Indholdsfortegnelse for 24/10/19 i Autosport

Which motorsport moment shocked you the most? Pastor Maldonado’s out-of-the-blue victory for Williams in the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix (above)? The flying Mercedes at Le Mans in 1999? Toyota being thrown out of the World Rally Championship? Our initial list for this week’s top 25 was about three times longer than that and it was a tough task to decide what to leave out. Turn to page 19 to see which interesting or surprising stories you think are worthy and which ones wouldn’t have made your list. Not in any way shocking was Rene Rast taking his second DTM title in 2019. Tom Errington takes a look at how the Audi driver did it, and answers some other key questions from the season, on p30. Petter Solberg has been a…

FORMULA 2 German motorsport giant HWA will join the Formula 2 grid for 2020 after buying the Arden team’s entry, cars and equipment. The team will sit above the HWA Racelab squad that was set up to compete in this year’s FIA Formula 3 Championship, after the company had tuned the Mercedes engines used in the previous iterations of F3 for the previous 17 seasons. Jake Hughes took seventh in this year’s F3 points, while HWA placed fifth in the teams’ standings. Arden was set up to compete in the Formula 3000 International Championship in 1997 with Christian Horner (above). After he hung up his helmet he became team boss before being recruited by the Red Bull Formula 1 team. Horner’s father Garry remains as the principal of Arden. Over…

There was an awful lot of ‘racing’ for a test. In 2018, Formula E had staged a race simulation to test its attack-mode race-format procedures, which were generally a success last season. For 2019, the championship – in conjunction with the FIA and the teams – put on two ‘E-Prix Exercises’. These were necessary because of several sporting-rule tweaks that will come into effect for the new campaign. The rule under most scrutiny at Valencia was the set amount of energy to be deducted from each car – equal to 1kWh per minute for the duration of each caution period – following in-race interruptions. The first race – after early leader (from pitlane pole) Pascal Wehrlein faded when he couldn’t activate attack mode – became a Mercedes/Venturi-dominated affair as Stoffel…

Qualifying races can improve F1 I read with dismay comments about changing the format of a grand prix weekend. In a bid to spice up the show, this move won’t go down well with purists. Ever since 1950, we have had some form of qualifying session followed by one race, for which points and thus championships are determined. To separate this into smaller parts, adding extra points here and there, just puts things on an equal footing with junior formulas and lessens the spectacle that is the pinnacle of motor racing. Let’s therefore keep the three-day format, shifting media duties away from the Thursday, and look at qualifying instead. Run practice as normal but then introduce a qualifying race. The grid here is determined by reverse championship order, to add…

Strikes weren’t a new thing in F1. All bar a couple of drivers, admittedly with more sympathy from their employers, had initially refused to go out on track at the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix on the Montjuic Park street circuit in Barcelona amid concerns over safety. That strike had been broken by pressure from the authorities, both sporting and municipal. The key to the success of the Kyalami strike, if indeed it were a success, was stopping the drivers coming under that kind of pressure again. That’s why they went to the Sunnyside Park Hotel in Johannesburg and spent the night on mattresses. “The idea was to stay as a collective unit,” recalls John Watson. “If we’d gone back to our own hotels we could have been bullied by our…

Britain has been one of the world leaders in motorsport for decades, and Silverstone has played a key role throughout. People within the sport know that many teams and companies are based at or near the Northamptonshire venue, but it’s a message that hasn’t travelled as far as it should. Sally Reynolds, the woman behind the Silverstone Experience, believes it’s time to start shouting a bit louder. Reynolds arrived at Silverstone in 2011 as a consultant to see what could be done to attract more people and quickly saw a big opportunity. “It became apparent that Silverstone has an amazing story behind it, but nowhere at Silverstone were we telling the story of British motorsport, its role in global motorsport and Silverstone’s position,” says Reynolds, who is now chief executive…

NASCAR CUP KANSAS (USA) 20 OCTOBER ROUND 32/36 Denny Hamlin was victorious in the NASCAR Cup race at Kansas as Chase Elliott edged Brad Keselowski out for the final playoff spot in overtime. With 10 laps of the scheduled 267 to run, Elliott was three points below the cutoff line for the ‘round of eight’ stage of the title fight. Keselowski’s Penske Ford Mustang sat perilously on the bubble, lacking pace while mired in the midfield but still on course to go through to the next round. A series of cautions then followed that took the race to overtime, where the first attempt was interrupted by Darrell ‘Bubba’ Wallace Jr’s car shedding a wheel and crashing – causing a chain reaction in which reigning Cup champion Joey Logano went for…

BRDC BRITISH F3 The BRDC British Formula 3 Championship has unveiled the changes it will make to its cars for next year, including an IndyCar-style fin in front of the driver. The championship, which is run by MotorSport Vision, will retain the Tatuus-Cosworth cars first introduced in 2016, but they will be modified for next season. The major change is an ‘Advanced Frontal Protection’ (AFP) which sits in front of the driver and will help deflect debris and act as a secondary roll structure. Other changes include revised front and rear wings offering more downforce, bargeboards in front of the sidepods and a new engine cover featuring a shark fin. MSV chief executive Jonathan Palmer said: “The existing Tatuus chassis has proven itself as a very dependable car with superb…

DONINGTON PARK BRSCC 19-20 OCTOBER It’s been a successful couple of weeks for the Turkington family. Seven days after Colin claimed the British Touring Car Championship title in dramatic fashion, his younger brother James was crowned TCR UK champion, as Adam Morgan and Henry Neal shared the race wins. Laden with 60kg of ballast as a result of winning the previous round at Brands Hatch, Turkington could only drag his Cupra TCR to seventh on the grid for the first Touring Car Trophy race, slowest of the TCR cars. Chief rival Lewis Kent was also struggling, with 48kg on board his Hyundai i30 N, but produced a lap at the death good enough for fourth. Damage limitation was Turkington’s aim in the opening race, but a number of incidents left…

The F3 Cup has suffered from diminishing numbers in recent years and, for its season finale at Snetterton, could only muster an eight-car grid. It’s only a few seasons since the equivalent race not only was well into double figures, but also sported Red Bull Juniors Carlos Sainz and Antonio Felix da Costa in preparation for their Macau Grand Prix appearances. As well as running a BRDC British Formula 3 team, Chris Dittmann is the 2012 F3 Cup champion and has run Cian Carey, who took his second consecutive title over the weekend. “I normally run Cian and three other cars,” Dittmann explained. “They are great cars to work on and we have been involved with the championship since I won it in 2012. It’s customers that own the cars,…

INTERNATIONAL MOTORSPORT Mexican Grand Prix Formula 1 World Championship Round 18/21 Mexico City, Mexico 27 October TV Live Sky Sports F1, Sun 1830 TV Highlights Sky Sports F1, Sun 2230, Channel 4, Sun 2300 Porsche Supercup Round 9/9 Mexico City, Mexico 26-27 October TV Live Eurosport 2, Sat 2015, Sky Sports F1 2100 (delayed), Eurosport 2, Sun 1600, Sky Sports F1, 1615 Rally Spain World Rally Championship Round 13/14 Salou, Spain 25-27 October TV Live BT Sport 3, Sat 0930, Red Bull TV, Sat 1420, BT Sport ESPN, Sun 0730, 1100 TV Highlights Red Bull TV, Fri 2100, BT Sport 2, Fri 2200, Red Bull TV, Sat 2100, BT Sport 1, Sat 2130, Red Bull TV, Sun 2100, BT Sport 1, Sun 2230, 5Spike, Mon 1855 Live coverage on wrc.com…

The Sunbeam-Talbot-Darracq of Andre Boillot is presented for scrutineering ahead of the 1921 French Grand Prix at Le Mans. The Frenchman’s machine was part of what was meant to be a six-car Franco-British STD factory effort, variously labelled Talbot-Darracqs, Talbots and Sunbeams, although the two Sunbeams were not ready to make the start. Boillot finished the gruelling race – marked by multiple punctures and flying stones – in fifth place, almost half an hour behind the victorious Duesenberg of US driver Jimmy Murphy. For classic racing DVDs head to dukevideo.com For more great photographs, visit motorsportimages.com…

FORMULA 1 A number of Ferrari’s Formula 1 rivals have written to the FIA for clarity over the legality of design aspects they believe are behind the Italian team’s engine advantage. It is understood that Ferrari’s competitors are seeking clarification over whether they are clear to pursue similar concepts themselves, or if the ideas fall foul of the regulations. The requests have come after Ferrari’s recent performance breakthrough revealed the full extent of its engine advantage, which is believed to be worth up to 0.8 seconds per lap at some tracks and has been described as ‘ludicrous’ by one high-level team source. Since the summer break Ferrari has topped all five qualifying sessions and won three grands prix. A significant car upgrade for September’s Singapore GP has helped counter the…

FORMULA 3 Two-time Macau Grand Prix winner Dan Ticktum has joined Carlin to bid for a third successive victory in the race, while Ferrari junior Callum Ilott is also returning to the event as he tries for a first win in five attempts. It will be the first race experience for both British drivers in the new-for-2019 FIA Formula 3 cars. Ticktum started the season as a Red Bull Junior in Super Formula, but was dropped in June and has since only raced in two rounds of the Formula Regional European Championship. Ticktum, who is expected to compete in Formula 2 next season, has been getting up to speed in the FIA F3 car in this week’s official test at Valencia, where he has driven with Carlin on all three…

UK START TIMES Friday 25 October FP1 1600 FP2 2000 Saturday 26 October FP3 1600 QUALIFYING 1900 Sunday 27 October RACE 1910 CATCH THE RACE LIVE SKY SPORTS F1 BBC RADIO 5 LIVE HIGHLIGHTS CHANNEL 4 2300 TYRE ALLOCATION CHAMPIONSHIP Drivers 1 Hamilton………………………..338 2 Bottas……………………………274 3 Leclerc…………………………..221 4 Verstappen…………………….212 5 Vettel…………………………….212 Constructors 1 Mercedes………………..612 2 Ferrari……………………433 3 Red Bull…………………323 4 McLaren…………………111 5 Renault…………………. 77 RACE STATS Previous winners Mexico City masters…

Formula 1 teams were never going to vote through the proposal for a trio of reversed-grid qualifying races in 2020. That would require a depth of imagination and an appetite for change far beyond them given the need for unanimity. Regardless of your position on the divisive topic of any kind of reversed-grid race – and the opposition is understandably significant – the proposal wasn’t scotched through respect for tradition or any objection to it as a gimmick. Instead, it was pragmatism pure and simple. Particularly for a frontrunning team like Mercedes, the key is to keep things as stable – and predictable – as possible. The meek offering of an irrelevant mini-grand prix to decide the Sunday grid, which was suggested as a half-baked alternative, wilfully missed the point…

25 INDY IN THE 1960s Jack Brabham had laid the groundwork in 1961 for rear-engined cars returning to the Indy 500, when he qualified 13th and finished ninth in a Cooper with 250bhp – 180 less than the roadsters. Fine handling and a low centre of gravity compensated for the lack of horses. Dan Gurney then chivvied Lotus owner Colin Chapman into going to Indy with a purpose-built machine. Equipped with 4.2-litre Fords of 375bhp, the Lotus 29s of Jimmy Clark and Gurney qualified fifth and 12th in 1963. The pair lay second and fourth behind leader Parnelli Jones’s Watson-Offy into the final quarter of the race, but Gurney would need two more tyre changes. Clark pressured Jones hard, the leader’s car dropped oil, but USAC officials didn’t black-flag the…

HOW DOES RENE RAST’S TITLE COMPARE TO HIS FIRST IN 2017? Rast’s 2017 title was a superhuman feat. For starters, he was told to play rear-gunner to Audi hero Mattias Ekstrom’s championship bid, not to mention he was a DTM rookie. This year felt like the true arrival of Rast as an all-round star, with very few weaknesses for the opposition to exploit. His average finishing position in 2019 – skewed by reliability problems at Hockenheim and Zolder – is a hugely impressive 3.94, and his qualifying form is mindblowing. He was in the top four on the grid for 15 consecutive races and, discounting the season-opening Hockenheim round, at which he was blighted by technical problems, his qualifying spot was 2.125. Rast is an expert at managing races from…

As is to be expected with a project the size of the Silverstone Experience, it hasn’t always been a smooth journey since Sally Reynolds (above, right) applied to the Heritage Lottery Fund for a development grant in 2012. Although that was approved, the team had to raise money amid doubts that “made fundraising tricky”, not least of which was the possible sale of Silverstone. “The project was stopped twice due to doubts, because of lack of funds,” adds Reynolds. When work finally began in March 2018, various issues were uncovered too, including hangar erosion. “Three of the corners were completely eroded,” recalls Reynolds. “My advice to anyone is not to refurbish a WW2 hangar! The engineer knew it was caused by acid erosion. For a long time there were just…

FORMULA REGIONAL EUROPEAN MONZA (ITA) 19-20 OCTOBER ROUND 8/8 Igor Fraga signed off the inaugural Formula Regional season in style with three poles in the dry and two wins in the wet at a processional Monza finale. The Japanese-born, DR Formula-run Brazilian kept the Prema Powerteam machine of champion Frederik Vesti at bay throughout the opening race. It was just as well that he had a margin, as a lapse at Parabolica on the final lap sent Fraga wide, before he recovered. The second DR car of Raul Guzman was third, while FIA F3 racer Andreas Estner made a decent Regional debut to claim fourth with Van Amersfoort Racing. Fraga was absolutely dominant in race two to claim the honours by 13 seconds. That was largely down to a fine…

BRITCAR ENDURANCE David Brabham and Will Powell will drive the new Brabham BT62 for its racing debut in Britcar, with the track car set to become a “permanent fixture” of the championship. The BT62’s 5.4-litre V8 will run a power-reducing ECU mode and weight ballast to bring performance in line with GT3 machinery, so the car will stay eligible for Britcar rather than competing in the 9-10 November twilight race on the Brands Hatch Indy circuit as a one-off. Sporting director of Brabham Automotive and 2009 Le Mans 24 Hours winner David Brabham said: “Driving a Brabham BT62 on Brabham Straight at Brands Hatch will be a very special moment for me. It will also be an incredible milestone for Brabham Automotive as it brings this iconic marque back to…

Williams Formula 1 driver George Russell was at Donington Park last Thursday to support his former team, Lanan Racing, and offer advice to three potential BRDC British F3 recruits. The 21-year old won the BRDC F4 title in 2014 with Lanan and returned to his roots by helping three F4 drivers – Australian Bart Horsten, American Carter Williams and Briton Tommy Foster – at the test. Russell said: “It’s been great to see the Lanan boys again and see what’s going on in the F3 paddock. It only feels like yesterday that I was last here! I stay in touch with Graham [Johnson, team boss] and the other guys even now.”…

MARTIN SETS UP A TEAM Aston Martin factory driver Maxime Martin is launching his own team for next season. The Belgian has set up the Martin Racing Team to run a pair of Aston Martin Vantage GT4s in ADAC GT Masters and the GT4 European Series. He has set up the operation with Thomas Matton, a mechanic with whom he worked at the RBM BMW DTM squad and at the Marc VDS team. SUTTON’S KARTING SUCCESS British Touring Car Championship racer Ash Sutton enjoyed a dream IAME X30 Super Shifter International Final debut at Le Mans last weekend by taking victory. “Karting was where it all began for me so it was great to go back to my roots and compete,” said Sutton. ADAM WINS ANOTHER AWARD Four-time British GT…

The second edition of the new Clubsport Trophy proved as popular as July’s inaugural event at Brands Hatch and attracted an even more eclectic field. Among the capacity entry were the rare Caterham 21 of David Fender, and Mark Thomas’s Group 1 Ford Capri. “It’s ‘Group 1.5’ at the moment,” said Thomas, owing to the three-litre V6 ‘Essex’-engined machine’s uprated brakes, “but it can be Group 1 spec.” He bought the car from Classic Touring Car Racing Club competitor Jeremy Knight and spent a year rebuilding it. Newly resplendent in a livery matching that of the 1982 Nurburgring 24 Hours winner, Thomas debuted the car alongside father Dave, the 1990s Thundersaloon racer, at the Spa 3 Hours in June, before its second outing at Donington. “It’s doing well for an…

1) Who, what, where, when? 2) Who is this? This underrated national hero earned the right to don his father’s colours. After labouring to regional success on two wheels, he had to go back to school to make the switch to four. Having attained some success in the blue oval he stepped up the ladder and carried on his winning ways. But money was tight and options were limited so he took what he could. An opportunity to go against the grain gave him a chance to shine, although wins were elusive. The dominant force liked the cut of his jib, while a fading giant offered him a road to nowhere. Old animosity gave him an unlikely break and he quickly went from zero to hero. An eerie family resemblance…

INDYCAR/SUPER FORMULA McLaren has been strongly tipped to snare Red Bull Junior Patricio O’Ward for its new IndyCar programme after the Mexican was stood down for this weekend’s Super Formula finale in Japan. Red Bull-backed Juri Vips will replace O’Ward in the Team Mugen line-up at Suzuka, after finishing fourth in this season’s FIA Formula 3 Championship. It is believed that Red Bull will continue to field two drivers in the series in 2020, with Vips in the frame for a full-season seat. O’Ward, who replaced the axed Dan Ticktum on the Red Bull scheme in July, said on social media: “Soon there will be news about my racing future. I know good things are coming and can’t wait to share them with you all.” After starring in early-season IndyCar…

LE MANS 24 HOURS/IMSA Jan Magnussen driving a yellow Chevrolet Corvette has been one of the constants of international sportscar racing for the better part of two decades. But the Dane’s tenure of a seat at the factory Corvette Racing squad has come to an end after 16 highly successful seasons. Magnussen, father of Kevin and an ex-F1 driver himself, has not been given a new contract by the factory Corvette Racing squad. The 46-year-old Dane will be “exploring new driving opportunities for 2020 away from Corvette Racing”, according to a statement from Chevrolet. Magnussen contested more than 150 races with Corvette and won his class in 35 of them. Those victories included a hat-trick of successes at the Le Mans 24 Hours together with Oliver Gavin and Olivier Beretta…

OBITUARY The time taken to walk from one end of the service park to another is, according to former Mitsubishi Ralliart team manager Derek Dauncey, an indication of popularity in the World Rally Championship. It took Andrew Cowan, team principal of the Ralliart squad that gave Mitsubishi its greatest successes in the WRC and who has died aged 82, a very long time. A multifaceted career began in the fields and lanes around his family’s Borders farm, where Cowan grew up racing fellow Berwick and District Motor Club member Jim Clark. Cowan won the Scottish Rally in 1962 and 1963 in a Sunbeam Rapier. A 1964 Tour de France victory aboard a Ford Mustang demonstrated his ability to win in a variety of cars, but it was his versatility of…

ALEX KALINAUCKAS AND JAKE BOXALL-LEGGE The biggest ever Formula E field came together in Valencia last week for the official pre-season test of the 2019-20 season. Motorsport giants Mercedes and Porsche are now among the ranks, as are four fresh faces on the driver front. While the modified National layout at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo is pretty useless when it comes to representing city-centre FE tracks, Autosport has nevertheless crunched the numbers and picked out the big storylines from a sunny week of group running in Spain. DAY 1 TUESDAY Straight off the bat, the times posted on the first morning were quicker than the best lap from 2018 – a 1m16.977s from then-BMW Andretti driver Antonio Felix da Costa. Maximilian Guenther picked up where da Costa, now at DS…

When the chequered flag fell at Monza recently on the final round of the 2019 Euroformula Open series, it brought a significant era of single-seater racing to a close. After eight years, the 2012-19 generation of Dallara Formula 3 car – the machine that was largely responsible for launching the international careers of Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, Esteban Ocon, George Russell, Lando Norris, Carlos Sainz, Alex Albon, Antonio Giovinazzi, Daniil Kvyat, Lance Stroll, Felix Rosenqvist, Pascal Wehrlein and Colton Herta – has now become obsolete. On a personal note, I’ve invested a great deal of heart, soul and passion over the years into recording the exploits of those racing the F312. So I’m sad to see it fading into history, as it has produced so much new talent under the…

10 RX OF ARGENTINA 2014 The final World Rallycross Championship round of 2014 is one that sticks with Solberg, who had already added this crown to his 2003 World Rally title. “We won everything that weekend in San Luis,” he says. “OMP sent me a pair of gold race boots to wear – I remember the same thing happening for Tommi Makinen when I was his team-mate. That was special. “We got some rain over the weekend, but the team, the car, everything just clicked and we could drive at our own speed and dominate a little bit. As a team we had worked really hard with the car to make everything right, and Argentina in 2014 was the result.” 9 RALLY LEBANON 1998 Short on asphalt experience and determined…

MOTOGP MOTEGI (JPN) 20 OCTOBER ROUND 16/19 If you thought Marc Marquez would sit around as the world goes by in the remaining races of the 2019 season, having secured his sixth MotoGP title previous time out in Thailand, his emphatic domination of the Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi proved you’ve another think coming. Marquez still had two jobs left for the year ahead of Honda’s home race: to win the all-important manufacturers’ title for HRC, and complete its triple crown with the teams’ title that he has single-handedly ensured remains achievable for the outfit. Despite charging to pole, Marquez was wary of the threat posed by satellite SRT Petronas Yamaha duo Franco Morbidelli and Fabio Quartararo plus works Yamaha rider Maverick Vinales. They stalked him on the grid, and…

PORSCHE CARRERA CUP GB Four teenaged stars of the British Touring Car Championship’s support series have been selected as finalists to become the new Porsche GB Junior. Luke Browning, Louis Foster, Lorcan Hanafin and Harry King have all been selected to take part in the final shootout at Silverstone next week. Browning and Foster both impressed in British Formula 4 this season, with Foster retaining an outside chance of taking the title at the final round at Brands Hatch earlier this month. Hanafin was a multiple Ginetta Junior race winner this year, while King clinched the Ginetta GT4 Supercup crown at Brands in his second season in the category. The four were chosen from over 40 applications, with the 10 best having interviews at the Porsche Experience Centre recently. The…

TOURING CAR TROPHY Touring Car Trophy boss Stewart Lines is targeting more entries from current-specification British Touring Cars as several of the current crop bolstered the TCT grid at Donington Park last weekend. TCT, which incorporates TCR UK, has struggled for entries this year, failing to reach double figures for any of its first four events. But Lines would like the 13-car Donington round, which was boosted by entries from Team Dynamics, Power Maxed Racing, Team Hard and Ciceley Motorsport, to be a blueprint for the series’ future. “The idea is that next year, if we run this, we run it like a B-series to the main series [BTCC],” said Lines. “Teams like Dynamics can bring their RML cars and then they can run it like a test programme, or…

HISTORICS Adrian Reynard finished sixth and fourth in last weekend’s Historic FF2000 championship finals at Silverstone, first time out in his Reynard SF79. The car is the last SF79 that Reynard built and the Silverstone outing has whetted his appetite, the 1979 Euroseries champion vowing to be nearer the front next year. He had previously raced James Lovett’s SF78 at Brands Hatch in 2017. “A guy called to say he had a chassis with my name on it, but it took me a year to see it,” said Reynard. “I discovered it was the last 79 I made and couldn’t resist it. I’ve had it about six years, then found an engine, gearbox and bits. Ken Thorogood has rebuilt it over nine months.” Reynard tested the car on Friday, before…

SILVERSTONE HSCC 19-20 OCTOBER Silverstone’s 1.64-mile National circuit – a triangle with the Brooklands-Luffield loop a sting in its tail – produces thrilling racing. Topped by two sensational Historic Formula Ford 1600 contests, Saturday’s including an 11-car lead train, the Historic Sports Car Club Championship Finals event was exceptional. Four wins made Cameron Jackson top gun, to Andrew Hibberd’s three, with doubles across the board elsewhere as titles were decided and lap records tumbled on the newly resurfaced track. Double champ Jackson (Winkelmann), poleman Linton Stutely (Royale RP3) and Classic Team Merlyn’s Pierre Livingston, Ed Thurston and Ben Tusting’s order chopped and changed through the opener, with ever more drivers – including Over 50s division stars Ted Pearson and Rob Smith (Merlyns) – linking up. Jackson beat Stutely by just…

SNETTERTON MSVR 19-20 OCTOBER A winning double for Nathan Harrison in the Mini Challenge JCW finals at Snetterton still wasn’t enough for him to stop the title going to James Gornall. Ben Palmer extended a lead in the opening race after passing Harrison into the Wilson hairpin on the opening lap. But “it was hard staying out there on my own,” admitted Palmer after Harrison closed the gap. After a mid-race battle for the lead, Harrison stretched out a decisive advantage. Palmer was a clear second, while Gornall spent the final laps holding off a determined Dan Zelos, this duo having formed part of a four-car train for the lead earlier in the race. Jack Davidson was excluded from fifth after contact, which left Max Bird and Harry Gooding to…

BOOK JENSON BUTTON: HOW TO BE AN F1 DRIVER RRP £20.00 Jenson Button has proved to be a prolific author in the short time since he stopped racing Formula 1 cars. Jenson Button: How to be an F1 driver is the follow up to his autobiography, also released by Blink Publishing. As the title suggests, it focuses less on his individual experience and specific tales from his career – as he points out, there’s another book for that – and more on the life of a grand prix driver on and off track. “It’s not a book for kids coming through motorsport to learn what to do to improve themselves to be a Formula 1 driver, although I’m sure it could be, but it’s more for adults that maybe understand…

James Thompson at the wheel of a tin-top – it hardly has the makings of a classic Have-a-go Hero entry. This venerable touring car ace raced with a roof over his head from 1994 through to 2018. But within that, there are two notable anomalies. In 2000 he undertook a part-time campaign in the DTM, as Thompson’s family ties to Foss-Tech – which developed the first-year Audi TT-R – affording him a seat in rear-wheel-drive machinery for the first time since his 1992 Formula Vauxhall Junior campaign. Then, in 2009, he was enlisted for the Bathurst 1000 to drive a Ford Falcon with the late Allan Simonsen for Triple Eight. “I had a few things going on but Roland [Dane, team co-owner] saw I wasn’t doing a full programme at…