Indholdsfortegnelse for 12/1/2022 i Autosport

Ross Brawn is a motorsport legend. Along with Adrian Newey, he has more Formula 1 world titles to his name than any other non-driver of the past three decades. That brings with it a huge amount of credibility, which is of course one of the reasons why he was brought in to help F1 revamp its technical regulations in the first place. Now that Brawn is retiring from F1, it seems like a good time to get his views on how well the 2022 rules are going and, perhaps more importantly, what happens next. Alex Kalinauckas gets exactly that insight in this week’s cover interview on page 18. Ferrari is still searching for the magic combination to repeat the success of the Brawn/Jean Todt/Rory Byrne/Michael Schumacher era. Mattia Binotto’s departure,…

FORMULA 1 Fernando Alonso revelled in his Aston Martin debut as a number of drivers represented their new teams at the post-season Formula 1 test in Abu Dhabi last week. Alonso (above) was the highest-profile name switching colours as he jumped into Aston Martin’s AMR22 for the day, running in an unbranded car and in black overalls. The Spaniard completed 97 laps and was enthused by his first impressions of the team. “When I signed for Aston Martin, I was 90% happy,” said Alonso after getting out of the car. “When they started improving and finished the season on a high, I was 100%. This morning, I was 100 and now I’m 100-plus.” In a small dig at his former team Alpine, and its reliability struggles through 2022, he said…

WEC Toyota will defend all the gongs it won this year in the World Endurance Championship, its Le Mans 24 Hours crown included, in 2023 with an unchanged driver line-up across its two cars. The significance of the Japanese manufacturer’s announcement is that Jose Maria Lopez has retained his drive for a sixth season. The Argentinian had looked set to be replaced by Toyota test and reserve Nyck de Vries had the Dutch driver not landed a Formula 1 deal for 2023. His seat with AlphaTauri means that Lopez continues for a sixth season, in the #7 Toyota GR010 HYBRID alongside Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Conway. Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa will defend their titles in the #8 Le Mans Hypercar. Kobayashi, who is also team principal of…

RICHARD MILLE OUT OF LMP2 LMP2 entrant Richard Mille Racing will not continue in the category next year. Launched for a European Le Mans Series programme in 2020 with an all-female crew, the operation run by Signatech subsequently graduated to the World Endurance Championship and counted rally legend Sebastien Ogier among the drivers aboard its ORECA-Gibson 07 in 2022. The end of its WEC participation comes as Signatech gears up to run a pair of P2 ORECAs in the WEC next year under the Alpine banner ahead of the arrival of the French manufacturer’s LMDh prototype in 2024. TOYOTA’S JAPANESE LINE-UP Toyota has confirmed a little-changed line-up for its Super Formula and Super GT teams at the same time as its WEC squad (see left). New Super Formula Lights champion…

WRC The World Rally Championship has revealed a 13-round 2023 calendar that features the return of Mexico and Chile alongside an all-new European asphalt rally. After a lengthy delay, the FIA has now ratified a schedule including four Tarmac and eight gravel rallies, alongside the traditional snow event in Sweden. Events are much more evenly spread unlike this year, when there was a seven-week gap between rallies in Sweden and Croatia. The gravel of Mexico (above) is reinstalled after dropping off the calendar following 2020’s shortened edition, due to the pandemic. The country will host the third round in March following the traditional Monte Carlo and Sweden winter curtain raisers. Chile also rejoins the calendar for its second WRC event, following its debut in 2019. The gravel rally was set…

“I’m sailing off into the sunset and I’m really pleased – delighted – with where Formula 1 is today.” Ross Brawn is sitting in his office in Formula 1’s designated hospitality building in the Abu Dhabi paddock. His desk is almost imposingly big, but empty. The room itself is without any fuss. Out of sight, Brawn has placed a present he will later hand to Sebastian Vettel – an unspecified gift he knows the four-time world champion will enjoy, rather than a mere gesture of token farewell. The moment represents departures for both – Vettel from Aston Martin and into F1 retirement; Brawn likewise, but leaving the Formula One Management organisation itself. The room, the desk, the man. A career of important decisions delivered – their resulting impact what matters,…

While the Rally1 regulations are yet to achieve the goal of attracting a new manufacturer to the WRC, the FIA is content with the success of their introduction. The sport’s biggest sweep of rule changes for a generation led to all-new hybrid powered cars for 2022. And while FIA rally director Andrew Wheatley admits there have been challenges and niggles regarding the Compact Dynamics hybrid kit, he is proud of the machinery’s first season. “The first year with this new technology was always going to be difficult, but the fact we have changed the chassis, the fuel, added hybrid and changed the concept of the car, the transmission and aero, and we still have rallies where we are fighting over seconds, I think we have to be content,” says Wheatley.…

KALLE ROVANPERA 1 Defied belief at times in the way he dominated his opposition. Was superb in his six victories from 13 rallies. Claimed 70 stage wins, including seven powerstages, to wrap up a history-making title with two rounds to spare. OTT TANAK 2 Extracted the most from a difficult-to-tame Hyundai to emerge as Rovanpera’s toughest rival. Three wins, including a sublime victory in Finland, kept fading title hopes alive, but early reliability issues cost him a realistic title tilt. THIERRY NEUVILLE 3 Hyundai’s reliability woes hampered him perhaps more than anyone. Showed strong pace to deliver two victories and nearly as many stage wins as Tanak, and never gave up. But struggled to consistently match Tanak. SEBASTIEN LOEB 4 At 48 years old, the nine-time world champion showed there…

BRENDON HARTLEY 1 Anyone who beats Kobayashi over one lap at Le Mans has to be doing something right, and that’s what Hartley did this year, depriving his boss of a fifth pole for the French enduro. The Kiwi then did the business by eight tenths in Bahrain. In the races, Hartley always performed and was right up there in the averages: he was fastest Toyota driver at both Monza and Fuji. The mistakes that sometimes reared their head in his Porsche days have long since been eradicated. SEBASTIEN BUEMI 2 There were no qualifying heroics from Buemi – he always gets the opportunity to start #8 rather than going for one-lap glory – but he was always on the top of his game on the way to becoming a…

Thirty years after Dario Franchitti won our Award, the four-time IndyCar champion still remembers how he felt when his success was announced. The Scotsman had been nominated a year earlier, losing out to Oliver Gavin, but returned in 1992 to become the Award’s fourth winner – something he says was a “big deal” for him, and ultimately changed the course of his career. “I remember that feeling of absolute elation when my name was called out and standing up on stage,” he says. “That was a big deal for me. I met Michael Andretti, who I ended up driving against and then with as a team-mate and a team owner. Being up on stage with Nigel Mansell, all these different people, it was a big thing for an 18-year-old kid…

Many organisations come together to make the Award happen, and that includes tyre supplier Pirelli. This year it brought nearly 400 tyres, slicks and wets, for the MotorSport Vision-run Formula 2, United Autosports Ligier LMP3 and Beechdean Motorsport Aston Martin GT3 machinery. It’s a crucial contribution. “It’s a long-running, prestigious award that has had lots of big names come through it,” says Pirelli’s UK motorsport manager Jonathan Wells. “Pirelli has heavily invested in racing for 15 years. We’re at every stage of the FIA pyramid, plus GB3, GB4, and we’re in GTs at a high level globally so the Award is an easy fit for us.” “IT’S A LONG-RUNNING, PRESTIGIOUS AWARD, AN EASY FIT FOR US” Not everything is straightforward. Pirelli was not the supplier for the MSV F2 championship…

LEGENDS Two separate championships will form the 2023 Legends calendar as the category prepares to join the British Touring Car Championship support bill at select rounds next season. Legends will join the TOCA support package at three events in the wake of Ginetta ending its 15-year partnership with the organiser, which has led to the creation of the Legends Cars ‘BTCC’ Championship. The events will take place at Brands Hatch (6-7 May), Croft (29-30 July) and Knockhill (12-13 August), with an overall champion being crowned. “We did think about it [a standalone BTCC championship] for a considerable amount of time, just to make it as exciting as possible,” said Legends Cars owner Phil Cooper. “There are a number of people not competing in Legends that would be interested in coming…

GINETTA Ginetta will organise a second standalone event next year with a Cadwell Park meeting added to the revamped calendars for its portfolio of championships. It was revealed earlier this year that the Yorkshire manufacturer was planning a major overhaul of its categories for 2023, with its longstanding Ginetta GT4 Supercup being axed and Ginetta Junior leaving the British Touring Car support bill. Instead, the Junior racers, a new GT championship and the GT Academy will all appear alongside British GT at its six UK rounds, while a standalone ‘G Fest’ was announced for Silverstone. More details about the schedule have now been revealed, with the Silverstone fixture running over four days from 1-4 June with racing on both the Grand Prix and National layouts, while it will also be…

750MC 2023 CALENDAR The 750 Motor Club has revealed its schedule for 2023, which includes two trips to Anglesey rather than the one each at the Welsh Pembrey and Anglesey venues that happened this year. An additional date on the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit the day after the Birkett Relay has also been added to the schedule. JOHN NICOL TROPHY Student Motorsport founder JP Latham was presented with the John Nicol Trophy at the recent British Racing & Sports Car Club awards evening in recognition of the work the organisation has carried out introducing students to motorsport. “Student Motorsport and the SMo Challenge exist to allow students and the next generation of motorsport professionals to gain real-world experience in a competitive, track-based environment and I truly believe that we are…

750MC The popular BMW Car Club Racing series will support the Brands Hatch round of the GT World Challenge Europe next year, while organisers will also run at least one Ultimate BMW race in 2023. Next season’s schedule for the 750 Motor Club-administered championship has been unveiled and, in addition to appearing at five 750MC events, the highlight is supporting GTWCE on the Brands Grand Prix circuit on 13-14 May. “I think people were taken aback by that a little bit,” said series organiser Neil McDonald, who thanked 750MC competitions secretary Giles Groombridge for his help in securing the prime date. “It’s great for the club. I always ask the drivers what they would like to do for the following year and lots of drivers have been gagging to do…

When it comes to making a good rallycross track, a few key ingredients are needed. First, a mix of challenging corners where drivers can take different racing lines. Then you need a passionate crowd creating an amphitheatre atmosphere. A good history also helps. Throw in some spectacular jumps and blind crests, and in Sweden’s Holjes Motorstadion – which first hosted the European Rallycross Championship in 1991 and has been a permanent fixture since 1999 – you have a circuit that ticks pretty much all the boxes. A six-time winner at Holjes in the ERC as a driver, 14-time series champion Kenneth Hansen says the track “has quite a lot” going for it. He doesn’t hesitate to pick out his fast and flowing home circuit as his favourite on the world…

FORMULA 1 Ferrari Formula 1 team principal Mattia Binotto has quit the role after four seasons in charge, with a replacement set to be finalised in the new year. Ferrari announced on Tuesday that Binotto had tendered his resignation as its F1 chief, and will depart from his role on 31 December. Alfa Romeo F1 chief Frederic Vasseur is the favourite to take over at Maranello. “With the regret that this entails, I have decided to conclude my collaboration with Ferrari,” Binotto said in a statement. “I am leaving a company that I love, which I have been part of for 28 years, with the serenity that comes from the conviction that I have made every effort to achieve the objectives set. I leave a united and growing team. A…

We’d recognise those eyes anywhere… It’s none other than newly crowned two-time Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen behind the wheel of Honda’s Super GT NSX-GT development car last Saturday at Motegi for the marque’s traditional Thanks Day, back for 2022 after its COVID-enforced hiatus. Verstappen and Sergio Perez also piloted a 2021 Red Bull RB16B, with Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda appearing in AlphaTauri machinery. Other Honda luminaries, including Takuma Sato, Naoki Yamamoto and bike king Marc Marquez, were also part of the celebrations.…

FORMULA E Fast-charging pitstops are to be introduced to Formula E, while the much-maligned Fanboost concept has been dropped. A combination of a fast-charging stop with the current attack-mode format will produce an ‘Attack Charge’ race, in which drivers must complete a 30-second ‘charge stop’ to access the higher power mode. The option exists for the double-header rounds to run one race to a conventional FE format, and use the second as an Attack Charge race. This will remove the necessity of running over an off-line attack-mode loop. The pitstop will instead unlock the full allocation of attack-mode usage to be defined by the FIA before the race, along with an extra 4kW/hour of energy, supplied by the 600kW ‘booster’ charger. FE CEO Jamie Reigle explained that although the championship…

BTCC The potential departure of Ciceley Motorsport from the British Touring Car Championship after 10 years in the series had been on the grapevine for some time, and it became fact this week. The Lancastrian team, set up by ex-rally and Caterham ace Russell Morgan to run son Adam, is now moving into the historic racing arena. It leaves behind a legacy of 12 race wins, 11 of them taken by Morgan Jr – eight in the team’s own-build Mercedes A-Class and three in the BMW 3 Series machinery it acquired from West Surrey Racing before the 2021 season. It appears almost certain that Morgan, along with the two Ciceley BMWs and one of the team’s TBL entrants’ licences, will head the way of official BMW squad WSR, which is…

The World Touring Car Cup deserved better than to bow out under a safety car at its Jeddah finale last Sunday, but that’s the hand dealt to a series that just couldn’t catch a break in 2022. An accumulation of bad luck, thorny problems without obvious answers and manufacturer apathy led to the WTCR’s demise, as French-based promoter Discovery Sports Events pulled the plug early on its deal with the FIA after five years running to the TCR rulebook, from what grew out of its old World Touring Car Championship. As a certain other World Cup rumbled on over the border in Qatar, the first international tin-top races to be held in Saudi Arabia were marked by a mix of emotions: joy for deserving new champion Mikel Azcona, whose title…

Monte Carlo Rally 1 Loeb/Galmiche 2 Ogier/Veillas 3 Breen/Nagle Loeb rolls back the years to claim an 80th career win after a titanic battle with arch rival Ogier. The two WRC megastars go toe to toe swapping positions, and share the overall lead, before Ogier pulls clear. A front-left puncture for Ogier on the penultimate stage hands Loeb the lead and the win by 10.5s. Breen completes a double podium for M-Sport in third after an Evans error ends a podium tilt. Rovanpera claims fifth. Rally Sweden 1 Rovanpera/Halttunen 2 Neuville/Wydaeghe 3 Lappi/Ferm Rovanpera clicks with the hybrid GR Yaris and scores his first win of the season in a new-look Rally Sweden, held in a fresh location. In a brisk start there are five leaders across the opening seven…

Toyota duly collected another clean sweep of World Endurance Championship titles – drivers’ and manufacturers’ – as well the piece of silverware that mattered: the one on offer at the Le Mans 24 Hours. Yet unlike last year in season one of the Le Mans Hypercar rules, it was made to sing for its supper, though more in terms of the mathematics of the points table than the action out on the race track. Alpine went into the curtain-closer in Bahrain equal on points with the Japanese marque in the drivers’ championship. The French manufacturer may have had the points on the board ahead of the Bahrain 8 Hours last month, but it didn’t have the performance to mount a challenge when the WEC circus arrived in the Middle East.…

ALESSANDRO PIER GUIDI 1 The heroics performed at Spa and in Bahrain make him the stand-out GTE Pro driver. A stint lasting four and a half hours through dreadful conditions at Spa, during which his Ferrari went from an also-run to the lead was almost mesmeric, his foresight to leave the ailing machine in fifth gear over the final 90 minutes in Bahrain to seal the title with Calado inspired. Pier Guidi’s efforts in the late battle with the #91 Porsche for class lead at Le Mans also deserve mention. NICK TANDY 2 Back in the WEC full-time for the first time since 2017 and now aboard a GTE car, the Briton performed in 2022 at the level expected of him. He was super-impressive in Corvette Racing’s backyard at Sebring,…

WORLD TOURING CAR CUP JEDDAH (SAU) 27 NOVEMBER ROUND 9/9 Mikel Azcona didn’t need to race in Jeddah as the curtain came down on the World Touring Car Cup after five seasons. The Spaniard was confirmed as the final WTCR champion at the end of Q2 last Saturday when his only points rival, Nestor Girolami, not only failed to score, but slumped to 12th and last in the session. Such was Azcona’s advantage that it was all over. “What a fantastic feeling,” said the new world champion, BRC Hyundai’s third after his team manager Gabriele Tarquini – the retired legend who Azcona replaced this year – and Norbert Michelisz. “It is something I have been working for basically all my life. This season was a perfect one, from the first…

PRAGA Praga has revealed a new limited-edition 700bhp road-legal hypercar that has been inspired by a challenge from marque ambassador and IndyCar racer Romain Grosjean to create a car suitable for the road and the race track. The new Praga Bohema will be powered by a 3.8-litre, twin-turbo Nissan V6 engine, and the car is due to weigh less than 1000kg. The monocoque will be made of carbonfibre and on-track performance equivalent to that of GT3 machinery is being targeted. The car is due to go on sale in the second half of next year for £1.1million, and it is intended that just 89 models will be produced to celebrate the 89 years since the company won the 1933 1000 Miles of Czechoslovakia road race in its native country. “I…

Goodwood has announced GT1 sportscars as the first of its demonstrations planned for the Members’ Meeting next April. It will be the first time that top-flight sportscars from the 21st century have taken to the Sussex track and forms part of the circuit’s celebrations of 100 years of the Le Mans 24 Hours, with a large gathering of Le Mans racers expected to attend the Festival of Speed. The Aston Martin DBR9, Ferrari 550, Maserati MC12 and Chrysler Viper GTS-R (above) are among the GT1 machines likely to be in the Members’ Meeting demo.…

CIRCUIT RALLYING David and Katie Henderson came out on top of a terrific day-long, all-Ford Fiesta Rally2 duel with Frank Bird and Jack Morton as rallying returned to Croft last weekend after a three-year absence. By half-distance, Henderson and Bird had each recorded two fastest stage times, but it was Henderson who had a four-second lead, after both changed from wet-weather tyres to slicks from stage four. From then on, Henderson gradually increased his lead to secure a 9s victory over Bird. Kevin Procter and Tom Woodburn (Fiesta S2000T) had an early duel for third with Fiesta R5 pair Joe Cunningham and Josh Beer, before Cunningham began to consolidate. Cunningham had 10s over Procter at the finish to complete the podium. Further back, Dan Roskell celebrated his previous day’s birthday,…

DUBAI GP REVIVAL Briton Oli Webb’s victory in Sunday’s Historic Formula 1 race, for 1970-85 cars, driving an ex-James Hunt Hesketh 308B capped a memorable weekend for the 31-year-old at the second Gulf Historic Dubai GP Revival event. The 2014 European Le Mans Series LMP2 champion, who has achieved extensive endurance racing success at the Emirate’s Autodrome in recent years, had earlier finished second to Michael Cantillon (Tyrrell 010-2) on Saturday. In the presence of racing luminaries of yore, including Alain Prost, Thierry Boutsen, Stefan Johansson, Mark Webber and Marco Werner, the second GP Extreme-organised event included a sportscar double-header. Triple Le Mans winner Andre Lotterer (Porsche RS Spyder) and Emmanuel Collard (Pescarolo LMP1) scored a victory apiece in the modern plateau, while Werner won both 1980s legs in a…

BOOK REVIEW WINNERS SINNERS GRINNERS Mat Oxley RRP 29.99 Covering motorsport as a career is no small endeavour. It requires tireless hours building up contacts and slogging away at open media sessions to get to a point where you can speak to people one on one and get exclusive content – only for people on social media to immediately dismiss something you’ve written and form a million opinions after reading only the headline! It’s a fickle world in that respect, but that hasn’t stopped ex-racer, Isle of Man TT winner and now respected journalist Mat Oxley from continuing to ply his trade through to 2022. He’s covered motorcycle racing since The Beatles breaking up could be considered recent-ish history, so Oxley has seen and written more about the sport than…

FORMULA 1 The promoters of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix have revealed further tweaks to the Jeddah Formula 1 track layout to improve safety and visibility. The Jeddah Corniche Circuit hosted its first F1 race in 2021, becoming the fastest street circuit on the calendar, but it drew criticism from some drivers due to the tight layout and poor visibility in blind corners that contributed to the race being red-flagged twice. A series of changes was made ahead of the second race in March 2022 to widen corners and improve sightlines, and the latest round of modificati0ns comes following conversations with drivers. One of the biggest changes is at the high-speed left-right sequence of Turns 22 and 23, where efforts have been made to reduce speeds by around 50km/h (30mph)…

WEC McLaren is still pursuing an entry into the LMDh prototype category. The project remains “a work in progress”, according to the company’s chief executive of racing Zak Brown. The British operation went public on its ambitions to develop an LMDh two years ago for a factory assault on the World Endurance Championship and the possible sale of customer cars, but it has been largely quiet on its plans since. But Brown insisted that the project is still live, even after the expansion of McLaren’s racing activities into Formula E with the acquisition of Mercedes’ FE operations. “We are actively working on it with a view to being ready for 2025,” said Brown. “We don’t need to do it as a group, but we would like to do it and…

FORMULA 2/3 It’s hardly unknown for a new team to join the grid for the FIA Formula 2 and 3 championships. The surprise on this occasion is that it’s a team that only started up in 2022 in Formula 4. Berlin-based PHM Racing, which has acquired the assets of Charouz Racing System, is owned by software and app magnate Paul H Muller ostensibly as a non-profit operation. PHM began in German and Italian F4 this year using staff predominantly from fellow Berliners Mucke Motorsport, which had closed its single-seater squad. It ran Briton Taylor Barnard to second in the German series. He and 2022 team-mate Nikita Bedrin took part in the September post-season F3 test at Jerez with Jenzer Motorsport. PHM will take the ‘soft step’ of using Czech squad…

EXTREME E Extreme E will return to the UK in 2023 as part of a five-round calendar for its third season, with a Scottish round planned. The event is scheduled for 13-14 May following the usual Saudi Arabian opener on 11-12 March. The electric off-road series visited the UK for its 2021 finale, the Jurassic X Prix in Dorset (right), and an event in Scotland was in the frame for this season. A venue for the Scottish round has yet to be established. XE will then return to Sardinia on 8-9 July, and plans to race in either Brazil or the US on 16-17 September before concluding the campaign in Chile on 2-3 December. Series boss Alejandro Agag said: “We have had two spectacular seasons of Extreme E so far…

Red Bull bucked a Formula 1 trend on its way back to the summit. Even during seven comparatively fallow seasons after the Sebastian Vettel-fronted glory days, it never satisfied the criteria of a ‘fallen giant’. The fractious Renault-powered fragility that bottomed out with a winless 2015 and fourth in the points took it close. And throughout its time off the top, it played second fiddle to Mercedes. But Christian Horner and co remained in the mix. Certainly, the slump was not in the same league as its pre-eminent predecessors. An exceptional Fernando Alonso in 2012 merely masked a lukewarm Ferrari coming down from its 2000s pomp. The signs of a McLaren revival have only properly arrived under the leadership of Andreas Seidl. As for Williams, it remains one of F1’s…

This has been a great year. The guys at Hitech worked so hard and it was so nice to be able to reward them with both the drivers’ and teams’ titles in GB3. We could have sewn it up a lot earlier, but we made it a bit difficult for ourselves. Regardless, the outcome was still the same, and I’m absolutely delighted to be a double British champion. I’m the only person to win British F4 and GB3, so that in itself is a pretty special achievement. Some highlights of the year were Spa and Oulton Park, as we won most races by an average of eight or nine seconds, so there were definitely scenes of dominance there. Some weekends we weren’t as strong, but more often than not we…

It was somehow appropriate that the rise of a new rallying superpower should coincide with the World Rally Championship celebrating its 50th season and ushering in a new hybrid era. For the best part of two decades, rallying’s top tier had been dominated by two Frenchmen, Sebastien Loeb and Sebastien Ogier, the duo’s stranglehold punctuated only once since 2004 when Ott Tanak marched his way to the 2019 title. With Loeb and reigning champion Ogier taking only part-time cameo roles this year with M-Sport and Toyota respectively, the prospect of a new name on the world championship trophy seemed likely. But few would have predicted Toyota’s Kalle Rovanpera to rip up the record books and redefine the WRC winning formula so comprehensively. The son of former WRC rally winner Harri…

Victory in Monte Carlo started M-Sport’s season on the highest of highs, but it was a combination of factors that led to a frustrating steady decline across 2022. The Ford squad couldn’t have asked for a better start when Sebastien Loeb won on the new Ford Puma’s debut, backed up by a third for Craig Breen and a fifth for Gus Greensmith, who enjoyed a maiden stage win to boot. But a second place for Breen in Sardinia was the team’s only return to the podium as a combination of driver errors and technical issues meant it struggled to match the results of its counterparts Toyota and Hyundai. “Despite people’s views on the internet, I think we had a fairly positive season in terms of the pace of the car…

LIGIER JSP320 (LMP3) Run by United Autosports Engine Naturally aspirated 5.6-litre V8 Power 455bhp Silverstone GP lap time 1m52s-1m55s 2022 benchmark driver Wayne Boyd WILLIAMS JPH1B (F2) Run by MotorSport Vision Engine 1.8-litre turbo R4 Power 425bhp Silverstone GP lap time 1m45s-1m48s 2022 benchmark driver n/a ASTON MARTIN VANTAGE GT3 Run by Beechdean AMR Motorsport Engine Four-litre turbo V8 Power Over 500bhp Silverstone GP lap time 1m58s-2m01s 2022 benchmark driver Jonny Adam…

EXTREME E PUNTA DEL ESTE (URY) 27 NOVEMBER ROUND 4/4 Lewis Hamilton’s X44 squad clinched the Extreme E title in a highly eventful season finale, as Abt Cupra took a maiden win in the Energy X-Prix in Uruguay. Nasser Al-Attiyah and Klara Andersson bounced back from a penalty in their qualifying heat to win the final for Abt, ahead of McLaren pair Tanner Foust and Emma Gilmore, but third was enough for X44 duo Sebastien Loeb and Cristina Gutierrez to seal the crown. Hamilton’s squad secured the Extreme E crown after all three of its championship rivals failed to progress to the final, but the decisive result only came after a time penalty cost Timmy Hansen and Catie Munnings a podium spot for Andretti. Reigning Extreme E champion Rosberg X…

GB3 Formula Ford Festival winner Max Esterson will move to Fortec Motorsport for a title challenge on the 2023 GB3 Championship. The 20-year-old American undertook his rookie season in GB3 this season with Douglas Motorsport, and finished seventh in the standings with a win at Donington Park and a further two podiums. He tested Euroformula Open, Formula Regional European and FIA F3 machinery during the summer, but his experience of GB3 led him to remain in the series and switch to Fortec, which ran this year’s runner-up Joel Granfors. “I think, whatever series I chose, it will have to be one I’m winning in and, with GB3, I’ve already got a year of experience,” said the Red Bull-backed athlete. “They [Fortec] have good history in this series and other series.…

TURISMO X The Turismo X championship run by MotorSport Vision Trackdays will not be held next year after receiving a disappointing number of entries this season. The series was rebranded from the MSV Supercup for 2022 in an attempt to “boost average grid sizes”. A Gran Turismo theme was adopted, with inaugural champion Darren Goes receiving a Mazda Demio as a prize, a car that also features in the popular video game. But the series attracted just 14 entries on average this year – significantly down on the 26 of the final MSV Supercup season – and has therefore been scrapped. “The format is quite popular among the drivers that committed to it – they like the sprint races and the Superpole session – but the championship didn’t connect with…

HISTORICS The Silverstone Classic will be rebranded the Silverstone Festival for next year in a move that “reflects the event’s broadening appeal”. First held in 1990, the meeting has become an increasingly popular fixture in the historics calendar, and next season’s edition is set to continue to feature grids from the Historic Sports Car Club, Motor Racing Legends, Masters Historic Racing and the Historic Grand Prix Cars Association. But, with displays of modern F1 machinery being a feature of the 2022 event and with a growing array of off-track entertainment, organisers have decided to rename the annual extravaganza. “We’re so excited to mix the very best historic motorsport on track, with even more energy and adventure off track to entertain the whole family,” said event director Nick Wigley. P69 CLUB…

COMBE CLUB’S 2023 DATES The Castle Combe Racing Club has released its provisional calendar for 2023. Its season is due to begin on Easter Monday, with traditional May Day and August Bank Holiday dates also being held, alongside a two-day fixture in June, a Carnival event in July and the finals day on 7 October. The Wiltshire venue’s annual Autumn Classic is scheduled for 23 September. APP LAUNCHED BY HSCC The Historic Sports Car Club has launched an app to enable competitors to more easily access important information both at and between race meetings. The app is available for Apple and Android devices and is set to feature calendars, timetables, regulations and links to live timing, while alerts will be sent out to competitors in particular championships. It is primarily…

Twenty-three-year-old Ron Dennis takes a break from his responsibilities looking after the #3 Brabham BT33 piloted by his employer Jack Brabham to have a shufty at the Lotus crew’s preparatory work on Emerson Fittipaldi’s #17 Lotus 49C ahead of the 1970 German Grand Prix at Hockenheim. It was a weekend to forget for Dennis’s boss – he qualified 12th, one place ahead of F1 rookie Fittipaldi, then was stranded on the grid at the start of the race and, once away, lasted just four laps before succumbing to an oil leak. The Brazilian finished a creditable fourth in only his second grand prix, the last runner on the same lap as winner (and his Lotus team-mate, though in a 72) Jochen Rindt. Later in the season Dennis realised his role…