Indholdsfortegnelse for 23/01/20 i Autosport

The big Formula 1 regulation change may not be coming until 2021, but there are still plenty of elements to keep things fresh this year. As well as the ongoing efforts of Ferrari and Red Bull to topple Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes, there will be new circuits, the return of Esteban Ocon and a changed line-up at Williams. We are your guide through all of those and more on page 16, while our technical experts Giorgio Piola and Jake Boxall-Legge talk through the likely areas of development we’ll see after the cars break cover next month. By then, the World Rally Championship will have kicked off with this week’s Monte Carlo Rally. As our preview (p24) shows, the big questions will be how reigning world champion and Hyundai signing Ott…

ARCTIC RALLY Mercedes Formula 1 star Valtteri Bottas learned plenty about driving in the Arctic last week – not least that a top-10 result is still possible even if you roll on the opening day. The Finn returned to the Arctic Lapland Rally for a second year in succession, this time driving a PH Sport-run Citroen DS3 WRC. The event started well with a second fastest time early on Friday. Unfortunately his progress was halted when he crashed on the final stage of the first leg. The car was repaired overnight, allowing Bottas to move back up the leaderboard from 22nd to a final position of ninth. “I learned lots driving in tricky conditions with loose snow and poor visibility,” said Bottas. “And I had a lot of fun, which…

FORMULA E Formula E’s calendar is already set to look different in 2020-21 after news emerged last weekend that Santiago’s place on the schedule is in serious doubt. The Chilean capital, which is bearing the scars of the major social unrest of recent months, hosted its third FE race last weekend – the second at Parque O’Higgins. But Autosport understands that the 2020 event will be the final race FE will hold as part of its current deal with the city. Santiago will hold elections in the summer and, even if FE can agree a fresh deal with the next administration, it will come too late to secure a place on next season’s calendar. But FE is keen to have two races in Latin America, with a South American round…

WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP As he prepares for his seventh Monte Carlo Rally start, Toyota newcomer Elfyn Evans says he is ready for anything – rain, hail, snow, ice and sunshine. And he’s completely ready for that question. It’s the one about this being the biggest season of his career. The provenance of that line is understandable. The Welshman has moved from the privately funded M-Sport Ford World Rally Team to the service park’s best-budgeted squad and, on the basis of what Ott Tanak achieved last year in winning the title, the fastest car. But he’s not buying the line. After seven years with M-Sport, there’s not a hope of him chucking Malcolm Wilson’s team under the bus. Evans scored his first – and so far only – WRC win on…

Citroen who? Remember all that negativity from the back end of last year? Forget it. The World Rally Championship has turned the page and started a new chapter. And who’s writing the opener at the top of the decade? Sebastien Ogier. Who else? It’s not often that the six-time world champion gets overlooked, but it definitely feels as though he’s coming into 2020 in Ott Tanak’s shadow. That’s understandable given the Estonian’s maiden world title last season, but it’s about the narrative too. The story of the closed season has been Tanak’s first steps with his new Hyundai and his new life alongside Thierry Neuville. Hyundai Motorsport’s charismatic director Andrea Adamo is never far from the centre of any story, and he’s been busy orchestrating some of the best pre-season…

Formula 1’s technical ruleset is somewhat stagnant for 2020. There are a few detail changes, but, as F1 waits for 2021’s complete overhaul of the formula, 2020 prioritises evolution over revolution. What we saw over last season’s final set of rounds was a concerted effort to steal a march for 2020. Most trialled a Ferrari-style inboard-loaded front wing, while the Scuderia itself is believed to have queried the legality of Mercedes’ rear-suspension duct as it intends to integrate its own design into the upright. And while design convergence is often admonished by F1 purists, it does have the happy side-effect of bringing teams closer together. If Renault can get its act together, it could soon join the current triumvirate of top teams in battle. McLaren, too, will be aiming to…

HYUNDAI MOTORSPORT CAN TANAK REMAIN AS NUMBER ONE AS #8? OTT TANAK #8 Age 32 Starts 105 Wins 12 Titles 1 Co-driver Martin Jarveoja Massive gamble or masterstroke? Departed the Toyota he used to demolish allcomers last season for Hyundai and life alongside Neuville, one of his biggest rivals. Tanak’s pace was on another level last year and the South Korean car was closing on its Japanese rival. Rarely has a new combo been so keenly anticipated. THIERRY NEUVILLE #11 Age 31 Starts 110 Wins 12 Titles 0 Co-driver Nicolas Gilsoul It’s now or never. He’s had the Hyundai team to himself for the past six years, but now it’s all change: the world champ’s landed in the Frankfurt suburbs and the chirpy Belgian’s cage will have been well and truly…

1 MONTE CARLO RALLY Date 23-26 January Based Gap/Monaco Surface asphalt/snow/ice 2019 winners Sebastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (Citroen C3 WRC) The biggest, the oldest and the most complicated, throwing the crews in at the deep end of the new season. The Monte can be a monster when it comes to changeable conditions. 2 RALLY SWEDEN Date 13-16 February Based Torsby Surface snow 2019 winners Ott Tanak/Martin Jarveoja (Toyota Yaris WRC) If winter does its thing and delivers a deep freeze, solid ice and big snow, it’s hard to think of a finer spectacle. The ability to save your studs and tyres as rain turns slush to mush is crucial. 3 RALLY MEXICO Date 12-15 March Based Leon Surface gravel 2019 winners Sebastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (Citroen C3 WRC) This is the first…

This time last year in the hot Chilean sun, Maximilian Guenther lost a promising Formula E result when a powertrain problem struck his Dragon Racing car. Twelve months on, he’s a race winner in the electric championship after triumphing in sweltering Santiago last weekend for his new squad BMW Andretti. For a significant portion of the year just past, Guenther has had to endure struggles not of his own making. Soon after the 2019 Santiago E-Prix, he found himself dropped by Dragon, with ex-Formula 1 driver Felipe Nasr taking his seat from the next round in Mexico City. While there is nothing to suggest there was anything untoward about that development, the team’s explanation that Guenther had completed a “three-race programme” was odd, and in conversations with the young German…

DAKAR RALLY JEDDAH-QIDDIYA (SAU) 5-17 JANUARY In the lead-up to the Dakar Rally, Toyota could have been forgiven for thinking it had one hand already on a second successive win in the prestigious marathon. Its Hilux had scored a comfortable maiden triumph in 2019 with Nasser Al-Attiyah and looked no less competitive in Dakar rehearsal events later that year, beating the X-raid Mini crews in Rally Morocco and a pair of Saudi Arabia-based contests. In Al-Attiyah, Toyota has the benchmark rally-raid driver, and someone who relished the chance to tackle the Middle-Eastern dunes with which, in theory, he was so much more familiar than his main rivals at Mini, Carlos Sainz and Stephane Peterhansel. Al-Attiyah thus openly referred to himself as the favourite, and it looked like he would simply…

MOTORSPORT VISION MotorSport Vision has undertaken a raft of circuit improvement works at its venues during the winter months. One of the largest changes comes at Brands Hatch, where the barriers at Clearways have been moved back and the gravel trap extended in order to make the corner safer for car and motorcycle racers. A new raised viewing area is being created so spectators can still see the final section of the lap. Brands Hatch circuit manager Mike Groves said: “This major on-track project is a hugely positive move which massively promotes the safety of competitors, both in car and motorcycle racing. This development significantly increases the size of our gravel trap run-off at Clearways and Clark Curve but will continue to allow spectators to view from that area of…

NEW 750 MOTOR CLUB SERIES 116 TROPHY MA7DA TYPE R TROPHY Introducing three new series at the same time is never easy, especially in the current climate in which club motorsport finds itself, with a plethora of categories on offer for drivers and teams. But, arguably, if any club could make it work it was going to be the 750 Motor Club, which has a proven track record of launching low-cost classes, and the 116 Trophy for early BMW 1 Series models certainly established itself throughout 2019. For the first two rounds it was part of the Roadsports grid, but by its third meeting at Snetterton it had established its own standalone races and attracted between 12 and 14 entries over the remaining rounds, as well as increasing its race…

BOOK NIKI LAUDA, HIS COMPETITION HISTORY Books about the late Niki Lauda are nothing new, and even without them his story has been well (or badly) documented on countless occasions – including on the silver screen. He paid his way into Formula 1 without much success in the lower ranks, blah blah. He survived horrific burns at the Nurburgring in 1976, drone drone. He walked away from racing, set up an airline, then returned to Formula 1 to win a third title, zzz zzz. Yes, we’ve heard it all before. So a book entitled Niki Lauda, his competition history written by an unknown author in Jon Saltinstall doesn’t fill you with enthusiasm. Until you open it. Actually, the trick is to open it from the front, because it’s here that…

FORMULA 1 A new race track in Qiddiya will be ready to host a Saudi Arabian Grand Prix Formula 1 race from 2023, according to the circuit’s bosses at an event last Friday. The development is situated around 30 miles from capital city Riyadh, which hosts a Formula E round, and is part of a major new entertainment and commercial complex that is being built against the backdrop of a mountain range. The layout has been designed by former F1 driver Alex Wurz to the FIA Grade 1 standards required for F1. Mike Reininger, CEO of the Qiddiya Investment Company that is behind the project, told Autosport that the aim is to attract all top-tier motorsport categories. “We’re building so that we’re able to host MotoGP events, WEC, regional and…

INDYCAR SERIES Team Penske president Tim Cindric has confirmed that Australian Supercars champion Scott McLaughlin’s test last week at Sebring was more than just a one-off and that the team is investigating the possibilities of the 26-year-old New Zealander making his IndyCar race debut. McLaughlin, who has won the past two Supercars titles for DJR Team Penske and clinched victory in last season’s Bathurst 1000, tested one of Penske’s Dallara-Chevrolet IndyCars on Sebring’s 1.7-mile short course. He finished the day with a best lap time just one second slower than Indy Lights runner-up Rinus van Kalmthout (Ed Carpenter Racing), and 0.5s adrift of Lights champ Oliver Askew (Arrow McLaren SP). Cindric confirmed to Autosport that Penske is hoping to add McLaughlin to its roster for Spring Training at Austin’s Circuit…

Hamilton v Schumacher I want to commend Mr Turner and Autosport for their insightful and righteous comparison of these two drivers (Autosport, January 16). Lewis Hamilton has done something remarkable in Formula 1. He has restored the sportsmanship that must be one of the legs of any sport! Michael Schumacher followed Ayrton Senna in making winning at any cost and by any means the norm in F1, taking the nobility of the competition away. Hamilton has won by working on himself, and developing his ability to win fair and square against all comers by being faster on Sunday. He does believe how he wins is important. We F1 fans deserve that our all-time champion be an individual of character, and we are looking forward to Lewis achieving that position. Good…

Sisteron. That 23-mile run up the D3 from Thoard, over the legendary hairpins near Authon and down into the town, is legendary for striking fear into the hearts of rally folk. And now darkness has fallen – in every sense. In just a couple of hours, the World Rally Championship is expected to step out of the darkness and into the light, courtesy of its ground-breaking All Live service. But now, with the start of the 2018 Monte Carlo Rally looming large, the world’s gone a bit mad. It looks like fate may have its finger poised over the pause button. Florian Ruth, the WRC’s head of television, is one of the most positive people you can ever hope to meet. But talk to him about that Thursday night in…

Cadillac has notched up a run of three consecutive victories at the Daytona 24 Hours. That adds up to a 100% record in the era of the Daytona Prototype international regulations, but the smart money is on that run coming to an end when the new IMSA SportsCar Championship season kicks off at the self-styled World Center of Racing this weekend. Wayne Taylor, whose eponymous team has claimed two of three victories for the Cadillac DPi-V.R since 2017, reckons the tide is going to turn in favour of either Acura or Mazda. The boss of Wayne Taylor Racing is known for his pessimism, but he concedes that the team’s rivals at the front of the IMSA grid finally look ready to win the Rolex-sponsored US enduro. That’s something that wasn’t…

While BMW Andretti was again the star of the Formula E show, series newcomers Mercedes and Porsche nevertheless made waves in Santiago. At Mercedes, Nyck de Vries lost a maiden FE podium to circumstances outside his control. The 2019 Formula 2 champion had started eighth but dropped to 11th early on as he was “struggling a little bit in terms of pace and positioning”. But he surged up the order in the latter stages of the race and crossed the line in third, ahead of Mitch Evans. But de Vries’s joy was short-lived. Earlier in the race, he had been handed a five-second race-time addition for an unspecified technical infringement. This was later revealed to be a breach of Article 27.9 of FE’s sporting rules, which relates to the instructions…

TOYOTA RACING SERIES HIGHLANDS MOTORSPORT PARK (NZL) 18-19 JANUARY ROUND 1/5 Two wins set Red Bull Junior Liam Lawson off to a flying start in his bid to win his second successive TRS title, but the first came only after a penalty for on-the-road winner Caio Collet, whose weekend rapidly unravelled even further. Collet led the opener all the way from pole in his MTEC Motorsport car, run in collaboration with crack Formula Renault Eurocup squad R-ace GP. But the M2 Competition squad of Kiwi Lawson thought it had spotted the Brazilian making an illegal practice start on the warm-up lap. Sure enough, the stewards agreed and slapped Collet with a five-second penalty. Because a late safety car had left only a one-lap dash to the flag, Collet was relegated…

BRITISH GT Factory Lamborghini driver Franck Perera will contest five of the seven British GT rounds this year alongside Michael Igoe at WPI Motorsport, which will become an official Lamborghini-supported team. Igoe will again team up with Dennis Lind at Snetterton and Silverstone when Perera is on ADAC GT Masters duty. Perera, 35, was part of the Toyota junior scheme and tested for its Formula 1 team, before an aborted IndyCar spell in 2008 led him down the GT path. He won the European Le Mans Series GTC title in 2015 and took the Daytona 24 Hours GTD class win in 2018. The Frenchman made his first outing alongside Igoe in the GT Cup finale last year, as WPI swept all three races, and told Autosport he thought Igoe could…

MINI CHALLENGE Mini Challenge frontrunner Dan Zelos will remain with the Excelr8 Motorsport team in the category this year as he targets the title. Zelos finished third in the standings in his first full season in the championship last year, taking two wins and seven other podiums. The 21-year-old was previously a regular in the Renault UK Clio Cup and will now return to racing at British Touring Car Championship meetings as the Mini Challenge JCW class joins the TOCA package for this season. “My aim for 2020 is very clear – to win the Mini Challenge title, and in so doing prove to all the BTCC team managers that I’m ready to take the next step,” said Zelos. “It’s good to be returning to the TOCA paddock after a…

JORDANIAN TO BRITISH F3 Manaf Hijjawi will this season become the first Jordanian driver to compete in the BRDC British Formula 3 Championship after joining Douglas Motorsport. The 18-year-old, who has tasted action this winter in the MRF Challenge and UAE Formula 4, will join 2018 British F4 champion Kiern Jewiss at Douglas. MARSHALL BACK RACING GT5 Ashley Marshall will return to action in the Ginetta GT5 Challenge this year after missing the majority of last season. He will drive for the Fox Motorsport squad. “I’m thrilled to get back onto the grid for a full season in what I think is probably the most competitive and action-packed one-make race series in the UK,” he said. HAWKEY CHANGES TEAM Porsche Carrera Cup GB racer Esmee Hawkey has switched to the…

HISTORICS Anglo-Irishman Michael Lyons’s three-event New Zealand F5000 Tasman Cup Revival Series ‘drop in’ got off to a perfect start with a hat-trick of wins at Taupo’s Bruce McLaren Motor Sport Park last weekend. On pole by 1.7 seconds – in the absence of Kenny Smith, who has sold his Lola T332 – the T400 driver also shattered Smith’s lap record. Michael Collins – who dominated the opening round of the 2019-20 contest at Manfeild in November – led the chase each time in Alistair Hey’s Leda LT27-based McRae GM1. Collins briefly led Sunday’s heat before being overpowered by the visitor. Third place was less clear-cut in the 17-car field, with a different driver joining the young guns on the podium each time. Series sponsor David Banks and veteran Grant…

PORSCHE SPRINT CHALLENGE GB There are always new series being launched and 2019 was a particularly bumper year for clubs trying different formulas. But it’s not every year that a full manufacturer-backed championship is among the new classes. The Porsche Sprint Challenge GB is an exception. It is aiming to jump on the success of the GT4 division around the world and offers a one-make series for the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport, aimed at a wide range of drivers – including gentleman racers and also up-and-coming youngsters. A lot of thought has been put into how this fits alongside the well established Carrera Cup GB. The Sprint Challenge features a calendar that includes two rounds alongside the British Touring Car Championship (like Carrera Cup), three as part of the…

Nelson Piquet (Williams-Honda FW11B) and Gerhard Berger (Ferrari F1-87) run together during the 1987 Austrian Grand Prix weekend at the Osterreichring. They had mixed fortunes in the race, which had to be started three times thanks to shunts. Poleman Piquet finally finished second – to team-mate Nigel Mansell, who averaged over 146mph on his way to victory – while Berger qualified third but only completed five laps before turbo failure struck. Teo Fabi’s Benetton-Ford B187 completed the podium, albeit a lap behind the dominant Williams rivals. For classic 1980s Formula 1 DVDs head to dukevideo.com/F1 For more great photographs, visit motorsportimages.com…

While some of the news around the desert kingdom has not exactly been palatable in recent years, its march to prominence in motorsport cannot be ignored. DAKAR RALLY The first Dakar Rally of a five-year deal finished last week, resulting in victory for Spanish superstar Carlos Sainz on a route than ran from Jeddah to Qiddiya – the same city that will house the new circuit. FORMULA E The electric single-seater series first visited Diriyah, on the outskirts of capital city Riyadh, in December 2018, with a win for the BMW of Antonio Felix da Costa. Formula E was back there last November. RACE OF CHAMPIONS The multi-discipline motorsport event continued its nomadic existence with a visit to Riyadh’s King Fahd International Stadium in February 2018. David Coulthard was the…

GT WORLD CHALLENGE More strategy, better racing and greater onus on teamwork. That’s the promise of GT boss Stephane Ratel for this year’s GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup after a swathe of revisions to the pitstop rules. The most significant of the changes for what was formerly known as the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup is the removal of the minimum time, measured from pit-in to pit-out, for a complete stop. Now only the refuelling time will be controlled by electronic means to equalise the different makes of car. Coupled with another rule change that dictates that tyres can only be changed once fuel has gone in, this means that there will be time to gain in the pits. More importantly, it opens up strategic options for the teams,…

PREMA Italian team dominated its debut season in 2016 with Pierre Gasly (above) and Antonio Giovinazzi, then followed that with the 2017 crown for Charles Leclerc. No surprises there. CARLIN Made a quiet entry in 2011, but then hit form with Jolyon Palmer and Felipe Nasr. After a year out, returned in style in 2018, with Lando Norris (above) leading Carlin to a teams’ title. VIRTUOSI Norfolk-based squad took over Russian Time effort for 2014 (above) after single successful season in 2013 with Motopark. RT exit meant Virtuosi could stop running incognito in 2019. RAPAX Effectively this was a rebrand for 2010 of the old Piquet-named squad – and instantly won a title with Pastor Maldonado (above). Hugely underrated, it fell out of F2 at the end of 2017.…

GT WORLD CHALLENGE The McLaren 720S GT3 will make a belated debut in the renamed GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup this year. The first car developed in-house at McLaren Automotive will contest the five-round series with Optimum Motorsport and a line-up of three factory drivers. It will be the first time that a McLaren has raced in the championship previously called the Blancpain GT Series since 2018, when the Garage 59 squad run by CRS GT fielded a pair of 650S GT3s. Part of the organisation that developed the 650S for racing, it had won the BGTS Endurance Cup title in 2016. Optimum, which claimed the British GT Championship in 2018 with Aston Martin, will field a solo car in the pro class driven by full-factory contractees Rob Bell…

The 2019-20 Formula E season may have only visited two cities so far, but it’s one-quarter mark is not far off. After two races in Diriyah and one in Santiago, BMW Andretti sits at the top of the teams’ championship – thanks to its two wins from Alexander Sims and Maximilian Guenther. BMW got off to a winning start in 2018-19, but – in spite of Antonio Felix da Costa and Sims showing rapid form at times – a combination of bad luck, the championship-order qualifying groups and that crash in Marrakech cost the team momentum. This time, though, it has carried its sparkling speed from testing to two victories in the first two race weekends. While Sims’s Riyadh race-two drive was all about managing a constantly interrupted race –…

FRESH CIRCUITS While the battleground that played host to arguably Formula 1’s most thrilling race in 2019 – Hockenheim – drops off the calendar, there’s still going to be a record 22 grands prix this year. To sate the legions of Max Verstappen fans, who have been clamouring to bedeck a home race in retina-scorching orange tones, the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort makes a return to the calendar after a 35-year hiatus, while Vietnam also makes its maiden bow on the schedule. In those intervening 35 years, the Zandvoort circuit has undergone significant change and, while the opening six corners are heavily rooted in those seen when F1 last visited the seaside circuit, the remainder of the layout received a complete overhaul back in 1999. There have been a…

Many Formula 1 fans are desperate to see Williams rebound in 2020, and the announcement of Nicholas Latifi – without a major pole or title under his belt from junior single-seaters at the age of 24 – may well leave those fans underwhelmed. For that reason, Williams can’t afford for Latifi to be the wrong choice, as it will be vilified for passing on the likes of Nico Hulkenberg – if he ever was an option – in favour of going with an F1 rookie and a sophomore driver in the form of George Russell in 2020. You’d think a struggling, once-great team would go for experience to provide a shining light on the path to illumination, but that comes with positives and negatives. Opting for an older driver can…

It’s a question you can’t help asking Sebastien Ogier about his move to Toyota: after the stories we heard of disharmony within the team last season, how does he think he will survive there? Ogier smiles and gives a half-laugh, knowing where we’re trying to lead him. “Survive…” he says. “I’m not sure I would use this word. I don’t see it like this.” The Toyota-Ogier alliance is actually one that fits the two parties perfectly. His decision to walk away from Citroen is evidence that he simply didn’t believe the French firm was capable of delivering him a seventh title, a feat he can see happening at Toyota. When Ott Tanak departed Toyota, Tommi Makinen’s team was left vulnerable in the extreme. The Yaris needed a world champion, and…

Being inside one of the production pods during a live broadcast is an intense experience. Director Stefan Koch sits front and centre of 16 different screen options. It’s up to him to decide what you and I will be watching at any one time. Before any action shots of a crew are shown, Koch primes pictures of driver and co-driver for the screen. “We want to make this more personal for the viewers,” he says, “so we show the guys without their crash helmets and with some stats to introduce them. We want to lead the viewers through All Live; we don’t want them to have to use any energy figuring out who they’re watching. We just want them to sit back and enjoy.” There’s not much chance of Koch…

The eternal all-American sportscar has been given much more than a facelift. A car that has had its engine mounted up front ahead of the driver through seven generations dating back to 1953 is now mid-engined. Purists may object, but there have been no complaints from the team tasked with turning Chevrolet’s new C8 Corvette into a racing car. In fact, they were jumping for joy at Corvette Racing, the Pratt & Miller-run operation in Detroit that has been responsible for the Chevys that have competed in North American sportscar racing since 1999 and at the Le Mans 24 Hours since 2000. That was six years ago, and the fruits of an unusually long gestation period will be on show as the new C8.R GT Le Mans class contender makes…

VERGNE IN THE WARS Jean-Eric Vergne was frustrated to be told to pit for repairs following his smoky wheel issues late in the race as “sometimes drivers are banging the wall to try and remove the front wing [pieces] – they come off and then they can continue,” he explained. The DS Techeetah driver parked his car when he arrived at his garage and retired for the second time in three races this season. NO POINTS FOR SIMS Alexander Sims could not back up his Riyadh victory in Santiago. After his clashes with the Porsche drivers (see page 45), he clipped a wall with his right-rear wheel and was forced to retire with a damaged driveshaft. He nevertheless holds second place in the drivers’ standings heading to the next race…

ASIAN FORMULA 3 YAS MARINA (ARE) 17-18 JANUARY ROUND 3/5 A 20-second post-race penalty for a false start denied W Series champion Jamie Chadwick a maiden win in mixed-gender racing for Regional Formula 3 machinery, after she’d crossed the line 4.4 seconds ahead of series leader Joey Alders. Chadwick earned pole for the second race of the triple-header, for which grid positions were decided by fastest laps in the opening race. The Absolute Racing driver led most of the way, while BlackArts Racing-run Dutchman Alders worked his way up from fourth. First Alders passed Ukyo Sasahara, then Jack Doohan – who suffered clutch problems for much of the weekend – retired from second place. Chadwick’s penalty, which dropped her to eighth, moved Sasahara up to second and Devlin DeFrancesco to…

BRITISH GT Optimum Motorsport has switched allegiances from Aston Martin to McLaren and will run a 720S GT3 in the British GT Championship this year for Australian pair Nick Foster and Martin Berry. The 2018 GT3 champion team has run Aston machinery for the past two seasons and last year returned to GT4 with two new Vantages. But team boss Shaun Goff said Optimum’s switch to run McLarens in GT3 would not affect its commitment to enter two GT4 Astons this year. It comes after Optimum announced that it would run a 720S for 2019 British GT Silver Cup champion Ollie Wilkinson alongside McLaren factory drivers Rob Bell and Joe Osborne in the renamed GT World Challenge Europe (nee Blancpain) Endurance Cup (see page 8). Goff says the speed the…

HISTORICS Popular historic racing organiser Equipe Classic Racing will run a third series this season dedicated to 1950s machines. As well as the Equipe GTS and Equipe Pre-’63 categories, the new Equipe 50s series will be open to earlier cars. Production sportscars with up to 3.6-litre engines and sports-racers with up two-litre motors will be eligible. A six-event calendar has been revealed for this season, which predominantly features races at MG Car Club meetings. It means Equipe will be running four grids at some events as the popular GTS division is sometimes split in two. “We’ve had a great response from people,” said Equipe partner John Pearson. “This morning I confirmed a Cooper Bristol that Mike Hawthorn drove is going to come and race with us – we’re looking forward…

FIESTA JUNIOR The Fiesta Junior Championship is set to have a grid in double figures this season after struggling to attract entries in 2019. The British Racing and Sports Car Club-run category featured just four to six drivers last season. But a programme of investment by the club appears to have turned the category’s fortunes around. Two taster days were held last season and attended by a total of 22 drivers. This has transferred into registrations for 2020. By the time of this month’s Autosport International show, 15 drivers had already signed up for this year. “We set out last year to invest a lot in encouraging people to have a go [in the category],” explained BRSCC chairman Peter Daly. “The success of those taster days means we have 15…

Before Christmas, Autosport put together its list of club racing champions from the 2019 season. Now, this is never an easy task – but it does provide a very useful record of the year just gone. It is always tricky to make sure the round-up is entirely comprehensive and to ensure there are no series, rather than championships, that have accidentally been excluded. But what is already a job that requires multiple checking and double-checking of various different sources was made noticeably more difficult by the websites of some organising clubs or the individual championships not being kept up to date with the latest information. Autosport does not wish to name and shame any of the offenders, but it was surprising how many sites did not contain the final championships…

Preparing for that final Formula 1 breakthrough 26 January 2006 Honda’s and Jenson Button’s Formula 1 assault made our cover on 26 January 2006. The team stated that wins were the aim for the new season, which included a rules switch from three-litre V10 engines to 2.4-litre V8s. Button, already a veteran of 100 F1 starts, had yet to take a victory and it had become something of a monkey on his back. “Could this finally be the year Jenson makes the breakthrough?” asked Autosport. While Honda did not achieve its goal of being “in a position to win at every race”, the RA106 did become a consistent points scorer. And in August, in a dramatic Hungarian Grand Prix, Button would come through from row seven in mixed conditions to…