Indholdsfortegnelse for 16/12/21 i Autosport

The Formula 1 title-deciding Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was the season in a microcosm. We had wheel-to-wheel battling, track-limits drama, the pendulum between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton swinging back and forth – and some baffling decisions from those running the race. Verstappen’s lunge on the first lap was borderline. Too much? Let’s call it marginal. Did Hamilton give back enough of the advantage he’d gained by avoiding a crash and going across the runoff? Let’s call that marginal, too. So, though initially surprising, the call to leave them as they were was probably the correct one. The race turned on the final safety car period. Or rather, how it ended. The apparent indecision, followed by the race swiftly going green after only the cars between Hamilton and Verstappen had…

FORMULA 1 This week’s Abu Dhabi Formula 1 test has allowed drivers to take to the track with their new teams in preparation for the 2022 season. While Valtteri Bottas will not formally leave Mercedes until the end of the year, he was given permission to test for Alfa Romeo ahead of his switch and took to the Yas Marina track on Tuesday (above), the first day of the two-day test, clad in a plain white racesuit and Christmasthemed helmet. Nine teams were due to complete two days of running with modified mule cars and the new-for-2022 18-inch Pirelli tyres. Teams could also complete one day of young-driver testing with a 2021 car and the outgoing 13-inch rubber. New F2 champion Oscar Piastri got his first taste of Alpine’s 2021…

WEC Peugeot’s new 9X8 Le Mans Hypercar is up and running. That much we know after the French manufacturer released a photograph last weekend of its 2022 World Endurance Championship contender being given its roll-out. What we don’t know is whether or not the car has a rear wing. The lone photo posted on Peugeot Sport’s Twitter account on Saturday has been doctored to hide the rear of the car, though some kind of aerodynamic appendage can be seen on either side of the blanked-out area that carries the name of the team. When asked whether these are part of a full-width rear wing, a Peugeot Sport spokeswoman replied: “Does it have a rear wing or not? Now you want to know the answer.” Peugeot made much of the absence…

BTCC Porsche Carrera Cup GB champion Dan Cammish is to return to the British Touring Car Championship in 2022 as one half of a two-car Ford Focus superteam at Motorbase Performance that will operate under the NAPA Racing banner. Motorbase owner Pete Osborne has pulled in major backing from the UK division of automotive parts giant NAPA, which is famed for its NASCAR sponsorship. Cammish, who scored eight wins and twice finished third in the standings in a three-year stint with Honda squad Team Dynamics from 2018-20, is the first driver confirmed. Cammish, who only lost his Dynamics drive for commercial reasons in the wake of Honda UK’s withdrawal of support, told Autosport that his intention was to return to the BTCC. “While I was out of it I did…

Formula 1 is a sport, not a show What a shame a classic Formula 1 season with great duelling between two top drivers ended the way it did, thanks to arbitrary decision-making by the FIA race director. The rules of any sport are there to be followed, and it was reasonable for Mercedes-Benz to base their decision-making on precedent – that it was highly unlikely there’d be sufficient laps for safety car procedures to be properly followed and still leave time for a racing lap at the end. The stewards’ decision that showing that the safety car will come in at the end of a lap takes priority over allowing all lapped cars to pass the safety car doesn’t explain why five cars were allowed to pass and the others…

Alpine drivers Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon encountered contrasting fortunes at the mid-race virtual safety car that followed Antonio Giovinazzi’s gearbox-problem-induced retirement. Ocon, who had been running behind Valtteri Bottas in the opening stint, was an early stopper, exchanging his softs for used hard tyres on lap 15. He eventually ran behind Yuki Tsunoda and Charles Leclerc when most of the opening stops had taken place, but lost two places to Pierre Gasly and Alonso being able to take a cheap VSC stop when Giovinazzi retired on lap 36, although he gained a place as Leclerc pitted his Ferrari again. Alonso got stuck into the AlphaTauris after his stop, but they soon raced clear, and the Alpine duo then had a late battle with Lando Norris as he recovered from…

50 GUANYU ZHOU +NEW ENTRY 3rd in FIA Formula 2 Championship; 1st in Asian Formula 3 He may have missed out on the Formula 2 title, but Guanyu Zhou achieved his goal of becoming a Formula 1 driver by joining Alfa Romeo for next year. He entered the year under pressure, stating that his third season in F2 would be his last. After winning the Asian F3 title, he made his experience show in the revamped F2 format of three races per weekend, delivering slick, fast and controlled performances from the first round to head the standings until mid-season at Silverstone. Ultimately Oscar Piastri had the edge on him, but feature race wins in Bahrain and at Silverstone underlined that Zhou has the skills worthy for F1 graduation. 49 KELVIN VAN DER…

DAKAR RALLY Radical Challenge race winner Jerome de Sadeleer is preparing for a very different sort of test as he prepares to tackle the Dakar Rally next month. The German-based Swiss will be driving in his first Dakar, and will be following in the footsteps of his father Stanislas, who took part in 2006. De Sadeleer Jr has completed several off-road events to get ready for the challenge. His previous motorsport experience has come in very different machinery; he started racing Radicals in the UK in 2017, and then came within a sticking wheelnut of winning the title two years later. While the COVID-19 pandemic has meant that de Sadeleer has only been able to compete sporadically for the past two seasons, his focus turned to trying other disciplines, competing…

FORMULA 4 The Tatuus T-421 that will be the basis for the newlook British Formula 4 Championship made its competition debut last weekend, supporting the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Ten examples of the Abarth-powered, halo-fitted machine took to the track at Yas Marina for a nonchampionship curtain-raiser to the United Arab Emirates F4 series, which kicks off next month. Shipping issues on the Genoa to Dubai route meant many cars were stranded at sea, and only those who had air-freighted their racers made the grid. Prema Powerteam’s Mercedes F1 junior Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who made his car racing debut after his 15th birthday by contesting the final three rounds of this year’s Italian F4 series, claimed pole position. An early spin scuppered Antonelli’s chances, and Charlie Wurz – the 16-year-old…

SMITH BACK WITH DOUGLAS Australian Tommy Smith will return to the GB3 Championship in 2022 with Douglas Motorsport, after racing part-time with the team this season. The 19-year-old competed at three meetings, taking a best result of 12th, and will rejoin the squad alongside American Walter Hayes Trophy winner Max Esterson. “I really enjoyed the selected rounds of GB3 that I competed in during 2021 as a part of my first season in Europe,” said Smith. “That experience allows me to carry confidence going into 2022.” VSCC TO BEGIN AT CADWELL The Vintage Sports-Car Club’s circuit racing season is due to begin at Cadwell Park next April rather than with its traditional Silverstone opener. The club changed its initially planned Silverstone date to avoid clashing with the later Goodwood Members’…

The 79th Goodwood Members’ Meeting next year will feature demonstration runs celebrating Porsche’s 956 and 962 models. The former (pictured above) secured Le Mans 24 Hours victories between 1982 and 1985 with drivers such as Derek Bell, Jacky Ickx and Henri Pescarolo, while the latter continued Porsche’s winning ways in 1986 and 1987 during the Group C era. Two runs will take place at the event on 9-10 April, one each day, with around 20 models invited to take part. Further demonstrations at the meeting are due to be announced in due course.…

FORMULA 1 Mercedes was still evaluating an appeal against the result of last Sunday’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as Autosport closed for press, after stewards dismissed its protests against the controversial restart of the Formula 1 title decider. Lewis Hamilton lost the world championship after being passed by Max Verstappen on the final lap. The move was set up by race director Michael Masi opting to restart the race for a single lap following a safety car period, during which Verstappen had pitted his Red Bull for a new set of soft tyres, while Hamilton’s Mercedes was on an ageing set of hard Pirellis. Masi had originally said that lapped cars could not unlap themselves, but then gave the call for the five cars between Hamilton and Verstappen on track…

WRC/WTCR Hyundai’s World Rally Championship drivers have paid tribute to boss Andrea Adamo following his shock departure as team principal. The marque last week announced that the popular Italian has stepped down from his role after six years at the helm, citing personal reasons for his departure. Adamo enjoyed a successful tenure at Hyundai, leading it to back-to-back WRC manufacturers’ titles in 2019 and 2020 on top of successes in the World Touring Car Cup with Gabriele Tarquini in 2018 and Norbert Michelisz in 2019. Hyundai president Scott Noh has been installed as team principal on an interim basis while the Germanbased operation searches for a successor to Adamo. Hyundai star Thierry Neuville was particular saddened by Adamo’s exit. “He was an important figure in the team,” the Belgian told…

Let’s get this clear immediately: Max Verstappen is a worthy and excellent 2021 Formula 1 world champion, and congratulations to him and his Red Bull team for the season they produced together. But the way in which the last laps of the Abu Dhabi finale played out was wrong in basically every sense. Not that this means that Verstappen or Red Bull deserve to lose the title or race win as a consequence – they did nothing wrong. Taking the laps limit out of consideration, race director Michael Masi should have ordered all lapped cars to overtake the safety car, as is usually the case. There’s ambiguity in the words “any cars” in Article 48.12 of F1’s sporting rules concerning this practice but, by removing only the cars between Lewis…

Max Verstappen laconically reflected on Mercedes’ decision to protest – on two separate grounds – his victory in the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which handed him world title glory over Lewis Hamilton on the road: “It sums up the season a little bit.” But considering all that the race contained, the 90 minutes of action around the Yas Marina track were really the entire season in microcosm. There was a passing controversy involving the title contenders, Red Bull and Mercedes furious with the FIA at separate points, amazing racing between Hamilton and Sergio Perez, tyre tactics and silly crashes. It really had all we’d seen before, plus new episodes that will live forever in F1’s memory and will be hotly debated in person, on the toxic wastelands of social…

Kimi Raikkonen’s Formula 1 career ended in a retirement apparently caused by a suspected wheelnut problem, while his Alfa Romeo team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi also failed to finish his last race for the team – and in F1 for now – due to a broken gearbox. Raikkonen, the 2007 world champion, started his 349th and final grand prix with a ceremony put on by F1 on the grid before the ‘We Race as One’ moment, but his participation ended at half-distance when, three laps after his pitstop, a wheelnut problem apparently caused him to spin under braking at Turn 6 and clip the wall. While the Finn was able to rejoin, he subsequently pitted and retired. “It was a wheelnut issue, I guess the wheel wasn’t on the proper way,” said…

TCR UK TCR UK will revert to being a standalone championship next year after being granted a permit by Motorsport UK. The category has run within the Touring Car Trophy for the past three years, but this season the TCT’s grids have increased despite only a trio of part-season entries from non-TCR machinery. “It’s got to where it needs to be now,” said Stewart Lines of promoter Maximum Motorsport, which has had its licence to run the UK championship extended to 2027 by TCR founder the WSC Group. “It’s TCR only and we’re running to WSC regulations so it’s quite simple to understand. “There’s a load of new drivers, lots of new cars. It’s good value for money. A TCR car now, a second-hand one, you can buy for £60,000.…

GT CUP Former British GT racer Jordan Albert and 2019 Britcar runner-up Tim Docker plan to contest a full season of the GT Cup next year in a Fox Motorsport McLaren. The duo teamed up for two events this season in the 570S GT4 and took a podium, and are extending the partnership as former TCR racer Docker looks to return to competition full-time. Albert has raced sporadically in British GT since making the switch from singleseaters in 2016, but was forced to step down from driving a Ford Mustang in 2020 amid sponsorship woes when fighting for the GT4 title. “I’m really pleased that Tim and I are coming back for a full season in GT Cup,” said Albert. “The series is at an all-time high in terms of…

FORMULA VEE Formula Vee contender Craig Pollard has acquired Graham Gant’s 2019 titlewinning WEV as he seeks to topple arch rivals James Harridge and Daniel Hands in next year’s championship. After their intense rivalry in 2021, Pollard, Harridge and Hands have confirmed that they all intend return to the category for 2022, with Harridge’s selfrun Maverick and Hands’s AHS Dominator both expected to feature new upgrades. Pollard has opted to switch from his Bears Motorsport-run GAC, and Gant will help oversee the running of the WEV. “I tested the WEV [Worm’s Eye View] on the Friday at the final round at Oulton Park and it was monstrously quick – the grip at the front end was like it was fixed to railway lines,” raved 2018 champion Pollard. “Every component on…

MG COCKSHOOT CUP The MGF Cup’s most successful car will return to racing action in the MG Car Club’s Cockshoot Cup next year. The championship-winning chassis from 1998-99 has been added to the stable of Mark Wright and Steve Elliott, joining their growing fleet of machinery from the manufacturer-backed series, which supported British Formula 3 and British GT from 1998 to 2000. The Team Firstair car won the inaugural championship in the hands of James Rhodes, while Warren Hughes took it to the 1999 crown before joining the MG Le Mans and British Touring Car Championship programmes. It was then campaigned successfully in TF form by Malcolm Gammons and Andrew Radford in the MG Trophy. “We’re going to take it back to its ’99 spec,” said Elliott. “The engine has…

FORMULA 1 Formula 1 managing director of motorsports Ross Brawn is set to step down at the end of next year, with chief technical officer Pat Symonds also planning to leave his role in the summer. The news was contained in a document issued by F1 as an update on future developments within the organisation. It indicated that Brawn, who turned 67 last month, was “expected” to leave his role, and it is understood that the exact timing of his departure has not yet been finalised. Following his departure from Mercedes at the end of 2013, Brawn enjoyed a period of relaxation away from the sport before taking his current job in January 2017, shortly after F1’s takeover by Liberty Media. His task was essentially to oversee changes to the…

GT WORLD CHALLENGE EUROPE MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi could be heading towards a drive in the GT World Challenge Europe next season. The Italian tested for the WRT Audi team last week and is in negotiation to join its line-up in 2022. The test followed the seven-time MotoGP champion’s announcement that he intends to race full-time in cars now that he has brought the curtain down on his two-wheel career. Rossi completed a day in a WRT Audi R8 LMS Evo GT3 at Valencia last week and immediately received the plaudits of team boss Vincent Vosse. “Valentino is a legendary rider, but he is also impressive as a driver,” said Vosse. “His approach and his feedback mean I am sure he would be competitive. I don’t see him being anything…

OBITUARY Al Unser Jr once remarked, while revealing that he was as in awe of his father as were the rest of us: “Dad taught me everything I know… but he didn’t teach me everything that he knows.” And now Al Unser, four-time Indy 500 winner, three-time Indycar champion, has left us at the age of 82, barely seven months after elder brother Bobby, and leaving a similar-sized hole in the ranks of US open-wheel legends. He never relished the spotlight like Bobby, and would never have dreamt of being as strident but, while Al made his opinions known sotto voce, they were no less fervent. The Unser brothers’ approach to racing was as disparate as their personalities outside the cockpit. Bobby was all about proving he was the best…

It all overshadowed Yuki Tsunoda’s fabulous effort to get through Q2 on the medium tyres, the AlphaTauri eventually qualifying eighth after losing a time that would have put it sixth for going too wide at the final corner on its penultimate run. It definitely eclipsed the traffic chaos of Q1 and Q2, where Esteban Ocon – ninth in Q3 – was reprimanded for impeding Sebastian Vettel (15th). The final qualifying showdown between the 2021 title contenders was worthy of the finale. Max Verstappen stunned Mercedes, which had led the way on single-lap pace in FP2. He rocketed to a 10th (official) pole of 2021 with a 1m22.109s, which came on his first Q3 run. There, Red Bull played a blinder. The team, which has at times this year overcomplicated its…

Carlos Sainz Jr won the three-way scrap for fifth in the 2021 drivers’ championship to end up as the best non-Red Bull or Mercedes racer ahead of McLaren driver Lando Norris and Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc. Leclerc had led the scrap, which Sainz described as “more symbolic than anything”, into the Abu Dhabi finale by four points over Norris, with Sainz another 4.5 points behind. But Leclerc’s 10th-place finish, Norris’s seventh place and Sainz’s third position (following Sergio Perez’s late retirement) tipped the balance completely. Sainz had narrowly lost out to former team-mate Norris in qualifying. But the Briton, who started third, slipped off the road exiting Turn 1, Perez powered past him, and then Sainz demoted him to fifth with a run down the long straight to Turn 6.…

FIA FORMULA 2 YAS MARINA (ARE) 11-12 DECEMBER ROUND 8/8 Oscar Piastri didn’t secure the Formula 1 race seat he deserves for next year, but can hold his head high after winning the Formula 2 championship in style in Abu Dhabi. It may be some time before a junior driver again dominates the pathway to F1 like Australian Piastri. His F2 crowning in his rookie year completed a run of three consecutive championship titles, after the 2019 Formula Renault Eurocup and last season’s FIA Formula 3 spoils. The title seemed a certainty for Piastri. He headed into the finale with a 51.5-point lead over his nearest rival, Prema Racing teammate Robert Shwartzman, and clinched the season spoils with a superb drive in the first of the three races. After…

BRITISH F4 Motorsport UK has revealed more details about the bespoke Neil Brown Engineering-created engine that will be used in British Formula 4 next season, explaining that its key differences to the Autotecnica-built motor featured in various European F4 series relate to the turbo. The category is undergoing a major revamp for 2022 as British motorsport’s governing body takes over as organiser and it switches to an Abarth-powered Tatuus chassis from the outgoing Mygale-Ford. NBE has been British F4’s tuning partner since 2018, when it took over from Sodemo, and is widely credited with ensuring greater parity between the Ford EcoBoost engines. “Mechanically, the engine will be very much the same,” explained Motorsport UK safety, sport and technical director John Ryan. “It’s a lot about the mapping and to equalise…

HISTORIC FF1600 Samuel Harrison will drive for Classic Team Merlyn next season in the Historic Formula Ford Championship. The 17-year-old showcased his talent at last month’s Walter Hayes Trophy event, winning the Historic (pre-1982) final decided in a photo finish. Harrison’s tenacity in family-owned Elden Mk8 and Royale in Historic and Classic FF1600 over the past two seasons has marked him out, and his fight with Cam Jackson at Cadwell Park also opened eyes. “I could see that Samuel had a lot of natural talent, and felt that in our successful environment he could flourish,” said team owner Mike O’Brien. “Testing couldn’t have gone better and, following his WHT win, I’m looking forward to what I expect to be another closely contested HFF season with great optimism.”…

PRAGA The inaugural Praga Cup campaign is set to feature a non-championship round at Spa next July. The series has been created following the successful running of a Praga class within the Britcar Endurance series this season, and the Czech manufacturer will now run standalone grids for the R1 prototypes in collaboration with Britcar. Six rounds are set to form the championship, starting at Silverstone in March, with the Spa trip planned for the summer. Other rounds will be held at Oulton Park, Snetterton and Donington Park. Praga’s UK managing director Mark Harrison explained that the visit to Belgium was organised because Praga has recently appointed a Benelux dealer and “everybody loves Spa”. “The R1 has done well at Spa in the past,” he added, pointing out that Spa is…

Jochen Rindt (in civvies) strolls through the makeshift Montjuich Park paddock as the Team Lotus mechanics work on his and Graham Hill’s 49B machines ahead of the 1969 Spanish Grand Prix. The Austrian qualified in pole position, with his team-mate third on the grid, but the race was a disaster as both cars crashed heavily at the same point on the circuit after their rear-wing supports collapsed – first Hill, then 11 laps later Rindt, who hit the wrecked #1 Lotus before overturning. This brought safety concerns over the high wings to a head, and they were banned for the next race in Monaco. For classic 1960s Formula 1 DVDs head to dukevideo.com/f1 For more great photographs, visit motorsportimages.com…