Pirelli test will give Alonso genuine on-track development work to…

W SERIES The all-female W Series championship has announced its final line-up of 18 drivers after an intensive four-day final selection process at Almeria Circuit. The 18 drivers, plus four reserves, who will make up the grid were chosen from the 28 who made it through the initial selection process in late January. High-profile British names such as MRF Challenge champion Jamie Chadwick and former GP3 racer Alice Powell are among those joining the grid. Other drivers to watch include Emma Kimilainen, Sarah Moore, Vicky Piria and Beitske Visser. The Almeria test was more race-focused than the previous outing and provided the first opportunity for the qualifiers to drive the Tatuus F-318 Formula 3 car – operated by Hitech GP – which will be used in the inaugural season. A…

BTCC Just one day of official pre-season testing for the British Touring Car Championship meant all eyes were on WSR and its box-fresh BMW 330i M Sport, plus the return of Toyota GB and the Corolla name badge. New packages for title hopefuls Colin Turkington (the defending champion) and Tom Ingram (holder of the independents’ crown) made them the centre of attention. But Sam Tordoff stole the headlines with his metronomic pace at Brands Hatch. Having switched from Motorbase last season, Tordoff will drive one of the oldest packages on the grid in the form of AmD Tuning’s FK2-generation Honda Civic Type R. But the 2016 runner-up rolled back the years to break the Indy circuit series lap record. He was the only person to dip below 48 seconds, ending…

It was a year ago that Chase Carey and his Formula 1 colleagues unveiled their 2021 vision in a presentation to the teams in Bahrain. After 12 months of discussions, mainly on an individual team-by-team basis, the first comprehensive update came at a meeting in London last week. Such a gathering didn’t necessarily have to take place within the formal framework of the Strategy Group, especially since no voting was scheduled to take place. However, the fact that it did was an indication that plans are finally beginning to gather momentum, and also that Liberty is serious – especially in terms of its stance on the two key pieces of financial business, namely a more equitable revenue distribution and a cost cap that pegs back the three top teams. “It’s…

Coming into the 2019 Formula 1 season, one of the few question marks hanging over Charles Leclerc was whether he could nail a perfect lap in the intense pressure of Q3. He proved he can in Bahrain, becoming the second-youngest driver (after Sebastian Vettel) to take an F1 pole position at the age of 21 years, five months and 15 days. Fastest in FP1, FP3 and all three segments of qualifying, Leclerc always had the underlying pace to pull this off. While he didn’t quite string together his best three sectors and was just 0.002s off his best in the final sector on his pole lap, it was enough to take pole by 0.294s from Ferrari team-mate Vettel. The only asterisk against Leclerc’s performance was that Vettel couldn’t make it…

Robert Kubica says the ongoing problems with his Williams Formula 1 car were “exaggerated” by windy conditions that left him a “passenger” in the Bahrain Grand Prix. Williams data suggested Kubica’s repaired car was displaying different aerodynamic behaviour despite running the same set-up as rookie team-mate George Russell in Bahrain. “You can do whatever you want – you can put rear tyres on the front! It will be dominated by the characteristics we are having,” said Kubica, who described his race as “survival” after finishing two laps down in 16th. “We need to find out what’s going on because I have no margin and I have no window in the car where actually I can drive it. I am a passenger.”…

CITROEN OFF FORM Ahead of the rally, Citroen made much of Esapekka Lappi’s karting background. He had, the French firm’s PR machine reckoned, developed a special relationship with asphalt while growing up. That affinity seemed to have been put on hold because he struggled to get his C3 WRC under his control. “I can’t make the car turn,” he said. “All we have is understeer. Just understeer.” Five places and 80 seconds ahead on the leaderboard, his team-mate Sebastien Ogier told the same story. A French rally to forget for the French company. KOREAN PREDATOR Hyundai’s return to the top of the table marked the Koreans out as ‘predators’, according to team principal Andrea Adamo. He candidly admitted that the fastest car and driver hadn’t won, but he made no…

Watching last season’s British Touring Car Championship runner-up Tom Ingram fight the oversteer through Surtees during the pre-season test day at Brands Hatch, you’d be forgiven for reminiscing about Toyota GB’s spectacular and crowd-pleasing past exploits in the series. The marque enjoyed success with Win Percy’s 1982 title before Chris Hodgetts doubled up in 1986 and 1987 – three crowns won while quite frequently on two wheels with the Corollas. Half a decade on and into the Super Touring era, and the Carinas were too frequently on zero wheels or in the barriers for the liking of Toyota GB’s top brass. Now, a quarter of a century after Murray Walker’s famed “the car upside down is a Toyota” quip, Speedworks Motorsport has brought Toyota GB and the Corolla name back…

MAZDA MX-5s Mazda’s US arm is aiming to launch a series for its successful one-make MX-5 contender in the UK next season. Mazda North America, which introduced a spec racer based on the fourth-generation roadster for the Global MX-5 Cup in 2016, is working with sportscar stalwart Ben Devlin on the plan. The Briton, who was part of the Mazda’s Stateside prototype programme for 10 years, has been appointed European agent for the car. “We know it is a tough market, but we are looking at budgets coming in at under £100,000 a season,” said Devlin. “Because the car is so light, it is easy on consumables, which keeps the running costs down.” Devlin is expecting that the purchase price of one of the MX-5 racers will be around £50,000…

RENAULT UK CLIO CUP Two-time Renault UK Clio Cup champion Mike Bushell will not make a return to the series this year, while title contender Max Coates will also compete in the Britcar Endurance Championship. Bushell had been due to drive a Team Hard Volkswagen CC in the British Touring Car Chamionship this season but, when that deal fell through, it was then announced he would drive for the team in the Clio Cup. But this will not happen and Bushell will instead take a sabbatical from racing this year. “Following on from losing my BTCC seat for 2019, I have decided to take a break from motorsport due to personal reasons,” he said. Meanwhile, Coates will drive a SEAT Leon TCR car (below) in Britcar alongside Guy Colclough, after…

MINI 7 RACING CLUB The Mini 7 Racing Club’s Winter Challenge returned after a 16-year absence as two races at Silverstone last weekend marked the start of a five-race 2019 competition. It was last held in 2003 when the winner in the Se7en class was Nick Tandy, who went on to win the 2015 Le Mans 24 Hours with Porsche. The 2019 Winter Challenge will be completed by a three-race November meeting at Brands Hatch. “It was in response to the rising healthy entries in the main National Challenge,” said series coordinator Richard Williamson. “Also we were being offered these extra races at the beginning of the year and the end of the year, and with the cost of going motor racing it just seemed, ‘Well, let’s offer something more…

HISTORICS The unique ‘Pandora powered by Austin’ sports-racing car debuted by Raymond Jackson at Goodwood in 1964 was reunited with its designer Roger Phillips, now 77, at the circuit last month before it contests Easter Monday’s GRRC Sprint there. Owner Andy Prill bought the car as an unrecognisable project from Alastair Brown in Scotland a decade ago. Following a period of contemplation and research he “got stuck in” and resurrected Pandora over seven or eight years. “The most difficult thing was recreating the [alloy] body, which had been lost,” said classic Porsche specialist Prill. “Thankfully, through a contact at Nissan’s International Design Centre in London, we were able to scan period photographs, digitise the results and make new formers.” The BMC A Series-engined car, built by Phillips, the late Michael…

DONINGTON PARK HSCC 30 MARCH Undaunted by Mike Gardiner’s TVR Griffith pirouetting down the Craner Curves during qualifying, co-driver Dan Cox staved off Charlie Allison and Mark Colman’s Chevron-BMW B8s to land a brilliant Guards Trophy victory in the Historic Sports Car Club’s season-opener. After Gardiner’s pacy yet conservative start, Cox leapt aboard the TVR as the pits opened then maximised Ford V8 power on the straights. Andrew Hibberd (Lotus 23B) trailed behind the TVR and the two Chevrons. Allison missed the pit window, however, the penalty leaving him seventh. Colman – who traded fastest laps with Peter de la Roche in Tom de Gres’s Elva Mk7 – rued missing a gear in a chicane scramble, but was promoted to second in the ex-David Good car beautifully rebuilt since his…

SILVERSTONE NATIONAL MGCC 30 MARCH Richard Buckley was the star of the MG Car Club’s sun-kissed season-opening Silverstone race meeting, winning both MG Cup races in his Rover 220 Turbo despite starting both second-to-last after his clutch cable got stuck in qualifying. And that wasn’t Buckley’s only impressive feat. “It’s the first time I’d driven the car since I rolled it at Snetterton last year,” he revealed. “I hadn’t tested it or anything; it was literally out of the box. But it seems to work all right!” In the first race Buckley rose to lead by one-third distance; in race two he did similar, but it looked like he’d have to give best to Matt Simpson’s Tomcat. Simpson had made his own recovery from starting ninth due to a combination…

DESPITE MASSIVE INVESTMENT AND COUNTLESS hours of research and development, sometimes it only requires a flinch from the boardroom or a quirk of fate for the plug to be pulled on a constructor’s latest project. Here are five potential world-beaters that never got a chance to prove their worth in battle. 5 1966 JAGUAR XJ13 A decade after scoring three victories in a row, Jaguar was ready to win the Le Mans 24 Hours again. And the XJ13 was to lead that assault. The aerodynamicist behind the pioneering C and D-types returned, plus David Hobbs was recruited as test driver. But lengthy delays meant Ford had time to develop the GT40, leaving the XJ13 uncompetitive. Unsurpisingly, that led the top brass at Jaguar to withdraw finances. Five years later Norman…

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