Indholdsfortegnelse for 28/09/23 i Autosport

As expected, normal Formula 1 service was resumed at the Japanese Grand Prix, with Max Verstappen scoring his 13th win of the season and clinching Red Bull’s sixth constructors’ crown. Nevertheless, there is something to be said for enjoying the performance of a great driver in a brilliant car around a proper track, which Suzuka is. As Jake Boxall-Legge shows in our race report on page 14, Verstappen wasn’t the only star of the show last weekend. Lando Norris was brilliant for McLaren, while his team-mate Oscar Piastri – surely a race winner and title contender in the making – scored his first GP podium. We’ve also got the ongoing Mercedes-Ferrari fight. Verstappen’s crushing Suzuka performance was reminiscent of some of the drives Michael Schumacher put in there. This week…

British Touring Car Championship powerhouse Motorbase Performance turned out the Ford Focus ST of Jack Sears Trophy contender Sam Osborne in a Valvoline livery paying homage to the mid-1990s works Mondeos at Silverstone last weekend. Paddock wags suggested that Motorbase’s Malcolm Swetnam, who team-manages two cars including Osborne’s, may be having nightmares: he fufilled the same role at West Surrey Racing in 1996 when it entered the BTCC saddled with Schubel-built Mondeos! The paintjob inspired Osborne to a best-ever qualifying position of 10th, and he was sixth fastest – just 0.068s off the pace – in Q1. TEN VOORDE IS THE KING Harry King scored two more podium finishes in the penultimate Carrera Cup Germany round at the Red Bull Ring last weekend as Larry ten Voorde secured the title.…

The writing had been on the wall for several years, but the inevitable separation of the IndyCar Series and Texas Motor Speedway finally came with the arrival of the 2024 schedule. In a relationship that began in 1997, the two transitioned through nearly every phase possible in the best and worst ways. The reality, though, is that things have been turbulent for an extended amount of time. And both parties are at fault for it failing. In many ways, it’s fitting how everything started – with four-time Indianapolis 500 winner and Texas native AJ Foyt backhanding Arie Luyendyk in Victory Lane after the inaugural event in 1997. Factor in timing and scoring issues that delayed final results until the next day, and it also signalled the end of the United…

Suzuka has been on this writer’s bucket list for a while, having spent his childhood attempting to grapple with the circuit on the Formula 1 and Gran Turismo games – and failing more often than not. So, when Autosport gets the chance to go trackside, we choose to meander along the Esses and the Dunlop Curve, a point at which the infamous Casio Triangle can be viewed if you simply turn around. Of course, it’s the site of the Ayrton Senna-and-Alain Prost clash in 1989 (also, the lesser-heralded tangle between tail-enders Esteban Tuero and Tora Takagi in 1998), and a huge departure from the rest of the high to medium-speed circuit. “Magnussen indulges in sabre-rattling against the kerbs, but it doesn’t make up for the Haas’s shortfall” Even after revealing…

BTCC rookie Mikey Doble would be the first to admit that he wouldn’t have expected to be the one to break the Motorbase Ford team’s 2023 stranglehold on pole positions. But that’s exactly what the Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra racer did at Silverstone, with not one but two laps good enough to top the qualifying shootout. PMR has been a happy place of late. The Astra is venerable, and Doble races a 2017 car pressed back into service this season after two years dormant, but the son of ex-Formula Forward runner-up Mike Doble, fellow rookie Andrew Watson and the evergreen Aron Taylor-Smith have been taking it in turns to shine, and all three did so at Silverstone. “The car’s just been in the window all day,” smiled Doble. “I…

What motivated an Italian knitwear company to buy a Formula 1 team? “Yes, it is quite interesting,” muses Pat Symonds, Benetton’s long-time engineer and technical director. “The strange thing was with Luciano Benetton and the whole family, I never really saw that passion for motorsport. Luciano is a fantastic guy, a remarkable character in every respect, as a businessman and as a person. I really liked him – even though we didn’t have a great deal to do with him.” Benetton’s oldest son, Alessandro, was drafted in as chairman in the late 1980s and appeared on the pitwall intermittently during the team’s 1990s heyday. “The common denominator was opportunity and a willingness to find a global way of communication,” he says. “The company wanted to expand globally. It wanted to…

PORSCHE The upgraded RS version of the Porsche 718 Cayman GT4 Clubsport has been confirmed for the marque’s Sprint Challenge GB for next season. The RS offers a significant increase in performance compared to the existing model, with its engine producing an additional 75bhp and improved aerodynamics offering better grip. The RS version will race alongside the current cars on the same grid, with Porsche GB motorsport manager James MacNaughton stressing the importance of both iterations being present to create a large field. Since the new machines will not be available until March, the start of the season has been pushed back to the third British Touring Car event at Snetterton at the end of May. “It’s pretty much slap bang in the middle of the Cayman and the Carrera…

CATERHAM The top-tier Caterham Seven UK series will again make a guest appearance on the British Touring Car support bill next season after joining the package for the first time at Silverstone last weekend. The championship for Caterham 420Rs has secured a space at the Oulton Park meeting on 22-23 June next year as part of a calendar that also includes a British GT support outing at Donington Park and a trip to Zandvoort for all of the Caterham categories, aside from the Academy. “It’s a great seal of approval for the championship,” said Caterham chief motorsport and technical officer Simon Lambert of the BTCC date. “We’re not professional racing, we’re club racing, but we like to think TOCA have given us the opportunity to show this championship is the…

OBITUARY Mark Litchfield, who died of cancer last week, was a gentleman racer of a bygone era. While he harboured no aspirations of reaching the top, he competed against many drivers who did, notably future Formula 1 world champions Emerson Fittipaldi and Keke Rosberg in Formulae Ford and Super Vee respectively. The Kentishman’s racing exploits began in the mid 1960s with a Morgan, then an AC Cobra. He was enthused by the Formula Ford phenomenon, joining its ranks with Lotus, Merlyn and Crossle chassis and contesting the early British Racing & Sports Car Club Festivals at Snetterton. Air-cooled Formula Super Vee, which Volkswagen GB put weight and cash behind, fulfilled his need for adventure with European Championship races offering big prize money. Litchfield started with a Crossle, then one of…

PORSCHE SPRINT CHALLENGE GB For a driver who entered the Silverstone Porsche Sprint Challenge GB weekend without a win, it was quite the turnaround for Joe Warhurst to leave with three to his name and the points lead to boot. Warhurst led throughout the opener from pole to break his duck, having previously taken seven podiums – although the teenager’s success began even before topping qualifying. “I’m over the moon – it’s been a great day,” he said. “It started in the morning by winning the tyre [prize] draw, then I got a double pole in qualifying and my first win!” And Sunday proved to be another good day for the Team Parker racer. He briefly lost out to stablemate Matthew Armstrong at the start of the second contest but…

PORSCHE CARRERA CUP GB Race 1 (both 30 laps) 1 Gus Burton (above); 2 Adam Smalley +0.969s; 3 James Kellett; 4 Josh Malin; 5 Hugo Ellis; 6 Harry Foster. Fastest lap Smalley 56.050s (105.36mph). Pole Matty Graham. Starters 21. Race 2 1 Foster; 2 Ellis +0.879s; 3 Smalley; 4 Charles Rainford; 5 Graham; 6 Burton. FL Graham 55.033s (107.31mph). P Foster. S 21. Points 1 Smalley 129; 2 Kellett 84; 3 Rainford 61; 4 Graham 60; 5 Malin 58; 6 Burton 46. PORSCHE SPRINT CHALLENGE GB Race 1 (21 laps) 1 Joe Warhurst; 2 Matthew Armstrong +3.784s; 3 Callum Davis; 4 Marc Warren; 5 Ethan Hammerton; 6 Max Coates. FL Will Jenkins 58.190s (101.48mph). P Warhurst. S 18. Race 2 (5 laps) 1 Warhurst; 2 Coates +0.236s; 3 Armstrong; 4…

MX-5 CUP Race 1 Scott Leach Race 2 Andy Baylie Race 3 Ben Hancy CLIO SPORT CHAMPIONSHIP Races 1 & 2 Jack Kingsbury (197) BMW CAR CLUB RACING Races 1 & 2 Ben Pearson (M235i) ROADSPORTS Graham Crowhurst (BMW E46 M3) CCRC MIGHTY MINIS Races 1 & 2 Ian Slark (Super) TYPE R TROPHY Races 1 & 2 Matt Wilkins (below) CLASSIC STOCK HATCH Race 1 Ben Bateman (Vauxhall Nova GTE) Race 2 Pip Hammond (Vauxhall Nova GTE) HISTORIC 750 FORMULA Races 1 & 2 John Village (Village V2) CLUB ENDURO William Stacey/Rob Boston (Lotus Elise S2) ARMED FORCES RACE CHALLENGE Races 1 & 2 David Shead (BMW E36 Compact) ALFA ROMEO CHAMPIONSHIP Races 1 & 2 Jamie Thwaites (Giulietta) For full results visit: 750mc.co.uk…

TRACKROD RALLY BRC 22-23 SEPTEMBER With four wins from four starts in the British Rally Championship this season, it was perhaps a foregone conclusion that M-Sport factory driver and WRC2 ace Adrien Fourmaux would bolster that tally at Trackrod Rally Yorkshire. If there were odds to be stacked, they would undeniably be in the Frenchman’s favour, but the super-fast forest tests would also play host to a duel for the BRC crown, with Fourmaux just needing to finish ahead of nearest title rival Garry Pearson. Fourmaux and co-driver Alexandre Coria are among the best in the world and, with apparent ease, the Ford Fiesta Rally2 crew dominated the top of the times to add the BRC title to their impressive season, joining an illustrious list of rallying greats such as…

A restructuring of Honda’s global motorsport operation to include its American arm could lead to it joining the World Endurance Championship ranks and a Le Mans 24 Hours attack in 2025. Honda Performance Development, the motorsport arm of American Honda Motor Co, will join Japan’s Honda Racing Corporation to become HRC US from 2024. The move comes ahead of Honda’s 2026 re-entry to Formula 1 with Aston Martin, with the aim of combining the expertise of one global HRC entity. HRC Japan president Koji Watanabe said: “Our goal is to increase the HRC brand and sustain the success of our racing activities and we believe that uniting Honda motorsports globally as one racing organisation will help achieve that.” HPD was established in 1993 to produce engines for Indycars, and has…

BMW has started work on the EVO upgrade to its M4 GT3 racer ahead of a 2025 release. The current model won the DTM title in its first season of competition in 2022, but the Bavarian marque has already identified areas for improvement that were tested late last month at Spa. BMW will spend the remainder of this year and 2024 honing its GT3 EVO package. Factory driver Bruno Spengler noted that it had made “progress in many areas”, citing improvements in driveability and “tyre durability over longer distances”. Emphasis has also been placed on enhancing functionality, component reliability and handling. BMW Motorsport boss Andreas Roos said: “We’re intentionally taking the time to improve our already highly successful model for the 2025 season.” The M4 GT3 achieved its latest accolade…

The IMSA SportsCar Championship underwent a profound shift with its adoption of new rules for 2023. Teams now had a spec hybrid system to optimise, while the move from DPi to LMDh (known Stateside as GTP) also meant a new philosophy for calculating energy usage – falling in line with the World Endurance Championship, allowing for the platform to be equalised against Le Mans Hypercars. The consequence of stretching a tank of fuel too far is unchanged. But no longer is stint length dictated entirely by fuel numbers. Instead, the primary concern is now how a car uses energy from a virtual tank – think of it as a combination of fuel used by the internal combustion engine and torque produced by the hybrid system – measured by sensors attached…

FORMULA 1 Liam Lawson may have scored two of the five Formula 1 points earned by AlphaTauri all season during his impressive four-round substitute stint, but that has not been enough to secure him a race seat for the start of 2024. The Red Bull sister squad has instead signed Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda for next season, with Lawson reprising his role as a reserve for both teams. The Kiwi, who has filled in for Ricciardo while the eight-time grand prix winner recovers from a broken bone in his left hand, will attend all races next year alongside his testing and simulator duties. After navigating the chaos of the Dutch Grand Prix on his debut and grabbing the team’s best result of 2023 with ninth in Singapore, Lawson appeared…

WEC Stoffel Vandoorne will race for Peugeot’s World Endurance Championship squad next season. The Belgian is stepping up from his reserve and test role with the team, his announcement coming after an outing at this month’s Fuji WEC round and the news that Gustavo Menezes is leaving the French manufacturer. What hasn’t been revealed is whether Vandoorne will slot into the seat vacated by the American in the #94 Peugeot 9X8 Le Mans Hypercar alongside Loic Duval and Nico Muller. That appears likely, though there has not been confirmation of the full 2024 line-up as yet. Former McLaren Formula 1 driver Vandoorne explained that returning to the WEC, in which he contested a full season with the Jota LMP2 team in 2021, has always remained a goal. “Having the opportunity…

BTCC The news has been pouring out of leading British Touring Car Championship team Excelr8 Motorsport in recent days, and the rumours have also been swirling around plans for its Hyundai i30 Ns in 2024. What we do know about the Suffolk squad – because it’s been announced – is that its tie-up with title sponsor Bristol Street Motors has been given a multi-year extension, that it will continue using the Swindon-built bespoke Hyundai engines that first appeared in 2022 and propelled Tom Ingram to his maiden title, and that the highly promising rookie Ronan Pearson will stay on for 2024 and 2025. Then came talk that Excelr8 could expand from four cars to six. Team owner Justina Williams scotched his, but there could be a customer squad of two…

NASCAR CUP William Byron benefited from his team-mate’s misfortune and stole a milestone NASCAR Cup victory for Hendrick Motorsports last Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway. After seeing the sister HMS Chevrolet of Kyle Larson, who dominated much of the second half of the race, wreck out late, Byron moved into position to challenge for the lead on a restart with six of 267 laps remaining. As leader Bubba Wallace raced side by side with Chase Briscoe, Briscoe drifted up the track, taking Wallace with him. Byron then dived low, went three-wide and came away with the lead. Byron then held off a late charge from Ross Chastain to pick up his sixth win of the season and the 300th Cup victory for team owner Rick Hendrick, whose first success came…

Normal service officially resumed last weekend at Suzuka, and a minor stumble at the line simply delayed Red Bull’s collection of its sixth Formula 1 constructors’ championship. Singapore? Merely a blip; Max Verstappen’s usual order of a leisurely Sunday afternoon cruise to victory was made almost inevitable following his demolition job of the rest of the field in qualifying. The team’s all-conquering RB19 had proved a tricky customer at Marina Bay a week prior, but the nature of the fast-and-flowing Suzuka circuit ensured that it was back to full strength. It was putty in the hands of Verstappen, and even Lewis Hamilton was complimentary of the car ahead of the weekend, suggesting that he was looking forward to watching the Dutchman’s laps after the Japanese Grand Prix. The car had…

Alpine left Suzuka swamped by a team orders controversy stemming from very late in its double-scoring result with Esteban Ocon ninth and Pierre Gasly 10th. The blue team’s race had got off to a poor start when Ocon jinked left in the pinched approach to Turn 1 and kicked off the clash with Valtteri Bottas and Alex Albon. He stopped from the rear of the pack under the safety car, then switched from the medium tyres to the hards and took up what was effectively a one-stopper. Ocon’s pace on these meant he climbed the order ahead of those who had to make two racing pitstops – including Fernando Alonso and team-mate Gasly. Alonso’s short second stint got the Aston Martin back ahead when Ocon stopped for fresh hard tyres…

Behind the clash between Sergio Perez and Lewis Hamilton on the approach to Turn 1, there was an almost identically caused shunt for Alex Albon, Valtteri Bottas and Esteban Ocon, albeit with far more consequences. Albon was launched briefly but dramatically skywards, picking up floor damage. He stopped for more medium tyres behind the safety car, then switched onto the softs while running a net 18th on lap 13. But Williams opted to retire him just before halfway after seeing his damage increasing. Bottas picked up a front-right puncture, which had him off the road briefly at Turn 3. He hobbled back to the pits and took on another set of soft tyres. But his race barely lasted further than the restart. Back at racing speed, he attacked Logan Sargeant…

EUROPEAN LE MANS SERIES SPA (BEL) 24 SEPTEMBER ROUND 4/6 Algarve Pro Racing trio Alex Lynn, Kyffin Simpson and James Allen picked up their second victory of the season during the 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps after an incident-packed contest that featured no fewer than five safety car appearances. Simpson started the race from pole, meaning the newly signed Chip Ganassi Racing IndyCar driver evaded the chaos that unfolded at the start when Panis Racing’s Manuel Maldonado misjudged a lunge into the first corner. The Venezuelan locked up and triggered a multi-car collision that involved Duqueine Team’s Rene Binder, Paul Lafargue (IDEC Sport) and Marino Sato (United Autosports). Simpson and later Allen maintained the lead and their ORECA built an advantage over chasing cars from Inter Europol Competition and Cool Racing,…

MOTOGP BUDDH (IND) 24 SEPTEMBER ROUND 13/20 MotoGP promoter Dorna’s expansion to newer, unexplored territories in Asia took the series to India last weekend, with ex-Formula 1 venue Buddh International Circuit staging its first world championship event in a decade. There were some concerns about the race going ahead at the beginning of the week, with teams delayed by visa issues and riders questioning whether the track was safe for bike racing. Eventually, the entire MotoGP fraternity was able to reach India and, once they had seen the track first-hand, all fears about the safety of riders were allayed. This meant that the focus could shift to on-track action, and from the very beginning it was clear that Ducati had an advantage, with the circuit’s two long straights clearly playing…

If it was replayed once, it was replayed a hundred times on TV: Simon Pagenaud’s horrendous accident in practice at Mid-Ohio was the season’s most shocking moment. Caused by a manufacturing failure in the braking system of his Meyer Shank Racing Dallara-Honda, as soon as the former series champion and Indy 500 winner touched his brake pedal, at an indicated 181mph, his car snapped sideways. It was launched by the grass verge across the huge gravel trap, where the topography of the downhill slope only added to his wild momentum as the car was launched into a dizzying series of six and a half rolls. It came to rest on its side against the tyre wall, where the AMR safety crew rushed to his aid. Little did we know it,…

OBITUARY Dan Kirby, the founder of Trade Price Cars Racing who died suddenly last week aged 37, was also a highly capable driver behind the wheel and a popular figure in British tin-top racing. As a driver, the Essex car-dealership king progressed through the Ginetta GT4 Supercup into TCR UK. At the wheel of a Power Maxed Racing Cupra Leon, Kirby finished third in the 2021 TCR rankings with a race win to his credit at Brands Hatch. He then stepped back from competition before returning for the opening two rounds of 2023. As a team owner, Kirby and TPCR partner Andy Wilmot secured two British Touring Car Championship TBL entrants’ licences from AmD Tuning for 2019 and contracted that team to stay on and run the Audi S3s –…

CARRERA CUP GB Adam Smalley says that winning the Porsche Carrera Cup GB title with a round to spare is a “massive weight off my shoulders” after provisionally sealing the spoils at Silverstone. A pair of podiums – his 12th and 13th from 14 races to date – mean closest rival James Kellett can no longer catch the Porsche GB Junior in the points. “It means absolutely everything to me,” said Smalley of his success. “It’s been the best season of my life and I feel I’ve been driving the best I’ve ever been. Team Parker have done an amazing job – without those guys, it wouldn’t have been possible. It’s so nice to win early – it’s testament to the effort everyone’s put in.” Smalley said that there was…

DRAG RACING Bobby Wallace only had to turn up to Santa Pod last weekend to seal the Motorsport UK British Drag Racing Championship, but lifting off the gas was never an option for the high-achieving family team with another event to be won. At the age of 30, Wallace is the youngest driver to wear the crown since Pro Modified became the championship class in 2007. Until this month, he had reached six consecutive final rounds stretching back to last year, winning four. Only the FIA European champion, Jan Ericsson, had defeated him. Yet two weeks ago at the European Finals, Dutch opponent Michel Tooren ended his streak in the opening round. Had the bubble burst? For the STP National Finals, Wallace qualified fourth, hampered by a rare parts failure…

MINI CHALLENGE Two wins and a second place made for another impressive points haul for Dan Zelos and puts him in prime position to seal a second Mini Challenge title. Zelos continued his unbroken run of 2023 poles at Silverstone but his lead in the opener only lasted a lap before main title rival Will Orton squeezed ahead on the inside at Becketts. Zelos stayed close to Orton for the remainder but the Hybrid Tune driver did not put a foot wrong and took his fifth win. Zelos also had to watch his mirrors and Nelson King did edge ahead towards the end only to run wide at Copse and ensure Zelos kept second. “That was enjoyable!” said Zelos. “Every time I got close to Will, he knew I was…

CASTLE COMBE CCRC AUTUMN CLASSIC 23 SEPTEMBER Castle Combe’s packed paddock was buzzing on Saturday as competitors in fabulous cars spanning 1951 to the 1990s entertained the largest Autumn Classic audience in its 12-year history on a gloriously warm sunny equinox. Feature marque Lotus, in its 75th anniversary year, came closest to outright victory in the 90-minute GT & Sports Car Cup enduro at the circuit where founder Colin Chapman opened the account in 1951 with a 750 Formula win aboard the Mark 3. The AC Cobras of series debutant Alex Thistlethwayte/John Bussell (ex-Leo Voyazides), last year’s winners Chris Chiles Jr and Sr and Mark Williams (a new car) headed GTSCC qualifying, the top seven of 32 inside 80-second lap times. Chiles Jr led initially, but Williams crashed out of…

SNETTERTON EQUIPE 23-24 SEPTEMBER Rob Cull and his TVR Grantura came out on top in both Equipe GTS races at Snetterton last weekend, resisting the threat of MGB driver Lewis Saunders. Cull was steadily building an advantage in race one, but Saunders was then forced to slow after his alternator failed. He remained second heading onto the last lap as the MGBs of Babak Farsian and Mark Holme duelled for third. Holme had been ahead but, with oil down at Agostini on lap 10 of 13, he got sideways and Farsian went through. Third became second when Saunders slowed further, and he also dropped behind Holme and Jonathan Hughes (in another MGB) before the flag. Cull started to pull away during the second half of race two after he and…

OULTON PARK CSCC 23 SEPTEMBER A packed field of 37 Swinging Sixties Group 1 cars made for a fine sight at Oulton Park last weekend as James Hughes earned a maiden series win in his sophomore season. Hughes, who had topped three of the four legs in Anglesey’s 24-hour event before a heartbreaking retirement, put his Austin-Healey Sprite on pole by half a second. But he was jumped by Matthew Howell’s Mini before a multi-car tangle exiting the first corner brought the race under caution. Hughes needed only a lap and a half to get in front on the resumption, passing Howell at the Shell Oils hairpin. A second safety car was called just after the pit window opened and most frontrunners dived in immediately. But Howell and fellow Mini…

PODCAST OVER THE LIMIT Hosted by Laurens and Dries Vanthoor Podcasts are all the rage these days for racing drivers. NASCAR megastars Dale Earnhardt Jr and Denny Hamlin command huge followings on their shows, Hamlin even receiving sanction for admitting on Actions Detrimental that he deliberately hit Ross Chastain at Phoenix earlier this year, while in the world of IndyCar Speed Street with Conor Daly, and Off Track with James Hinchcliffe and Alexander Rossi can be relied on for regular topical insights from the cockpit. But sportscar racing is somewhat underrepresented in this regard, which makes the Over the Limit podcast a breath of fresh air. Porsche World Endurance Championship star Laurens Vanthoor is joined in each episode by his brother, BMW GT ace Dries, to talk shop. It often…

Robert Kubica has a broader range to pick from than most for the favourite car of his career. The Pole regards the 2005 Formula 1 title-winning Renault R25 that he tested at Barcelona for winning that year’s Formula Renault 3.5 title as “the most amazing car I drove”, above the BMW-Sauber F1.08 that he took to his only F1 victory in the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix. But Kubica’s favourite is from an entirely different discipline. The February 2011 Ronde di Andora Rally crash that changed his life forever abruptly halted a promising F1 career, but Kubica maintains that he “never doubted I will be back” competing in some form. After 19 months and 16 operations, in September 2012, he duly made a winning return in the car he selects as…

British Touring Car Championship tyre supplier Goodyear conducted what it described as a successful group test at Snetterton earlier this month to evaluate options for the series. Series leader Ash Sutton’s Motorbase Performance Ford Focus ST, main rival Tom Ingram (Exceler8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N) and Colin Turkington’s West Surrey Racing BMW 330e M Sport were on hand for the test, with all three completing close to 100 laps of the Norfolk circuit. Goodyear’s BTCC event leader Michael Butler described it as “a really good test” that had given the company, whose current deal agreed in 2021 runs to the end of 2026, “a clear direction moving ahead to the 2024 season”. He explained that it had concentrated on construction work, specifically with regard to “how the new construction and…

The latest car that will contest the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship’s new all-electric era was unveiled last week at Mantorp Park. The series has been impacted by supply chain delays that meant its fleet of near-550bhp machines, prepped by Swedish company EPWR, weren’t ready for a planned debut in September, forcing the STCC to postpone until 2024. The rear-wheel-drive Cupra Born will be run by PWR, the racing arm of the PWR Group that also comprises EPWR. Three cars will be entered, with four-time TCR Scandinavia champion Robert Dahlgren and Axel Bengtsson its first drivers. The Born’s launch follows the revealing of Brink Motorsport’s Tesla Model 3 at Knutstorp. STCC CEO Micke Berne said: “PWR and Cupra have been successful key players of the championship since they entered it in…

WEC Sebastian Vettel poured cold water on an immediate Formula 1 comeback over the course of a visit to Suzuka for the Japanese Grand Prix last weekend, but he is in talks about returning to the race track next year: there are discussions with the Jota Porsche team about joining its expanded World Endurance Championship assault. Jota, the first customer team to run the Porsche 963 LMDh in the WEC, has revealed that it has approached Vettel about joining its assault for next year when it increases its Hypercar class campaign to include a second car run in the colours of car-hire giant Hertz. Team principal Sam Hignett has stressed that no deal has been done, but that talks are ongoing. “We are speaking to Seb, there are discussions, but…

FORMULA E Ex-AlphaTauri Formula 1 driver Nyck de Vries will return to Formula E for the 2023 season with Mahindra, with Lucas di Grassi leaving the team. The 28-year-old Dutchman competed in 10 grands prix with the Red Bull junior squad before being sacked prior to the Hungarian Grand Prix in July. De Vries claimed the 2021 FE title with Mercedes during a three-year spell at the team before the German manufacturer’s withdrawal at the end of 2022. “Coming back to Formula E will feel like coming home,” said de Vries. “I’ve been part of the Formula E family for three seasons, I know everybody very well. I’m looking forward to being back in a familiar environment, and to be back somewhere where ultimately I’ve always enjoyed my racing.” He…

There’s famously no room for moral consideration in Formula 1’s sporting realm. Red Bull demonstrated this with its shrewd/cynical call to put Sergio Perez back into the Japanese Grand Prix so he could serve the five-second time penalty he’d accrued for whacking into the Haas of Kevin Magnussen. This exposed a longstanding loophole in F1’s sporting rules. Having stopped Perez shortly after his Magnussen shunt and before the stewards’ investigation was concluded, Red Bull feared that he’d carry his censure over to the next race in Qatar as a grid penalty. Fair enough, really – so long as the car Red Bull had previously decided was too damaged to continue was in a safe enough condition to re-enter the track, and no other driver was impacted by Perez slinking around.…

Max Verstappen already had pole in the bag after his first Q3 lap. In stark contrast to Singapore, the Red Bull looked hermetically sealed to the track around Suzuka’s famed Esses, requiring only the gentlest of inputs as it chalked up a time nearly half a second quicker than Oscar Piastri’s McLaren. “I knew there was still a little bit left in a few places,” revealed Verstappen. “And that’s what I tried to tidy up.” His final flying qualifying tour was even more impressive, and he found a tenth in the opening sector to deliver his rivals a crushing blow. Incremental gains over the next two sectors followed to culminate in a hugely impressive 1m28.877s to put over half a second on the rest of the field, putting paid to…

Sergio Perez had a disastrous 2023 Japanese Grand Prix, where he had the ignominy of being retired twice as Red Bull sought to avoid one of the two penalties he picked up being carried over to the next round in Qatar. Perez had already underwhelmed in qualifying four places behind his polesitting team-mate Max Verstappen. Then, at the start, he was swarmed by the fast-starting Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton. When Charles Leclerc – on the inside and just ahead of all of them – jinked left on the approach to Turn 1 it set off a chain reaction that sent Perez into Hamilton and broke the Red Bull’s right-side front-wing endplate. Perez pitted at the end of lap one. The safety car had been called due to the Turn…

FERNANDO ALONSO ASTON MARTIN DRIVER Why did you sound angry with your strategy on the way to finishing eighth? Well, not angry. I think it’s the same classic FOM radio [broadcast] – completely out of context. I’m not sure exactly what other drivers say when they are behind a car that is slower and on the straight [as Ocon was] pulling away even when you open the DRS. Maybe they say, ‘I’m OK, I’m happy to stay here and to stay behind.’ But I prefer to be motivated to overtake them. [With Ocon after stopping for the first time] I was slower even with the DRS open. So, I called for a different strategy. We stopped [again], we beat them. So that’s the way we do it. But why did…

The Copse Corner crowd roared their approval as Ash Sutton surged alongside Aron Taylor-Smith down the pitstraight and then squeezed ahead right in front of them at the start of the final lap of race two. Taylor-Smith, the popular underdog in the Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra; Sutton, the impending fourth-time champion with his all-conquering Motorbase Performance-run Ford Focus ST; you’d think they’d have been cheering for the Irish veteran. But this is Ash Sutton, racer extraordinaire, the man who makes the impossible happen, in this case an incredible victory from 23rd on the grid. Yet it might not have turned out like this. The British Touring Car Championship’s annual visit to the Silverstone National Circuit last weekend was full of drama. Some of that hampered Sutton; arguably more of…

DTM RED BULL RING (AUT) 23-24 SEPTEMBER ROUND 7/8 Kelvin van der Linde and Rene Rast scored their first DTM wins of 2023 at the season’s penultimate round at the Red Bull Ring, while Thomas Preining snatched the championship lead. Team75 Motorsport’s Laurin Heinrich held off van der Linde to lead the first half of Saturday’s contest from pole in drying conditions ahead of Mercedes-AMG stalwart Maro Engel, while van der Linde ran wide and slipped to fifth. Van der Linde soon recovered to third ahead of Porsche duo Ayhancan Guven and Preining, and an earlier pitstop for slick tyres enabled the Abt Audi driver to leapfrog Heinrich and Engel into the lead before a brief safety car period. The South African remained ahead at the restart, eventually winning by…

The accepted wisdom in record books is that the Benetton Formula 1 team was born in 1986. Not so, according to those on the inside. During 1985, the team remained Toleman to the outside world, but purely in name alone. The new sponsor that introduced a novel car livery based on international flags was now at the helm – it just didn’t shout about it. “It stopped being Toleman at the end of 1984 and became Benetton from the start of 1985,” asserts Alex Hawkridge, who took responsibility for a traumatic and far from certain transfer of power over the winter and deep into the start of the new season. The bad taste left by Ayrton Senna’s defection to Lotus combined with a direct physical problem – the team was…

It wasn’t supposed to be this easy. IndyCar’s USP is the high number of potential race winners in its pack for such a high-level open-wheel racing series. But Alex Palou defied this logic in 2023, making his second title appear routine on track with five victories. Off the track, however, it was an altogether more complicated story… Palou only remained with Chip Ganassi Racing this season following a courtroom mediation after the veteran team owner sued his own driver in the middle of last summer. Back then, the Catalan wanted out, lured by the potential of a Formula 1 opportunity with McLaren. In a sense, he had his cake and ate it, getting multiple runs in McLaren’s TPC (testing previous cars) programme and an FP1 outing at the United States…

ALEX PALOU 1 Made a tame start but then decimated the pack at Indianapolis road course. Consecutive wins at Detroit, Road America and Mid-Ohio put his title rivals in the shade. Sealed title in typical winning style and improved his oval game. JOSEF NEWGARDEN 2 An oval victory feast, but famine elsewhere. Besides apopped engine at St Pete, a run of bizarre crashes and collisions meant his season tailed off woefully. Maiden Indy 500 victory cushions the blow of no third title yet. SCOTT DIXON 3 Too little, too late for the six-time champion. Stunning comeback victories at Indy road course and St Louis proved the high points of an otherwise frustrating season as he watched his team-mate hog the limelight. SCOTT McLAUGHLIN 4 He’s so close to mastering this IndyCar lark. Has a…

BRITISH GT Ben Collins will return to British GT for the season finale at Donington Park next month. Professional racing driver Collins, who is best known for portraying The Stig on BBC TV programme Top Gear, will partner Tom Holland in one of Raceway Motorsport’s Ginetta G56 GT4s in the 22 October race. The last British GT outing for Collins was during the 2005 season, when he raced a Porsche 996 GT3 RSR in the Silverstone season-closer alongside the late Neil Cunningham, and they finished second. “Delighted to be back in British GT and at one of my favourite home circuits, Donington,” said Collins. “I’m ready to rumble!” Holland added: “Ben was my childhood hero when growing up. I’m so excited to be sharing my car with him for the…

TOCA Porsche Sprint Challenge GB frontrunner Toby Trice and Caterham Seven UK competitor Carl Jones both escaped serious injury following accidents at Silverstone last weekend. Trice was battling with Will Jenkins in the second Cayman contest when the slightest of touches on the approach to Copse Corner sent his Redline Racing car spearing into the concrete wall head first at an estimated 130mph. While Trice was taken to hospital for scans, he was released later on Sunday and did not suffer any broken bones; just a swollen ankle, bruising and concussion from the sizeable impact that briefly knocked him out. “I’m really bruised but OK,” said Trice, who does not expect to race in next weekend’s Brands Hatch finale. “It’s a massive testament to Porsche and how strong the cars…

HILLCLIMB Six-time British Hillclimb champion Scott Moran has called time on his career in the series after 21 seasons. The 47-year-old says he wants to spend more time with his family but has certainly not retired from motorsport. “I’m really just stepping down from chasing the British Championship – that’s as much as it is,” said Moran. “I’ve been so lucky to be able to share Graham Wynn’s car for the last couple of seasons. It is a massive commitment, and I’ve done it most years for 20 years now. I’m not retiring, I’m just stopping competing at this level.” With six British championships between 2008 and 2016, Moran matched the record set by Tony Marsh in the 1950s and 1960s and had considered chasing a record seventh title. “I’d…

PORSCHE CARRERA CUP GB For much of the Porsche Carrera Cup GB season, it had looked like Adam Smalley would emulate the previous four Juniors and claim the title. Yet, despite arriving at Silverstone with a strong 37-point lead, the opener was a reminder of how quickly things can change. Smalley had qualified on the front row alongside first-time polesitter Matty Graham but plummeted down to 14th on the opening lap, his Team Parker team having fitted slick tyres to his Porsche on a wet, but drying, track. As he languished down the order, Smalley was wondering whether that call was a mistake. However, he remained calm and, as the circuit rapidly dried, so he surged back up the order. By the end of lap 10 of 30, Smalley had…

CATERHAM SEVEN UK DPR Motorsport duo Gordon Sawyer and Aaron Head shared the Caterham Seven UK spoils as the top rung of the manufacturer’s racing ladder made an action-packed guest appearance on the British Touring Car bill at Silverstone. With Lewis Thompson having already wrapped up the championship at Donington Park last time out and deciding to skip this one, it gave other drivers the chance to shine. It looked like Paul Donkin could be one of those when he qualified on pole but he was taken out at Becketts by Mike Evans on the second lap of the opener. After a safety car period, the battle for the win developed between Head, Sawyer and Stephen Lyall, with Sawyer ultimately taking the spoils. Sawyer and Head broke clear from the…

DONINGTON PARK 750MC 23-24 SEPTEMBER Jordan Johnson clinched the 750 Motor Club’s Mazda MX-5 Cup title in dramatic fashion in the championship-deciding round on the Donington Park Grand Prix circuit last weekend. The 31-year-old secured the crown in the first of three races after he survived an early scare and main rival Ben Hancy suffered dramas in sight of the flag. Johnson had slumped to 12th after contact with Andy Baylie sent him spinning into the pitlane entry. He recovered to an eventual sixth place – on its own still not quite enough – but entering Goddards on the final lap his prayers were answered. Hancy, leading and on course for full points, was clipped under braking by Oak Richardson and both were left fighting to regain control. Thomas Holland…

LOTON PARK BRITISH HILLCLIMB 23-24 SEPTEMBER Matthew Ryder was the star of Loton Park during the season finale of the British Hillclimb Championship when he took his Gould GR59 to a commanding double victory last weekend. As the 30-round season came to a conclusion, Ryder made his plans for 2024 abundantly clear with two superb climbs to scoop maximum points on the day when six-time champion Scott Moran said farewell to contesting the series. With new champion Wallace Menzies absent while his car starts a winter rebuild, Ryder seized his chance and won twice in some style. Moran chased Ryder home in the first of the day’s run-offs and went out on the attack with the last run of the season, only to slide wide at the final corner and…

One of the very first races I remember watching was the 2001 Austrian Grand Prix, which was enlivened by the stern defence of Juan Pablo Montoya’s Williams (on Michelins) against Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari (on Bridgestones). The battle between the two ended in tears, but had this young fan hooked. Tyre wars were a core element not only of Formula 1, but also a feature in the World Rally Championship, with Pirelli-shod Subarus exchanging honours with Peugeots on Michelins, while sportscar racing was another arena where tyre competition was wide open. Five different companies were represented on the grid at Le Mans for much of the early 2000s. But times change. The increasing importance placed on sustainability and cost effectiveness has made competing tyre suppliers a luxury that few series regard…

Italian sportscar manufacturer Maserati pulled the covers off a new 730bhp trackday special called the MCXtrema at last month’s Monterey Car Week. Only 62 editions of the track-only car, which has a flat carbon-fibre floor and is not approved for road use, will be built as the Italian marque prepares its imminent return to sportscar racing with the MC20 GT2, which could debut in the GT2 European Series finale at Paul Ricard next month. Powered by the same V6 engine as the GT2 racer, but with upgraded turbochargers, the 1300kg MCXtrema has a six-speed sequential racing gearbox and a Hypercar-inspired shark fin connected to a fully adjustable rear wing. Maserati states that it “reflects the desire to create a racing car capable of passing on the legacy of the glorious…

NISSAN FE TEAM’S NEW HQ Nissan’s Formula E team has begun a process of relocating to a new base in Paris, departing the Le Mans headquarters it has operated from since it was founded as e.dams in 2014. Team principal Tommaso Volpe hailed the new facility as “a very important” step for the squad as “part of our wider plan to improve our performance”. Following its buyout by Nissan in 2022, the treble teams’ championship winner improved from ninth to seventh in 2023, beating its new powertrain customer McLaren. M-SPORT VETERAN RETIRES World Rally Championship squad M-Sport has announced a restructuring of its leadership team following the retirement of long-serving commercial director John Steele. The “eyes and ears” of M-Sport owner Malcolm Wilson since 1985, Steele will move into an…

The dramatic sight of Damon Hill’s Bridgestone-shod Arrows overtaking the Goodyear-rubbered Ferrari of old rival Michael Schumacher for the lead in the 1997 Hungarian Grand Prix is one of the enduring images of the decade in Formula 1. For a different reason, so was the sight of Schumacher, now with Bridgestones on his Prancing Horse, leading away a grid of six cars at Indianapolis in 2005 after the withdrawal of Michelin’s runners on safety grounds. Tyre wars have been missing from F1 since Michelin’s departure at the end of 2006. Long-serving Bridgestone engineer Kees van der Grint regards it as a seminal moment in recent motorsport history, because in the years since competition between tyre companies has been slowly disappearing from categories around the world. “Some team bosses complained –…