Indholdsfortegnelse for 30/04/20 i Autosport

LE MANS 24 HOURS The prospect of the Le Mans 24 Hours being pushed back further has been raised by Pierre Fillon, president of race organiser the Automobile Club de l’Ouest. He hasn’t ruled out a date in October or November should it not be possible to hold the World Endurance Championship double-points round on its rescheduled date of 19-20 September. “If at the end of July the authorities tell us [it is] impossible in September but 100% possible we can do it in October or November, of course, we would do that,” said Fillon in an exclusive interview for Autosport’s #thinkingforward series. “It would not be the same 24 Hours we are used to, but we are professional and we have great drivers.” Fillon highlighted the uncertainty surrounding the…

OBITUARY Ricardo Divila did it all: the Brazilian engineer, who has died aged 74, worked across just about every racing discipline over a period of more than 60 years. He may be best known for designing a run of Fittipaldi Formula 1 cars in the 1970s, but his time with the team was just one chapter in the story of an amazing career that stretched from the Maserati 250F to the Nissan DeltaWing and beyond. Divila, who was christened Richard at the behest of his English mother but by law required a Brazilian name on his birth certificate, had further stints in F1 with Ligier, Fondmetal, Minardi and Prost. Yet to many he is best remembered working for Nissan, and for a shorter period Toyota, in Super GT and Formula…

“It was evident from day one,” recalls Sergio Perez. “I came from Mclaren and I remember the first time visiting the factory at Farce India. It was a shack straight away because I could see the deficit they had an money.” A transition from mighty McLaren at the end of 2013, when it was then only at the beginning of its slide from the front of the grid, to the squad then known as Force India is a dramatic lesson in the disparity of Formula 1 team budgets. But not so when it comes to results. In Sergio Perez’s first season at Force India, the team finished sixth – one place and 26 points behind McLaren. The following season it was fifth, with McLaren falling to ninth in the first…

Racing Point is currently playing its part in the intense negotiations over Formula 1’s cost cap, which will come into force from 2021. This had been intended to run alongside the new technical and sporting rules – now delayed to 2022 to ease the financial burden on the teams during the coronavirus crisis. But the financial changes will still come in next year, and will be lower than the $175millon announced last year. A move to $150m has been agreed in principle, but at the time of writing no firm agreement had been reached as various teams argue for and against further lowering the cap. McLaren and its CEO, Zak Brown, have been vocal in advocating for the cap to be as low as $100m, while Ferrari is reluctant to…

The fall from Formula E grace for NIO 333 has been severe. Entered into the inaugural 2014-15 season as China Racing, its leading light Nelson Piquet Jr clinched the drivers’ title, while the team – already rebranded as NEXTEV TCR – ended the campaign in fourth. Another three name changes later, and having finished bottom last season, NIO 333 again props up the table after five races of the interrupted 2019-20 campaign. Only it and Dragon Racing haven’t scored a podium since the start of the 2018-19 contest. The main cause of this decline was a language barrier. Not in the literal sense between the Chinese ownership and the Brilliance In Excellence (BIE) race team, which runs out of three Donington Park workshops and an R&D facility at Begbroke Science…

SRO GT SERIES ESPORTS SILVERSTONE (GBR) 26 APRIL ROUND 1 Bentley driver Jordan Pepper won the opening SRO GT Series Esports event at Silverstone, while 2009 Formula 1 champion Jenson Button and Ferrari F1 star Charles Leclerc hit trouble. Pepper claimed the lead when polesitter Fabrizio Crestani collided with fellow McLaren driver Ben Barnicoat as they diced for first place among an impressive 49-strong field. Crestani was handed a drivethrough penalty as Barnicoat fell to eighth. Thereafter, Pepper was dominant and bagged the glory in the one-hour enduro ahead of Barnicoat, who recovered to second ahead of karting graduate Luigi di Lorenzo. Mercedes’ Raffaele Marciello initially took third, but the 2018 Blancpain Sprint Cup champion was handed a two-second penalty for his move on di Lorenzo’s Aston Martin. Leclerc finished…

ALFA ROMEOS Triple Alfa Romeo champion Tom Hill is set to step up to the series’ Power Trophy class, driving a newly-built Alfa Romeo GT. Hill became the first driver to win the long-running Alfa championship three times when he added last year’s title to his 2016 and 2018 crowns, each coming aboard Twin Spark Cup-class 156 models. Now he will graduate to more powerful machinery with a new 3.2-litre V6-powered GT built by Roger Evans’s Revs Italia concern. “It was something we thought quite a lot about – do we stick with Twin Sparks or do we venture out into other things?” said Hill. “And we’d asked ourselves that for at least the last three or four seasons! “I wanted to develop as a driver and get to grips…

BRITCAR E-SERIES David Brabham guided the Brabham BT62 to its first ever virtual victory during the Britcar Endurance E-Series at Spa last week. With the real-life Britcar championship on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic, organisers held the series’ first Esports event with 2009 Le Mans 24 Hour winner Brabham, 2019 Renault Clio Cup UK runner-up Max Coates and W Series driver – and 2018 Britcar champion – Sarah Moore among the drivers taking part. Using Assetto Corsa software, the Brabham BT62 appeared for the first time in the virtual world, having made its real-life racing debut last November at the Into the Night race at Brands Hatch in the hands of Brabham and Will Powell. And just like five months ago, when it took the top spot, it was…

STAT 9TH Ocon’s best result from the three FR3.5 races he started in 2014 When future Formula 1 racer Esteban Ocon landed at Comtec Racing for a two-round cameo in the 2014 Formula Renault 3.5 championship, he was riding the crest of a wave. With a commanding 77-point buffer over Max Verstappen in the FIA European F3 championship and only two rounds remaining, the opportunity to sample more powerful and complicated machinery couldn’t have come at a better time. His appearances at the Hungaroring and Paul Ricard showed all the hallmarks of the devastating speed and technical sensitivity he would go on to display in F1 but, as his race engineer Danny King recalls, Ocon was preoccupied with showing more experienced contemporaries including Carlos Sainz Jr and Pierre Gasly the…

A new American contender enters the fray 27 April 1951 Autosport heralded the arrival of the new Cunningham sportscar this week in 1951. The 5.4-litre V8 machine, to be known as the C2-R, marked an American return to Le Mans. “Twenty years have passed since an American sportscar, the Stutz Bearcat, competed in the great 24-hour race,” said Autosport. “It is with great interest that details have been awaited of the new cars which that great enthusiast Briggs S Cunningham announced that he would be producing to race at Le Mans.” We were impressed with the overall modernity of the design and estimated that the race versions would produce “at least” 220bhp: “There is nothing of the hot-rod about the Cunningham. Its conception owes a great deal to European influence,…

FORMULA 1 Silverstone has confirmed that this year’s British Grand Prix will be a behind-closed-doors event if the race is able to take place on 19 July. With government restrictions still in place as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the circuit announced on Monday that it would not be able to welcome any fans to the race. “We have left this difficult decision for as long as possible, but it is abundantly clear given the current conditions in the country and the government requirements in place now and for the foreseeable future, that a grand prix under normal conditions is just not going to be possible,” managing director Stuart Pringle wrote in a letter to ticket holders. “Our obligations to protect the health and safety of everyone involved in…

DTM The DTM looks doomed in its current format following Audi’s announcement on Monday that it will quit the series at the end of 2020, meaning only BMW remains. Rumours have abounded over the winter – since before the coronavirus pandemic – that Audi was weighing up its DTM future. Its missive blamed the current crisis, as well as saying that Audi would concentrate on Formula E and its customer racing projects. It added: “We’re investigating other progressive motorsport formats for the future.” DTM chief Gerhard Berger – previously stung by Mercedes’ end-of-2018 pullout and the one-year-and-out Aston Martin project – then issued a statement that pulled few punches. “I deeply regret Audi’s decision to withdraw from the DTM,” said Berger. “While we respect the board’s position, the short-term nature…

BTCC Nine rounds, from the beginning of August to mid-November, are included on a new British Touring Car Championship calendar that could get going behind closed doors depending on goverment restrictions amid the coronavirus-crisis fallout. Series organiser TOCA released the revised 2020 schedule on Monday, and it has lost one round – the intended inaugural BTCC visit to the Silverstone International Circuit, which hosted last month’s series Launch Day. It is bookended, as per the original pre-pandemic fixtures, by an opener at Donington Park (above) and a Brands Hatch Grand Prix finale. When asked whether spectator-free races were potentially on the cards, TOCA chief Alan Gow told Autosport: “Obviously that’s entirely in the hands of the government, but if we have to then we will. That goes without saying. I’m…

Formula 1 is caught in a cliche – a major crisis, which at the same time is providing opportunity. Make no mistake, the coronavirus pandemic is a very serious threat to the championship, although its tragic impact on so many people and our societies in general must not be downplayed when discussing the comparatively trivial topic of sport. The upending of normality has forced us to rethink how we operate – and F1 is no different. The current negotiations between F1’s stakeholders are critical. McLaren boss Zak Brown warned of “four teams” potentially going bust. FIA president Jean Todt told Autosport that F1 needs a “new deal”. Thrown into stark relief by the threat to humanity, F1 is in the grips of an existential crisis. And so, these talks are…

As he waits for his 10th Formula 1 season to start, Sergio Perez is boosted by a development from last summer: the refresh three-year deal that will keep him at Racing Point/Aston Martin until the end of 2022. The new contract means he has stability – something that has inevitably been lacking at a team that has gone through such turbulent times. “I would never have imagined to be that long with the team,” he says. “Because pretty much, up to now, every year was a year renewal – year-by-year [contracts] – because every year I thought that was going to be my last, that I was going to change team.” The new deal means Perez will see the squad enjoy its greater resources as the Aston Martin project develops,…

The Dutch Grand Prix was supposed to return this weekend. The Formula 1 circus was going to visit Zandvoort for the first time since 1985, but the coronavirus pandemic has meant that Max Verstappen will have to wait a bit longer to perform for Red Bull in front of his home fans. The seaside venue has a history stretching right back to the beginning of F1 and has hosted some great races, titanic struggles and fine moments. It has had its tragedies too, most notably the deaths of Piers Courage and Roger Williamson in the 1970 and 1973 Dutch GPs respectively. But with such a chequered past, Zandvoort and its greatest moments were well worth putting under the microscope, even if no one can be there this weekend. EARLY STANDOUTS…

When Formula E drivers were asked to name their most underrated peer on the grid last season, Oliver Turvey won the poll with seven votes. Whether being widely acknowledged as the most underrated in fact makes that person simply ‘rated’ is a debate for a different day. But what is clear is Turvey’s popularity within NIO 333. Similarly, having remained with the squad ever since his FE debut in London in 2015, he must see the potential for the team to improve. “Oliver has a lot of strength, a vast amount of experience, he’s a naturally quick driver,” says team principal Christian Silk. “I think his qualifying pace is quite legendary and he’s a very strong and intelligent racer as well.” It’s far less clear-cut on the other side of the…

1 1961 MONACO GP Ginther’s greatest drive, but unfortunately for him, one of Stirling Moss’s too. Ginther matched one of the greatest drivers of all time, with an average lap time that was just shy of full qualifying pace. Moss had to drive flat-out for the entire race to win against a driver considered by Ferrari as only useful for testing. As Ginther said himself: “Jeez, what can you do about Moss?” And the answer, of course, was nothing. 2 1965 MEXICAN GP A day when everything came together. A combination of a powerful engine, a well-worked fuel-mixture control and excellent tyre grip gave Ginther an advantage, but he made full use of it. He managed the Honda in car-punishing conditions as sympathetically as ever while having enough pace to…

FORMULA E RACE AT HOME CHALLENGE HONG KONG (CHN) 25 APRIL ROUND 1 Maximilian Guenther’s Esports stronghold over his Formula E rivals continued in the first points-paying round of the Race at Home Challenge – in partnership with Motorsport Games – thanks to a 2.2-second win around a virtual Hong Kong circuit. Following the precedent set in the test race in Monaco, Stoffel Vandoorne was Guenther’s closest challenger. But when it looked as though the Mercedes driver had found an edge and would dash off into the distance courtesy of an early race lead, Vandoorne stuffed his car into the barriers. Vandoorne had snared pole by just 0.098s over sim racing debutant Pascal Wehrlein, while BMW man Guenther lined up third on the grid ahead of Nick Cassidy. With reigning…

FORMULA JUNIOR The Formula Junior Historic Racing Association has taken the unprecedented step of cancelling its flagship FIA Lurani Trophy championship for 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. The longest-established historic racing competition run under the world governing body’s flag, the Lurani Trophy celebrated its 25th anniversary last year. The 2020 championship was due to have opened last weekend at Hockenheim’s Jim Clark Revival meeting, long postponed. Only rounds at Misano (19-21 June), Imola (10-12 July), Nurburgring (7-9 August) and Dijon (2-4 October) remain on the current schedule. A statement issued by FJHRA organisers Duncan Rabagliati and his daughter Sarah Mitricke read: “The spirit of the Lurani Trophy has always been that it is an international competition. Even if pockets of Europe are able to open and try to find…

CCRC EXTENDS MEMBERSHIPS The Castle Combe Racing Club has decided to extend all of its club memberships by a complimentary three months in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. The club says it recognises the difficulties members are facing financially and wanted to help compensate competitors for the lack of racing in what should have been the first three months of the season. The CCRC’s categories are due to get under way on 4 July. BRSCC DOESN’T GO DUTCH Another meeting that has fallen victim to the COVID-19 pandemic is the British Racing and Sports Car Club’s planned visit to Zandvoort. The club’s Caterham categories and Production GTI championship were due to visit the Dutch circuit over 11-12 July. The BRSCC is in talks with circuit bosses about a possible…

Michael Schumacher (Ferrari F300) exits his pitbox during the 1998 German Grand Prix at Hockenheim. It wasn’t a happy home event: his track time was curtailed by an abortive early practice run in a long-wheelbase car, then a spin, followed by an engine failure. Come qualifying he could only record the ninth-fastest time. He managed to finish fifth in the race, behind Damon Hill’s Jordan-Mugen 198, Jacques Villeneuve’s Williams-Mecachrome FW20 and the dominant McLaren-Mercedes MP4/13s of David Coulthard and winner Mika Hakkinen. For classic 1990s Formula 1 DVDs head to dukevideo.com/F1 For more great photographs, visit motorsportimages.com…

FORMULA 1 Ferrari has said that it will not accept any further reduction in Formula 1’s proposed budget cap, and hinted that any progress in that direction could mean it enters additional racing series. Amid growing tensions between Ferrari and rival teams about the scale of a reduction in the $175million budget cap coming into force next year, the FIA then stepped into the debate by making it clear that under certain circumstances it could now accept majority approval for rule changes. Up until now, the terms of F1’s International Sporting Code meant that any changes for 2021 made at this stage required unanimous support from the teams. But in light of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and growing fears about the financial impact on competitors, the FIA has…

FIA FIA Single Seater Commission president Stefano Domenicali has urged motorsport to use the current coronavirus-enforced hiatus to reshape itself for the future. Rising costs on the FIA single-seater ladder from Formula 4 to Formula 2 have forced increasing numbers of drivers into other disciplines of the sport, particularly GT racing, and ex-Ferrari F1 boss Domenicali – who took over his FIA role in 2015 – believes this must change. “I see this as an opportunity for the motorsport industry to reshape,” said Domenicali in an exclusive interview for Autosport’s #thinkingforward series of podcasts. “There’s no doubt that motorsport will be an essential part into the future, but short term we need to revisit the level of investment and maybe the level of technology and the number of championships. And…

Non-championship races strike a chord Congratulations on your excellent articles on the nonchampionship F1 races (23 April). Naturally any top 10 is highly subjective, but most folk probably wouldn’t quibble with any in your ultimate pick. As far as the final order is concerned, personally, I would juxtapose first and second. The quality of entry for that race in 1974 belied the fact that Britain was then suffering its own version of ‘lockdown’, with three-day weeks and power cuts. How the organisers managed to assemble pretty much the entire grand prix grid for a 40-lapper in mid-March is anyone’s guess. True enough he was a wet weather maestro – even so, Jacky Ickx’s drive that day on a soaking track was pure genius. And I was there! Honourable mention though…

2009 BELGIAN GP The closest Force India came to winning a race was, remarkably, the first time it scored points in that guise. Giancarlo Fisichella took the slippery VJM02 to pole at Spa and led away, only for a safety-car restart to give the KERS-armed Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen a single chance, which he took to take the win, with soon-to-be-Ferrari driver Fisichella second. 2014 BAHRAIN GP Practice suggested Force India was Mercedes’ closest challenger in Bahrain, and Perez ended up third behind the duelling Silver Arrows to take his first podium with the team. But he had to get by Valtteri Bottas from fourth on the grid and then put a forceful mid-race pass on team-mate Nico Hulkenberg to end up on the rostrum, just ahead of the charging…

One of the things I miss the most from my past life as a race engineer is going through a circuit map analysis with my driver before the race event and after each session. Those are very precious moments for a race engineer as they provide the chance to “sit in the car” and immerse him/herself into the competition. The driver puts notes on the track layout highlighting the key points for the car performance (see right). Although it is not easy to predict the behaviour of the Tarmac used to build this track, I tried to visualise what an F1 driver would recommend for this new, fascinating layout. With the available information, it looks like the main characteristic will be the traction (T) for the corners T1, T3, T8,…

Age is just a number, so the saying goes. While it’s often a throwaway comment muttered to play down the frequency with which birthdays come and go, it does ring somewhat true in the British Touring Car Championship. Jason Plato extended his series record to a staggering 97 race wins with victory in the Brands Hatch finale last season. A day short of his 52nd birthday, he became the BTCC’s oldest race winner. On the car front, the FK2 Honda Civic has been on the grid since 2012. As Rory Butcher and Sam Tordoff proved on four occasions last season, the machine is still eminently capable of winning, despite being long in the tooth. Up against the performance balancing measures of ever-changing turbo boost levels, success ballast and partially reversed…

During the 1937 motor racing season when the Alfa Romeo cars raced by the Scuderia Ferrari were being trounced by Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union, rumour first announced that the famous Milanese factory intended to build a 1.5-litre machine, in a desperate effort to recapture some of their, and Italy’s, vanishing prestige in the sphere of motor racing. However, as month succeeded month no new 1500cc Alfa Romeo appeared on the scene. Despite this, odd snippets of news created the feeling that Alfas were ‘up to something’ for varying sources confirmed that new vehicles had any number of cylinders, from six to 16. This peculiar fog of uncertainty surrounding Alfa Romeo was not unusual, as only a mere five years earlier the birth and growth of Germany’s new racers had been…

LE MANS ESPORTS SPA (BEL) 25 APRIL ROUND 5 Red Bull Esports clinched the Le Mans Esports Series Pro Team qualification series title after defeating Lazarus in a tense finale at Spa. Heading into the final event of the five-round season, just 10 points split the pair in Red Bull’s favour. Lazarus runner Daniel Nyman charged from fourth to win the sprint race with a bold penultimate-lap pass on Michael Thomas Coyne (Solar Vision Racing) around the outside of Les Combes. Red Bull’s Aurelien Mallet spun down to 10th on lap one. He recovered brilliantly to finish in third behind Coyne. This left Red Bull and Lazarus tied heading into the decider. Robin Betka took over the Red Bull for the reverse-championship-order 25-lap endurance race. Nyman made a critical error…

BRC British Rally Championship boss Iain Campbell is optimistic of still running a number of events this year, despite the penultimate round in Northern Ireland being called off. August’s Ulster International Rally now joins West Cork and Rally Tendring & Clacton on the sidelines as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. But, with the season-opening Cambrian Rally having already run, and hopes remaining that June’s Ypres Rally, September’s Galloway Hills and October’s Rally GB will go ahead, Campbell said: “There is no announcement from Ypres at the moment – currently we have five scoring rounds for 2020.” Initially a reserve counter for this season’s competition, Rally GB is important as it now serves as two points-scoring rounds for BRC-registered crews. “Originally, it was going to be six scoring rounds, so…

ESPORTS The inaugural Scottish Motor Racing Club Esports championship came to a close at a virtual Silverstone last weekend, with all three class titles being decided in dramatic fashion in Porsche 911 GT3-R machinery. In the Xbox One class, Tam Hamill agonisingly missed out on a chance to snatch the title away from Ayden Wilson, who failed to qualify for the finals. Wilson suffered a disconnect in the qualifying heats and was forced to watch nervously as Hamill kept alive his hopes by taking third in the opening race. But it wasn’t to be for Hamill, who was spun out of the lead at Village by Andrew McKinlay. Hamill was involved in two more incidents on the opening lap and eventually called it a day. The wins were shared by…

VIDEO GAME REVIEW MOTOGP 20 RRP £49.99 Choosing to bring forward the release date of a video game by almost two months is either indicative of a developer’s confidence, or it’s a risky move that ends up with a half-baked product. Fortunately for motorcycle fans restless since the postponement of the real-life season, Milestone’s release of MotoGP 20 is an example of the former. A redesigned handling model, revamped career mode and the reintroduction of historic content are just some of the successful elements of Milestone’s eighth instalment in its MotoGP gaming franchise. Career mode now features a personal manager who will negotiate your rise through the ranks. Gamers can start from Moto3 and work their way to the top class, or elect to jump straight into MotoGP from the…

Reg Parnell Racing drivers Roy Salvadori (left) and John Surtees wait by their Lola-Climax Mk4s for the start of practice for the 1962 Monaco Grand Prix. In the background is the Rob Walker Racing Team transporter still bearing the name of Stirling Moss, who had suffered his career-ending crash at Goodwood several weeks earlier, a detail that seems even more poignant in light of his recent death. Surtees and Salvadori qualified 11th and 12th respectively; the former finished fourth, while his team-mate retired with broken suspension. For classic 1960s Formula 1 DVDs head to dukevideo.com/F1 For more great photographs, visit motorsportimages.com…