Indholdsfortegnelse for 25/03/21 i Autosport

It’s three and a half months since the 2020 Formula 1 season came to a close in Abu Dhabi. Thanks to the strange circumstances in which we are currently living, it feels like a lot longer, but this weekend the wait will be over and F1 2021 will properly kick off in Bahrain. Despite the much-discussed and supposed carryover of last year’s machines, there are plenty of changes and question marks to stir the interest ahead of the new campaign. Chief among those is whether Red Bull can actually put together a championship challenge. Given recent history and the incredible W11, it was easy to assume heading into the winter that 2021 would be another Mercedes season and we’d have to wait for the major rules reset in 2022 to…

FORMULA 1 Lewis Hamilton has parted company with long-serving right-hand man Marc Hynes, forcing a reshuffling of his management. Hynes, the 1999 British F3 champion, has been a key part of Hamilton’s Project 44 management team for the past five years, but has now left to pursue other interests. Hamilton said that the parting was amicable and that Hynes “remains one of my best friends”, and that he is working on a restructure of his management. “There are plans we’re working on for the future,” he said. Hamilton also revealed that he is planning for a new home to be built in the UK, in addition to his current bases in Colorado and Monaco.…

BTCC Three-time British Touring Car champion Matt Neal is to take a sabbatical from racing this season. Team Dynamics, the squad at which he is a director, will instead field BTCC sophomore Dan Rowbottom alongside the returning Gordon Shedden in its line-up of Honda Civic Type Rs. With the loss of backing from Honda UK and Yuasa amid the current financial crisis, Dynamics has retained support from Halfords. The signing of Rowbottom, who raced a Ciceley Mercedes in his rookie BTCC season in 2019, heralds the start of what is described as “a multi-year partnership” between his sponsor Cataclean and Halfords. “I am going to be taking a year out of the sport this season,” said 54-year-old Neal, “but I will still be representing Halfords as a brand ambassador and…

FORMULA REGIONAL It hasn’t been confirmed yet, but the newly merged Formula Regional European by Alpine series has secured a slot on the undercard of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola to replace its originally scheduled Spa date as its opening round. That means it kicks off with three successive Formula 1 support slots, with Barcelona and Monaco following in quick succession, before the rest of the 10-round series. The first official two-day test was held at Imola last week, with 32 cars in attendance. Ex-Renault F1 Junior Hadrien David (right), who had a tough rookie season in Renault Eurocup in 2020, topped three of the four sessions on his way to the fastest time overall. He has switched to long-time FRenault powerhouse R-ace GP. Sicilian Gabriele Mini, the…

OBITUARY The man known to the racing world as Johnny Dumfries had a supernova career that burned brightly and fizzled out rapidly. But this Scottish aristocrat who subsequently became John Bute was far more than the perhaps enigmatic impression this leaves. John Crichton-Stuart, 7th Marquess of Bute (to give him his correct title), and who has died aged 62 after a short illness, was a shining talent of motorsport who almost certainly would have achieved more had he made different decisions at crucial junctures of his career. Even so, he was one of the most dominant British Formula 3 champions of all time in 1984, team-mate to Ayrton Senna at Lotus in 1986, and a Le Mans 24 Hours winner with Jaguar in 1988. A man who adopted the ‘Dumfries’…

The 2008 Formula 1 season is now a very long time ago. Since that campaign ended, only two teams have won the drivers’ and constructors’ titles. One, as Brawn GP, picked up the championship double in 2009, the year after McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari had split the honours. The other dominated the next four campaigns, and since then the bought-out former Brawn squad has swept every championship. In 2021, overall triumph for McLaren and Ferrari, or any of the crowded midfield, seems unlikely at best. Once again, Mercedes (formerly Brawn) and Red Bull are set to do battle. But, having been soundly beaten for the past seven years, Red Bull is heading into F1’s latest campaign with perhaps its best chance of finally beating Mercedes and reclaiming the crowns…

As Ferrari began to come to terms with the severity of its plight in the early part of 2020, there was a “strange” atmosphere at the team, says Charles Leclerc. “We realised the reality of things was quite a lot worse than what we expected,” he recalls, harking back to the end of pre-season testing as the limitations of the SF1000 car and Ferrari engine became painfully clear to the whole paddock. That set the tone for Ferrari’s worst season in Formula 1 for 40 years as the Prancing Horse slumped to sixth in the constructors’ championship, and scored just three podium finishes. Fast-forward 12 months, and the mood in the red camp is markedly improved. After coming to terms with its drop in performance, Ferrari began to plot its…

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New faces have arrived in Formula 1 only sparingly over the past few seasons, thanks to tighter superlicence requirements and certain older drivers disobligingly refusing to take their leave. But this year there’s almost a glut of rookies, if three can be considered as such. To some extent, though, this influx isn’t particularly surprising. One thing that can be relied upon in F1 is that vacancies will eventuate owing to the ruthless up-or-out ethos of Red Bull’s young driver programme; and this season the floundering Haas team has decided its previous line-up amounted to dead wood. Taking the axe to Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen, both of whom had arguably had their time in F1, has enabled Haas to forge closer ties with Ferrari and attract new investment in one…

Few would have predicted that, of the two manufacturers allowed to build all-new bikes for 2021, Aprilia would be the one to impress. This year is Aprilia’s seventh since it returned to MotoGP, and it has very little to show for the toil it has put in. In 2022 Aprilia will break away from the Gresini squad it has partnered since 2015 to become a standalone factory entry. It will need to build its own team of on-track mechanics for that. It’s also looking into the prospect of supplying a team with bikes in 2022. With all that, and the opportunity afforded to it to close the gap to the leaders, it’s no wonder that CEO Massimo Rivola reckons 2021 is Aprilia’s “most important” year in MotoGP. Aleix Espargaro, who…

Porsche hit a century of class victories at Sebring with a GT Le Mans and GT Daytona double, but for the majority of the race the smart money was on it finishing the day stranded on 99 wins. The German manufacturer was at the sharp end of the GTD battle throughout, but in GTLM it led only a handful of laps, yet crucially the one on which the chequered flag was waved was among them. The Proton Competition-run WeatherTech Racing Porsche 911 RSR shared by factory drivers Mathieu Jaminet and Matt Campbell plus Cooper MacNeil came out on top in the dash to the flag, though admittedly there was a slice of good fortune involved. Jaminet was running third behind race leader Antonio Garcia’s Chevrolet Corvette C8.R and the Rahal…

BRITISH GT Toyota squad Speedworks Motorsport has launched a new scheme to promote UK drivers under the age of 25 into its British GT Championship team. Speedworks boss Christian Dick explained that the Toyota Gazoo Racing UK Young Driver Programme would be “for initially one young driver – and, moving forward, hopefully more”, with the successful candidate slated to drive the team’s GR Supra GT4 in 2021. They will be mentored by Toyota’s reigning World Endurance champion Mike Conway, and have access to the state-of-the-art driving simulator at Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe’s Cologne HQ. “We have an excellent relationship with TGR-E and believe this new initiative can help to discover and develop British GT stars of the future,” said Dick. “We have spent a lot of time evaluating potential drivers…

F5000 Returnee Grant Martin broke the New Zealand Formula 5000 Tasman Cup Revival Series’ Leda monopoly when he won both scratch races at Hampton Downs’ series finale last weekend in his Talon MR1A. The Aucklander – sidelined since last season – dusted down the US-built Graham McRae design to face the largest field in this term’s COVID-19-affected programme. Runaway points winner for the second year, Michael Collins was again favourite in the Hey family’s ex-McRae Leda GM1, but driveshaft failure on the final lap of Saturday’s heat halted him as he challenged Martin. He shot from the back of the grid to harass Martin to the flag in Sunday’s feature finale at the Northern Waikato venue. Shayne Windleburn (Lola T400) won his third rolling start handicap leg of the series…

MURRAY WALKER TRIBUTE Various UK circuit operators plan to pay tribute to commentary legend Murray Walker this year by playing the famous Fleetwood Mac The Chain Formula 1 theme tune. The music was synonymous with Walker’s F1 commentary on the BBC and it is proposed that it is played at the first race meeting at each of the British tracks, following Walker’s passing earlier this month. PETER BROWNING 1936-2021 Former British Racing & Sports Car Club executive director Peter Browning has passed away at the age of 84. Browning began his motorsport involvement as a timekeeper before later progressing to head up British Motor Corporation’s competition department. He then moved to the BRSCC, where he played a key role in creating the Formula Ford Festival. Browning also had spells in…

CLASSIC SPORTS CAR CLUB The Classic Sports Car Club is set to get the rare opportunity to compete on the Brands Hatch Grand Prix Circuit this year after being chosen to provide support races for the GT World Challenge Europe event. The GT series was originally due to visit Kent on the 1-2 May weekend, but this was postponed amid continued COVID-19 restrictions. It has now been handed a new date of 28-29 August, when the CSCC was set to be in attendance. Instead of the usual mix of international and national support series, circuit operator MotorSport Vision has elected to allow the CSCC to keep track time on the date of its original meeting. “We’ve got seven support races on the GP circuit, which is as many as we’ve…

FORMULA 1 Formula 1 has revealed the street-circuit layout that will be used for the inaugural Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in Jeddah. The night race on 3-5 December will be on a 27-corner circuit designed by well-known track architect Hermann Tilke’s company, in collaboration with the series’ own motorsport team. The track is 3.837 miles in length, making it the second-longest on the F1 calendar behind Spa, and is expected to deliver an average lap speed of 155mph. It is therefore set to become the fastest street circuit on the schedule, trumping Melbourne’s Albert Park and the Baku City Circuit. The anti-clockwise layout runs along the Jeddah seafront, with the long, thin nature of the track allowing for it to be crammed into a small area of land in the…

FORMULA E Nissan has become the third manufacturer to pledge its future to Formula E by committing to the Gen3 rules that will run into 2026. Following announcements from Audi and BMW that they will quit the series at the end of this season, Nissan – which joins Mahindra and DS Automobiles on board for Gen3 – issued a statement backing the relevance of the technology. As such, its Gen3 signature is not the most surprising. But if Nissan had opted to depart, its exit would have been the most hurtful. The Renault Group, of which Nissan is a subsidiary, has been a long-term backer of Formula E, and partnered with constructor Spark Racing Technology to build the Gen1 car. It then entered the inaugural 2014-15 season with race team…

OBITUARY The technical brains behind the Le Mans 24 Hours-winning team that bore his and brother Erwin’s name, Manfred Kremer has died aged 81. The victory at the French enduro in 1979 was the crowning achievement of the engineer’s career in sportscar racing spanning four decades. Kremer Racing’s Porsche 935 K3 was arguably the definitive – if not the most extreme – version of the German manufacturer’s Group 5 racer. Not only did the K3 win at Le Mans with Klaus Ludwig and brothers Don and Bill Whittington, but it triumphed at the Sebring and Daytona enduros in 1980 and 1981 respectively, and dominated the German DRM series with Ludwig in 1979. Manfred Kremer helped hone the aerodynamics of the 935, but crucially he squeezed in an air-to-air intercooler into…

The eve of a new Formula 1 season is here. Come Q3 in Bahrain on Saturday night we’ll know the true pecking order (mention the combo of inevitable windy conditions and track layout making this event a bit of an outlier, if you dare!). The themes of the campaign will soon be laid bare. In every season and at every team there is a constant specific motif to consider, although the individual flavours vary every year: the ongoing team-mate battles. If Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez are indeed able to regularly get among or even beat Mercedes duo Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas – possibly team-mates for the last time given their respective contract situations, and George Russell’s rise – then things get much more complicated for both…

The uncertainty flowing through the Mercedes-versus-Red Bull battle ahead of the 2021 Formula 1 season arguably extends to their respective driver line-ups. Sergio Perez is a clear on-paper upgrade for Red Bull, as it aims to re-establish a regular two-car attack against Mercedes for the first time since Daniel Ricciardo departed at the end of 2018. But if he ends up being just as far behind Max Verstappen as Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon were, then speculation about his own Red Bull career will be rife. At Mercedes, it looks more predictable that the 2022 rules reset will be accompanied by a Black Arrows driver line-up change given Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas and George Russell are vying for its two seats. It could be it’s ‘eight and goodbye’ for Hamilton;…

Since Sebastian Vettel has replaced Sergio Perez in Aston Martin’s line-up for 2021, and Nico Hulkenberg’s super-sub skills have not yet been called upon, there’s only one driver who can compare the green team’s new machine with the ‘pink Mercedes’ it ran in 2020. Lance Stroll is about to embark upon his third season racing with the rebranded squad and, thanks to the changes on the other side of the Aston garage, he’s uniquely placed to comment on how the AMR21 compares to the RP20. Due to the windy conditions in Bahrain throughout testing, Stroll says it was “hard to get a good read on the balance”, but he remains optimistic. “The car does feel good,” he adds. “We did lose a bit of [downforce] load for sure, so did…

For the past few years, I’ve been heading to Barcelona to watch pre-season testing, and it’s something I always enjoy. After a winter of no Formula 1, it’s nice to not only go and watch cars from the side of the track, but also spend time with people in the teams as we all play the usual guessing game of ‘who’s hot and who’s not?’. Normally, of course, we’re all freezing in the paddock at Barcelona while having these conversations, so it was nice to be in the sunshine of Bahrain for a change. The circuits are quite different in terms of layout – Barcelona has more long-radius corners with high speeds, therefore putting a larger emphasis on aerodynamics. The Sakhir circuit is traction limited with some big braking zones,…

Formula 2 boss Bruno Michel is adamant that teams and drivers won’t “play funny games” with the radical new race weekend format, and says it would be “stupid” for someone to try to manipulate the system, which is one of the biggest changes in the category’s history. Motivated by reducing costs in a difficult economic climate, the championship will continue to host 24 races, but spread across eight events instead of 12, meaning there will be three races instead of two per weekend. Friday’s qualifying session will determine the starting order for the first sprint race on Saturday and for Sunday’s feature, but with the top 10 inverted for the opener. As before, the fastest driver in qualifying will claim a bonus of four points. A reversed top 10 of…

The Cadillac parked nose-first in the wall at Turn 1 midway through the eighth hour didn’t look like a potential winner of the Sebring 12 Hours. It had been a lap down since the opening hour and had just been sideswiped by one of the other Caddys. But just over four hours later, as last weekend’s race drew to a climatic finish, the JDC-Miller MotorSports Caddy was at the front of the field. Sebastien Bourdais hung on to claim an unlikely victory together with fellow Frenchmen Loic Duval and Tristan Vautier. A win for a team that might be described as the minnow of the IMSA SportsCar Championship’s Daytona Prototype international field never appeared to be anything other than a long shot until the closing stages, and even then there…

AUSTRALIAN SUPERCARS SANDOWN (AUS) 20-21 MARCH ROUND 2/12 Shane van Gisbergen put in a heroic performance to score a clean sweep in the three Australian Supercars races at Sandown just a fortnight after breaking his collarbone. The Kiwi’s campaign was left hanging by a thread on 6 March when a mountain biking crash left him with a broken collarbone and a damaged AC joint. He underwent surgery that same day to start an aggressive recovery process that included two hours per day in a hyperbaric chamber. Van Gisbergen’s Holden Commodore was modified with a lower, longer steering column to limit the vertical movement required to drive the car. But even then, there were serious doubts he’d be able to race, with Garth Tander put on reserve by Triple Eight just…

ONE LITRE RACING CLUB/CITROEN C1s A new contest for one-litre cars and new organiser for the highly popular Citroen C1 Racing Club series are among the changes for ‘miniature’ saloon racing in 2021. The One Litre Racing Club has been created by motorsport enthusiasts Paul Rowland and Allen Rowell after being approached by the British Automobile Racing Club to help fill the timetable on the 28-29 August weekend of the 2CV 24 Hour race. Teams of two to four drivers can compete in the 45-minute qualifying session and three-and-a-half hour race, which will take place on the Saturday ahead of the 24-hour contest, and will be open to a wide range of one-litre cars. Regulations are due to be finalised soon. “The regulations are going to be very loose –…

HISTORIC F3 The Chevron B17 raced by British privateer Ken Sedgley in the latter part of the 1970 Formula 3 season is set to return to racing almost four years after it was damaged in the Derek Bell Cup race at Goodwood’s 75th Members’ Meeting. Acquired by Jim Blockley to augment the Brabham BT21B in which he won the 2014 1000cc Historic F3 title, then loaned to preparer Ewen Sergison, the semi-monocoque Chevron carried Blockley to third at Goodwood in 2016, behind Brabham drivers Andrew Hibberd and Peter Thompson. Jeremy Bennett of Nemesis Racing has rebuilt the chassis for the Cotswolds stalwart and taken the opportunity to return it to Alexis Mk17 graduate Sedgley’s original yellow livery. When F3 became a 1600cc class for 1971, the Chevron was modified to…

JUNIOR SALOON CARS The Junior Saloon Car Championship will feature on the BBC’s Top Gear on Easter Sunday when a fleet of Junior Citroen Saxo drivers takes on the show’s presenters in a series of races at Castle Combe. Double champion Lewis Saunders and his title rivals Alex Solley and Charlie Hand are among the JSCC racers taking part in the contests as they try to catch each of the programme’s presenters – Paddy McGuinness, Freddie Flintoff and regular GT racer Chris Harris – in a sportscar bought for a restricted budget. “The idea came from someone at Top Gear and they got in touch with the BARC,” explained championship coordinator Dave Beecroft. “The premise was the youngsters had to beat the presenters. They had three sportscars and we set…

NETFLIX SERIES DRIVE TO SURVIVE Season three of the Netflix Formula 1 series Drive to Survive was released last Friday to much fanfare. It comprises another 10 episodes, with slightly longer run-times than the previous two series. All 10 teams gave access once again and accommodated the film crew, despite the pressures and limits forced by the COVID-19 pandemic, making the creation of such a comprehensive show an achievement in itself. The access comes across better than ever. Unlike the first two series, in which episodes tended to centre on a single team, there’s far better integration this time around. Although certain events or teams take priority – episode nine in Bahrain, for example, is based on Romain Grosjean’s accident and Sergio Perez’s comeback victory – there’s a nice smattering…

A pre-war photo this week… as in the poisonous war that is about to break out between McLaren duo Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna. We’d love to have heard this conversation on the grid at Imola before the restart of the 1989 San Marino Grand Prix, following Gerhard Berger’s fiery crash at Tamburello. The pair had a pact that whoever led into the first corner would not be challenged by the other on the opening lap. At the restart, Prost got a better start and led… only for Senna to pass him at Tosa. Their lives – and F1 – would never be the same again. For classic 1980s Formula 1 DVDs head to dukevideo.com/F1 For more great photographs, visit motorsportimages.com…

WEC The will-they-won’t-they? saga of the Glickenhaus squad taking on Toyota and Alpine in the inaugural race of the World Endurance Championship’s Le Mans Hypercar era continues. The US manufacturer is refusing to commit to being on the grid for the Spa 6 Hours on 1 May. Marque founder Jim Glickenhaus is sticking to his guns on not racing the Pipo-engined 007LMH until it is ready. “I am not going to say we won’t be at Spa, because it’s undecided,” he said. “But I can absolutely say that until we are completely satisfied with both cars we are not going to race.” Glickenhaus stressed that he intends to complete a 30-hour test with the car before its homologation, which fixes the specification for five seasons. He also stated that it…

SPORTSCARS Three-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner Marcel Fassler has called time on his professional driving career at the age of 44. After two decades of racing in the DTM and in top-level sportscars, Fassler will now head the Swiss Sportec team in its climb through the sportscar ranks. He will also remain a simulator driver for the Alfa Romeo Formula 1 team. “I had this big dream as a boy to become a successful racing driver,” said Fassler. “The fact that I went this way in my own way, with honest and hard work, with the will to persevere and the belief in my passion, and that I made it to the top of the world with my performances, makes me proud. I gave it my all and achieved…

DTM DTM supremo Gerhard Berger has said that his series will fill a niche entirely separate to other sportscar championships on its move to GT3 regulations in 2021. Berger made the comments while speaking to Autosport for the latest in its series of #ThinkingForward podcasts with motorsport industry leaders. And the remarks come as the DTM field continues to gain strong competitors for this season. BMW factory driver Sheldon van der Linde has been confirmed at the wheel of a Rowe Racing M6 GT3 (above), meaning he gets a third year in the series. For the first time, he will take on brother Kelvin, already confirmed in the Abt Sportsline Audi team alongside Mike Rockenfeller, and a third R8 LMS has now been added for FIA Formula 3 graduate Sophia…

Work together to support each other Thank you for your feature ‘Racing with an important message’ (Club Autosport, 4 March). It’s always good to hear about someone starting out in motorsport and especially one doing it in the name of a good cause. Close to a year ago I (along with many friends) suffered a loss through suicide of an old friend, team-mate and in many ways brother to me. It helps reading about someone else who has known the hurt this situation can bring. I remember at the time when I was having to phone people to tell them about my friend’s death, a few mentioned how common suicide can be in the motorsport industry. Certainly, the demographics are similar in age and gender for most people who work…

LENGTH 3.363 miles NUMBER OF LAPS 57 2020 POLE POSITION Lewis Hamilton 1m27.264s POLE LAP RECORD Lewis Hamilton 1m27.264s (2020) RACE LAP RECORD Pedro de la Rosa 1m31.447s (2005) UK START TIMES Friday 26 March FP1 1130 FP2 1500 Saturday 27 March FP3 1200 QUALIFYING 1500 Sunday 28 March RACE 1600 CATCH THE RACE LIVE SKY SPORTS F1 BBC RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA HIGHLIGHTS CHANNEL 4 2030 TYRE ALLOCATION CHAMPIONSHIP – FINAL 2020 POSITIONS Drivers 1 Hamilton 347 2 Bottas 223 3 Verstappen 214 4 Perez 125 5 Ricciardo 119 Constructors 1 Mercedes 573 2 Red Bull 319 3 McLaren 202 4 Racing Point 195 5 Renault 181 RACE STATS Previous Sakhir winners 2020 Sergio Perez Racing Point 2020 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 2019 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 2018 Sebastian Vettel…

“It could be worse,” says Sebastian Vettel, just as 2021 Formula 1 pre-season testing ends. He’s right, of course, but the start of Aston Martin’s second F1 era got off to a pretty inauspicious start. It’s currently impossible to say exactly where the team sits in the latest pecking order because it completed so little running over the Bahrain test, but this was the team that had the third-fastest car in 2020. And, thanks to the carryover requirements of the new campaign, much of that package remains in action in 2021. But a second impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was the 50% reduction in pre-season testing time. That had already made Vettel’s task of getting up to speed with a new team difficult, even before Aston lost almost nearly a…

In the six years that have passed since McLaren last enjoyed Mercedes power, the British team has undergone a transformative, sobering process. The hope fuelled by Honda’s Formula 1 return in 2015 gave way to the harsh reality of how far behind the times McLaren had fallen, forcing an overhaul at the very top of the team. Tough decisions were taken, including a move to become a Renault customer from 2018, but those big calls paid off as it clambered back up the F1 pecking order. Unlike the last time McLaren entered a season with a new engine supplier, this is no longer a team in crisis. As we saw through 2020, it is now capable of fighting at the front of the midfield, scoring podiums, and even challenging for…

Although much of Formula 1’s new season will feel familiar thanks to the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been plenty of off-season changes. Renault, like its midfield rival Racing Point becoming Aston Martin, has undergone a complete rebrand, and will go racing as Alpine in 2021. The team’s livery has changed to reflect Alpine’s heritage as a successful French rallying and sportscar marque, and it has taken a different approach to the required rear floor and diffuser changes compared to the rest of the grid. This resulted in a bulbous engine cover that drew comparisons with the Ligier JS5 (that are perhaps fairer when considering the lowered version of the 1976 car’s airbox). But during the pre-season, one big change consistently needed explaining: how does Alpine’s team management…

1 BAHRAIN GP Sakhir 28 March UK start time: 1600 2 EMILIA ROMAGNA GP Imola 18 April UK start time: 1400 3 PORTUGUESE GP Algarve 2 May UK start time: 1500 4 SPANISH GP Barcelona 9 May UK start time: 1400 5 MONACO GP Monte Carlo 23 May UK start time: 1400 6 AZERBAIJAN GP Baku 6 June UK start time: 1300 7 CANADIAN GP Montreal 13 June UK start time: 1900 8 FRENCH GP Paul Ricard 27 June UK start time: 1400 9 AUSTRIAN GP Red Bull Ring 4 July UK start time: 1400 10 BRITISH GP Silverstone 18 July UK start time: 1500 11 HUNGARIAN GP Hungaroring 1 August UK start time: 1400 12 BELGIAN GP Spa 29 August UK start time: 1400 13 DUTCH GP Zandvoort 5 September UK start time: 1400 14 ITALIAN GP Monza 12 September…

Such is the otherworldly aura that radiates from Marc Marquez that, even after he sat out almost an entire season, and will miss the first two races this year, we start a new MotoGP campaign seriously considering his title prospects. The last time we saw the six-time world champion on his factory Honda, he was pulling out of the Andalusian Grand Prix last July as he conceded defeat to his recently broken right arm. Three operations later, Marquez’s arm has healed to a point where he can ride again, but on Monday he confirmed that the opening double-header at Losail, comprising this weekend’s Qatar GP and next week’s Doha GP, will take place without him. The world championship needs Marquez back, to provide a reference to the rest of the…

NASCAR CUP ATLANTA (USA) 21 MARCH ROUND 6/36 Kyle Larson had the speed to earn his second NASCAR Cup Series victory of the 2021 season, but he could not make his tyres last, and Ryan Blaney took advantage to break his duck for the campaign instead. Larson dominated last Sunday’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, taking both stage wins and leading 269 of the 325 laps at the wheel of his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. He easily held onto his lead during a final round of green-flag pitstops, but that set up a 56-lap run to the finish with no cautions, which was a stretch for the tyres on the abrasive surface at Atlanta. Blaney, who raced in the top five for most of the distance, remained no more than two…

BRITISH RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP The opening round of the 2021 British Rally Championship will be held at Oulton Park and will run alongside the Motorsport News Circuit Rally Championship. The Cheshire venue previously played host to the World Rally Championship in 2019, and will welcome BRC competitors to the Neil Howard Stages on 31 May. The asphalt event will be the first of seven scheduled rounds this season for the BRC after the 2020 campaign was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Oulton has been added just a week after a revised calendar was published. “The BRC prides itself on being a progressive series with each event in the calendar offering a unique characteristic, and the Neil Howard Stages is certainly going to provide a very different start to the 2021…

MONACO HISTORIQUE Former grand prix racer Jean-Denis Deletraz and Porsche factory driver Matt Campbell are set to be part of an 11-car Formula 1 attack by the GPX squad on the Monaco Historique extravaganza in April. Deletraz will drive a 1980 ATS-Cosworth D4 in the Gilles Villeneuve race for F1 machinery built between 1977-1980, and Campbell a Shadow-Cosworth DN5 in the Niki Lauda event for 1973-77 cars at the Monaco Historique Grand Prix on 23-25 April. Deletraz has driven for GPX Historic in the past, while Campbell moves over from the sister Spa 24 Hours-winning GPX Racing team with which he will compete in this year’s GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup. Deletraz, who contested three grands prix for Larrousse and Pacific in 1994-95, said he is hoping for a…

REDLINE’S PORSCHE DRIVERS Former Lamborghini racing regular Jake Rattenbury and ex-Audi TT Cup and one-time British Touring Car driver Josh Caygill will both join Redline Racing for the Porsche Carrera Cup GB this year. Rattenbury won two world Lamborghini class titles in 2014 and 2015 before making his Carrera Cup debut in the Brands finale last year, while Caygill had been due to race in the series last year before the COVID-19 pandemic put those plans on hold. JONES TO MX-5 SUPERCUP Formula Vee regular Alex Jones has swapped his Bears GAC machine for a Mk3 Mazda MX-5 for this season. Jones, who contested one Vee event last year at Oulton Park, taking a best result of 10th, plans to race in the MX-5 Supercup in 2021. MORE CALENDAR TWEAKS…

INTERNATIONAL MOTORSPORT Bahrain Grand Prix Formula 1 World Championship Round 1/23 Sakhir, Bahrain 28 March TV Live Sky Sports F1, Sun 1555 TV Highlights Sky Sports F1, Sun 2000, Channel 4, Sun 2030 FIA Formula 2 Round 1/8 Sakhir, Bahrain 27-28 March TV Live Sky Sports F1, Sat 1015, 1630, Sun 1140 Mugello 12 Hours 24H Series Round 2/8 Mugello, Italy 26-27 March NASCAR Cup Round 7/36 Bristol, USA 28 March TV Live Premier Sports 2, Sun 2000 NASCAR Truck Series Round 5/22 Bristol, USA 27 March NLS Round 1/8 Nurburgring, Germany 27 March Livestream on Motorsport.tv, Sat 0715, 1010 MotoGP Round 1/19 Losail, Qatar 28 March TV Live BT Sport 2, Sun 1730…

Formula 1’s V6 turbo-hybrid engines still get some flak. The points of attack usually concern the sound (“they’re too quiet”), the cost, or the argument that everything is going electric, so what’s the point of keeping a formula that includes an internal combustion engine? Firstly, the cars really aren’t that quiet. They’re not as loud as the preceding V8s, but those 2.4-litre engines weren’t actually that nice to listen to. The V10s of the pre-2006 era – and, of course, the V12s before that – did sound magnificent and would get our vote for audio sensation. But the current cars are reminiscent of the first F1 turbo era of the 1980s (inset, above) and few fans criticise that period for the sound of the machines. The cost of the engines…