Indholdsfortegnelse for 14/12/23 i Autosport

Let’s be honest, it wasn’t a classic Formula 1 season. The domination by Max Verstappen and Red Bull means 2023 is unlikely to make anyone’s list of greatest F1 years. But there was plenty of incredible record-breaking, unpredictable battles behind Red Bull and off-track intrigue that is worth looking back on before we head into 2024. In this 116-page F1 review special (starting on page 19), we talk to many of the key players and look at how the various fights were won up and down the grid. We also have our traditional tech focus on the main battlegrounds (p34), pick out our top 10 drivers (p28) and bring you the important stats (p76), as well as an expanded article on the best race drives of the season (p40). Now…

FORMULA 1 The FIA has rebuffed rumours that a deal to move the Spanish Grand Prix to Madrid for 2026 is imminent There was plenty of speculation last week that Formula 1 was poised to ditch Barcelona for the capital city, since commercial talks are progressing well. But the governing body says any agreement remains some way off since it has not yet been tasked with homologating the proposed IFEMA convention centre parkland-based circuit in the north-east of the city. Carmelo Sanz de Barros, president of both the Spanish automobile federation and FIA senate, said: “Have the Spanish federation received, as of today, this project to be analysed, studied and focused? No. Then, when the Spanish federation consider that this project is a valid project and that they are interested,…

WEC Callum Ilott will switch from IndyCar to the World Endurance Championship in 2024 with a plum drive with the Jota Porsche squad. The Brit will share the #12 entry with Will Stevens and Norman Nato in the team’s expanded two-car line-up of 963 LMDhs in the Hypercar class. Ilott (right) has returned to sportscar racing after splitting with the Juncos Hollinger IndyCar squad at the conclusion of this year’s campaign and then a successful try-out in the Jota Porsche in Qatar this month. His previous sportscar campaign came in 2021 during his year as Ferrari Formula 1 test driver and Alfa Romeo reserve when he raced a Ferrari 488 GT3 in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup with Iron Lynx and the GTE version at the Le Mans…

FORMULA 3 Macau Grand Prix winner Luke Browning is to remain at Hitech GP for his second season in the FIA Formula 3 Championship in 2024. The 21-year-old Williams F1 protege (left) had a tough season in 2023. As the reigning GB3 champion with Hitech, his last-minute deal was the final slot to be taken on the F3 grid and he took 15th in the points. But the year ended in fine style with his Macau victory and an Aston Martin F1 test, his prize for winning the 2022 Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award. “Having visited all of the tracks we’re going to next year once before, I believe puts us in a great position to score points in every race weekend,” said Browning. “I’m…

GULF 12 HOURS Mercedes was on top at last Sunday’s Gulf 12 Hours. While Jules Gounon drove a 2 Seas AMG GT3 to third place to give himself and the marque the Intercontinental GT Challenge drivers’ and manufacturers’ titles, it was the GruppeM version (below) of Maro Engel, Luca Stolz and Mikael Grenier that took victory at the Yas Marina circuit. Gounon led the points into the weekend, and the first sign that things were going his way came in the early hours when closest title rival Philipp Eng, sharing a WRT BMW M4 GT3 with Sheldon van der Linde and Charles Weerts, lost several laps while the team fixed an exhaust problem. They finished six tours down in 14th position. As the race moved into its second half, the…

When Ferrari bravely launched its SF-23 challenger with a live installation run at Fiorano, the team declared its optimism over being able to fight for both world championships this year. That further fuelled the expectations of the ever-demanding tifosi. Much like the Real Madrids and FC Barcelonas of this world, failure is not an option for the Italian giant. But Ferrari’s passionate fans were in for a rude awakening at the opening round in Bahrain when that optimism proved misplaced. Rather than fighting for titles, Ferrari ended up narrowly losing out to Mercedes for second place after a rollercoaster 2023 season for both squads. Like everyone else, Ferrari turned up with a car that was no match for the all-conquering Red Bull RB19. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz qualified on…

Perhaps the kindest way to describe Alpine’s 2023 season is ‘neither here nor there’. Too slow to fight the quicker teams and too fast for the slower ones, the team was an outcast and ploughed a lonely furrow in the middle of the championship stakes. Great individual results from Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly lightly peppered the season, with Ocon’s third in Monaco and fourth at Las Vegas joined by Gasly’s third at Zandvoort and Spa sprint-race podium. Behind closed doors, however, the team faced a series of power struggles – not only in the boardroom, but often between the two drivers. Much was made of Ocon’s and Gasly’s history when they were paired up for 2023. Both drivers downplayed their adversarial past and vowed to work together, but the…

In his final press conference as AlphaTauri team principal, Franz Tost made no bones about his disappointment with the team’s most recent pair of Formula 1 cars, and that he had set the wheels in motion for change. The Italian squad had enjoyed its best season at the end of the previous regulation set, claiming sixth in the 2021 constructors’ title with 142 points, but its first car under the new-for-2022 ruleset was comparatively unimpressive. Despite its deal with the parent Red Bull Racing squad to take as many transferable components as allowed under the regulations, AlphaTauri slipped to ninth in the championship as it fell towards the back of the field. Tost, in one of his final acts as team principal, sought to bolster the aerodynamic department. So he…

* ACCURATE AS OF 6 DECEMBER 2023 1 F1 car floors flashed in public in Monaco Every team’s biggest secret since the return to ground effect had been car floors, with any exposure quickly covered up. But for Red Bull and Mercedes at Monaco, that went out of the window when Lewis Hamilton’s W14 was hoisted into the air by recovery cranes after he crashed in FP3, and Sergio Perez’s RB19 was presented to the world in qualifying. 2 Ford to return to F1 in 2026 In 2022, the incoming hype was all for Audi signing up to join F1, and in 2023 it was Ford’s turn after it confirmed its return to grand prix racing as engine partner to Red Bull. This came about after the squad saw its…

Theo Pourchaire had entered the season as the firm title favourite, but his championship charge was less straightforward than expected, with Frederik Vesti taking the fight to the ART Grand Prix driver. After Sauber junior Pourchaire took his only win of the season in the opening feature race in Bahrain, Vesti fought back in Jeddah to draw equal on wins, but neither led the title race. Instead it was Campos Racing’s popular Swiss F2 veteran Ralph Boschung, who had added a second in the Bahrain feature race to his victory in the sprint, and scored just enough points in Jeddah to sneak ahead of Pourchaire in the table. Victory in Melbourne then propelled Ayumu Iwasa of DAMS into the series lead before the championship headed to Europe, and Pourchaire (above)…

The Martini MK64 doesn’t immediately leap out as a significant car in sportscar history, but in the 1992 Peugeot 905 Spider Cup it was the machine in which Eric Helary and Christophe Bouchut made their case for inclusion in the Group C programme. Teamed up at Danielson, they were unstoppable. Engineer Remi Decorzent says: “We won everything: the French championship, the European championship, and seeing that we won so much Jean Todt said, ‘Maybe these guys Bouchut and Helary are not bad.’ So he decided to put them in the 905 and they won Le Mans the year after.” Bouchut won each of the first four races in the French championship ahead of Helary, including the 1992 Le Mans support race. On a damp track, Bouchut recovered from a sluggish…

BRITISH F4 F1 Academy podium finisher Abbi Pulling will return to British Formula 4 next year alongside another campaign in the all-female F1 support category. Pulling was previously a frontrunner across two seasons in British F4, finishing sixth in the 2020 standings and then taking another three podiums in a partial 2021 assault with JHR Developments. The 20-year-old has subsequently starred in W Series and the inaugural season of F1 Academy, in which she drove for Rodin Carlin. The Alpine Academy member will continue with the squad this year but will also make a British F4 return in “selected” events. There is only one clash at present, with the Singapore rounds of F1 Academy ruling her out of the Silverstone National British F4 fixture. “I’m ecstatic to be coming back…

HISTORICS The 500 Owners’ Association will begin its 2024 season with a very special doubleheader at Castle Combe’s 500th race meeting on Easter Monday. The 500s competed at Combe’s inaugural event in 1950 and it is thus fitting that the motorcycle-engined category should grace the season-opener – sub-titled Howard’s Day on 1 April in memory of Howard Strawford, whose passion saved the venue. The 500OA has kept the flag flying for decades, since a band of owners decided to branch out from using their charismatic cars in hillclimbs and sprints and return to the tracks, with next year’s programme the most ambitious yet. The opportunity to be part of the third Red Bull Classic on Austria’s F1 circuit from 7-9 June has already attracted 19 intentions to compete. The Oulton…

BOOK REVIEW RACING HITLER Mat Oxley RRP: £24 As the world becomes more progressive, it seems that the voices who decry sport for involving itself in social matters only get louder. Formula 1’s various initiatives over the past few years have been met with just as many – if not more – opponents than supporters of such things, complaining that politics should stay out of sport. Of course, they often fail to understand the difference between a political issue and a social one. What will chill these individuals to the bone will be this: much of modern-day motorsport as we know it is built on the foundations of the fascism that would lead to the outbreak of the Second World War. At the signing of the Treaty of Versailles following…

French rally legend, motorsport polymath and sometime movie stunt driver Jean Ragnotti demonstrates why fans dubbed him ‘the acrobat’, taking the line of least resistance and maximum airtime on his and co-driver Jean-Marc Andrie’s way to seventh place in the unexpectedly unsnowy 1983 Monte Carlo Rally. Things had moved on somewhat from when Ragnotti won this event two years previously, his Renault 5 Turbo finishing 19 minutes behind winner Walter Rohrl’s Lancia 037 Rally, which pulled off a giant-killing coup on the season-opener against the more-fancied Audi Quattros. For classic downloads and DVDs head to dukevideo.com For more great photographs, visit motorsportimages.com…

FORMULA 1 Toto and Susie Wolff want the FIA to pay for dragging their reputations through the mud. The former says his Mercedes Formula 1 team is in “legal exchanges” with the governing body. The latter wants to know who “misled the media” after the pair were threatened with an investigation into a supposed conflict of interest. This remarkable turn of events follows the FIA announcement last week that its Compliance Department was looking into allegations that confidential information had been passed to an F1 team principal by a member of staff for commercial rights holder Formula One Management. Although the Wolffs were not mentioned by name, they were in the crosshairs. Supposedly, in a meeting between team bosses, Toto Wolff made comments based around intelligence that could only have…

FORMULA 1 Formula 1, the FIA and Extreme H – the spin-off from the Extreme E all-electric off-road series – have announced the creation of a Hydrogen Working Group that will start in 2025. They will evaluate how hydrogen fuel cells and battery technology can be rolled out across motorsport and, rather than concentrate on powering race cars, the focus will be on increasing the sustainability of freight and infrastructure plus the charging networks for electric categories. F1 will be represented by chief technical officer Pat Symonds, the FIA by single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis and Extreme H by XE technical director Mark Grain. Symonds said: “Our sport has a tradition of bringing new technologies to the forefront of public perception in incredibly short timescales. We do this by being open-minded…

WRC The World Rally Championship is to introduce a new points system for 2024 aimed at spicing up the action throughout events. It is understood that the new structure will mean extra points being awarded on Sundays in a bid to add an extra dimension to the final day of rallies. This change – the exact structure of which has not yet been announced – has been ratified by the FIA at the latest meeting of the World Motor Sport Council, which followed an announcement of a new working group to address the direction of rallying. Under current regulations a maximum of 30 points can be scored by a driver at a WRC round should they win the rally (25 points) and set the fastest time on the rally-ending Power…

Toyota has unveiled new matching matte black liveries for its GR010 HYBRID Le Mans Hypercar and GR Yaris Rally1 that will compete respectively in the World Endurance Championship and World Rally Championship in 2024. The latest corporate colour scheme replaces the red and white that represented the Japanese flag because, said company chairman Akio Toyoda, there “are many cars with similar colours”. The look, according to Toyota, represents ‘speed’, ‘hate to lose’ and ‘prototype’.…

Lando, I’m sorry. In our 26 October issue, this column ended with the line: “Norris must put glory above friendship if he’s to have the best chance of ever prevailing.” It insinuated that the reason why you didn’t fight Max Verstappen harder in 2023 – particularly at the United States Grand Prix you led early on, but also in the British GP where you did likewise – was down to your off-track friendship. As the end of a long season approached, there was talk in the paddock about the friendly, jovial relationships between the current crop of racers, and how this contrasts with the pure loathing in generations of old. Shades of that remain, sure, but there are those who feel the tone of modern driver relationships has changed to…

Bahrain GP 1 Verstappen 2 Perez 3 Alonso The Red Bull RB19 is shown to be so gentle on tyres that it uses the soft compound over the first two stints of this two-stop affair, while the rest go to hards as early as possible. Leclerc jumps Perez at the start, which allows Verstappen to escape. But an engine electrics failure after his second pitstop forces Leclerc out after Perez has battled back past. Alonso rises to inherit third. Saudi Arabian GP 1 Perez 2 Verstappen 3 Alonso A driveshaft failure leaves stomach bug-addled Verstappen starting 15th. Polesitter Perez gifts the early lead to Alonso, who is penalised for lining up too far left. Perez powers back past before a safety car period boosts Verstappen’s recovery. He then passes Russell…

Max Verstappen Miami GP (1st) This was the race that crushed Sergio Perez’s fleeting hopes of challenging for the title, when Verstappen atoned for a messy qualifying to scorch to victory from ninth on the grid. With nothing to lose, Red Bull put the reigning champion on the alternative strategy to start with hard tyres, while the top seven all opened on the mediums. Once Verstappen got into his rhythm, he reeled off passes on Valtteri Bottas, Esteban Ocon, Kevin Magnussen, Charles Leclerc, George Russell and Pierre Gasly in the opening nine laps, then homed in on polesitter Perez and Fernando Alonso. Once Alonso and Carlos Sainz were dispatched, Verstappen went long on his tyres as Perez began to worry about his mediums graining. Verstappen maintained a consistently strong pace…

Inertia is an inescapable phenomenon in Formula 1. Teams can often fix technical issues overnight, but a change of personnel or culture takes much longer to reap the rewards from. Ferrari’s 2023 season is a good example of that lag. It came off the back of a challenging 2022, where it had an initially competitive car, but led to team principal Mattia Binotto resigning. Binotto’s replacement, Fred Vasseur, faced the task of cutting through the byzantine squad to improve its organisation from top to bottom, but it’s a mission that will take time. Questions about its execution and reliability linger, but under Vasseur’s leadership Ferrari appeared a more harmonious organisation that tried to make the most of the hand it was dealt. It has also attempted to be more open…

Formula 1 fans really ought to thank Fernando Alonso. After all, consider how even duller the campaign that’s just concluded might have been without his many battling drives behind the dominant Red Bulls. Or indeed, those times when he eclipsed Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez… Alonso began the year as one of the stories to watch, as he joined a fifth different F1 team of his storied career and made yet another new start, this time at Aston Martin. The team was the dark horse of winter testing thanks to the refinements to a car that had been dubbed a ‘green Red Bull’ following its many in-season changes early in 2022. The updates left Alonso delighted with the car’s predictable handling balance. Aston led the fight for second in the…

James Vowles could be forgiven for having to mop the sweat from his brow as the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix drew to its final stages. Williams could do little to defend its seventh place in the constructors’ standings from AlphaTauri on pace alone – the FW45 proved ill-suited to the Yas Marina Circuit – but strategy helped its cause come race day. With Yuki Tsunoda in impressive form, Williams had to focus on stalling Daniel Ricciardo’s efforts to join the top 10 to ensure that the Italian squad’s late play for seventh could be halted. Ultimately, it worked out, securing the best constructors’ championship position for Williams since 2017. It was an impressive first year as team principal for Vowles. Owner Dorilton Capital had been unhappy with the team’s progress…

Drivers’ standings CALENDAR 1 Bahrain GP (Sakhir), 2 Saudi Arabian GP (Jeddah), 3 Australian GP (Melbourne), 4 Azerbaijan GP (Baku), 5 Miami GP (Miami), 6 Monaco GP (Monte Carlo), 7 Spanish GP (Barcelona), 8 Canadian GP (Montreal), 9 Austrian GP (Red Bull Ring), 10 British GP (Silverstone), 11 Hungarian GP (Hungaroring), 12 Belgian GP (Spa), 13 Dutch GP (Zandvoort), 14 Italian GP (Monza), 15 Singapore GP (Marina Bay), 16 Japanese GP (Suzuka), 17 Qatar GP (Losail), 18 United States GP (Austin), 19 Mexican GP (Mexico City), 20 Brazilian GP (Interlagos), 21 Las Vegas GP (Las Vegas), 22 Abu Dhabi GP (Yas Marina). SPRINT RACES took place in Azerbaijan, Austria, Belgium, Qatar, USA and Brazil. Constructors’ standings Average qualifying positions (prior to grid penalties being applied, excludes sprints) Wins (GPs) Pole positions…

Gabriel Bortoleto may have been an F3 rookie, but his dominant title charge showed maturity beyond his years. Few predicted that the 18-year-old Brazilian would be a contender for the crown after his sixth place in the 2022 Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine, but he clinched the title before a racing lap was run at the Monza finale. As part of Fernando Alonso’s A14 Management stable, Bortoleto (below) joined Trident in time for post-season testing in 2022 and was strong from the off. His victories at the opening two rounds placed him 20 points clear at the top of the table. From then on his margin never dipped below 17, and he finally won it by a clear 45. The battle behind him was pretty hectic. Going into the…

1923 Andre Lagache, Rene Leonard French pair win the inaugural Le Mans, leading a 1-2 for Chenard-Walcker 1952 Hermann Lang, Fritz Riess Pre-war ace Lang profits from heroic Levegh’s misfortune as Mercedes wins on return 2015 Nico Hulkenberg, Earl Bamber Third Porsche shared with Nick Tandy surprises LMP1 regulars as F1 racer Hulkenberg prevails 1928 Woolf Barnato, Bernard Rubin Bentley goes back to back, with Barnato securing the first of three victories…

MINI CHALLENGE Mini Challenge organisers have already opened entries to the category’s 2025 scholarship after receiving significant interest in the inaugural edition. A multi-stage contest is already under way to determine who wins a funded drive in the new JCW Sport sub-class of the Mini Challenge for 2024, with the chosen racer due to be revealed early next year. Over 100 people signed up to take part in the competition, which began with a karting event in October. Now organisers have revealed details and opened entries for the 2025 scholarship, which will encompass two stages next August, beginning with a karting, quiz and media skills event before participants then drive a Mini. The funded JCW Sport prize drive, worth around £50,000, will again be up for grabs. “Given the interest…

HISTORICS Britons Stuart Hall and Mike Cantillon won the Formula 1 features at last weekend’s Gulf Historic Dubai GP Revival, where British Touring Car star Jake Hill left a big impression on his single-seater race debut. The varied F1 grid was joined in the showcase by sports-racers from the Group C and Le Mans Prototype eras, while Saturday evening’s floodlit three-hour 1960s GT contest gave spectators a taste of endurance racing as ambient temperatures dropped from 30C. Four-time F1 world champion Alain Prost – who demonstrated his 1991 Ferrari 643 – and son Nicolas were among the star guests at the Dubai Autodrome, where Thierry Boutsen, Andre Lotterer and Jean-Eric Vergne competed. Boutsen saddled a Warsteiner Arrows A3, 40 years on from the birth of his F1 career in an…

The National section of last week’s Autosport (7 December) contained plenty of numbers. These were all related to grid sizes, but they are not the only figures that are important when it comes to assessing the health of club motorsport. Volunteer numbers are also incredibly significant, too. After all, your series could have the largest entries of any but, unless there are sufficient numbers of marshals, scrutineers, clerks of the course and those filling a multitude of other vital unpaid roles giving their time to assist at your events, then those massive grids are irrelevant as racing cannot take place safely and fairly. And this has certainly been a factor over the past year. Autosport is aware of at least one Donington Park fixture that had to swap from the…

In a professional racing career that spanned more than 30 years, Gabriele Tarquini worked with more teammates than he would care to mention. But after they raced together in all but one of nine consecutive World Touring Car Championship seasons between 2007 and 2015, Tarquini’s choice of Tiago Monteiro as his favourite team-mate should come as little surprise. Across stints at SEAT and Honda, the pair developed a strong bond. “I enjoyed very much to stay on track and outside the track with him,” affirms Tarquini. “We spent holidays together with the family, we spent a lot of time especially in between races to share the same hotel.” The Portuguese arrived in Tarquini’s orbit fresh from two mixed seasons in Formula 1 upon joining SEAT’s five-car superteam in 2007. He…

FORMULA 1 The FIA has codified an aerodynamics testing ban to prevent Formula 1 teams from turning their attention to the landmark 2026 rule changes too early. While the final chassis specification is yet to be locked in, a major reduction in drag and a 40-50kg weight saving are targeted. These will be facilitated by both front and rear wings becoming active, the wheel rims dropping from 18 to 16 inches, and a shrinking of the cars’ wheelbase and width. To prevent any teams baking in an early advantage, and following agreement from the F1 Commission, the governing body has written into the sporting regulations that wind tunnel and CFD work cannot begin on the new-spec machinery until 1 January 2025. A similar arrangement was made ahead of the shift…

INDYCAR The IndyCar Series has elected to postpone the debut of its hybrid unit until after late May’s Indianapolis 500. This is the third delay for the hybrid technology, which is being paired with the current 2.2-litre twin-turbocharged V6, and which has undergone extensive testing over the past three months. Four teams – Andretti Global, Arrow McLaren, Chip Ganassi Racing and Team Penske – and 13 drivers have combined for over 15,000 miles of running. Team Penske’s two-time champion Josef Newgarden, who is among those to have tested the hybrid, said: “It’s really just a timing thing and what’s going to be the best opportunity for it to succeed at the highest level. I think they’re right that the delay is probably the best thing to do, but they’ve done…

IMSA Lamborghini’s Iron Lynx team boss Andrea Piccini has admitted “it’s a bit of a pity” that his squad won’t contest next month’s Daytona 24 Hours after outpacing all its GTP rivals on its US testing debut last week. Lambo’s new SC63 LMDh prototype (above) – a 3.8-litre, twin-turbo V8-powered Ligier-spined chassis that will race in the World Endurance Championship and the longer-distance races in the IMSA SportsCar Championship – lapped Daytona’s road course in 1m35.027s in the hands of Andrea Caldarelli last Wednesday. That is about a second off last year’s pole position time, but it eclipsed Acura, BMW, Cadillac and Porsche across the two-day test and logged over 1000km of running. Iron Lynx will miss the season-opening Daytona race because this same chassis, which was already homologated by…

SUPER FORMULA Newly crowned Formula 2 champion Theo Pourchaire’s move to Japan for 2024 has been ratified, with the Frenchman one of 11 drivers confirmed by Toyota for next season’s Super Formula series. Sauber protege Pourchaire will line up with the Team Impul squad of Japanese racing legend Kazuyoshi Hoshino, and joined Impul for two days of last week’s official SF test at Suzuka. On his first taste of the circuit and the Dallara SF chassis, he lapped sixth quickest, 0.290 seconds adrift of pacesetter Kamui Kobayashi, who will again dovetail his Toyota World Endurance Championship drive with an SF programme for KCMG. Another ex-F2 racer, Nirei Fukuzumi, was second at the test with KCMG, and joins Kobayashi at the team after switching from Honda. Third fastest was Sho Tsuboi,…

WRC Hyundai has completed its World Rally Championship line-up for 2024 by restoring Andreas Mikkelsen to the top flight and retaining veteran Dani Sordo. Mikkelsen, who recently claimed his second WRC2 crown, and Sordo will share Hyundai’s third i20 N WRC entry with Esapekka Lappi. Five-time WRC title runner-up Thierry Neuville and 2019 world champion Ott Tanak, who drove an M-Sport Ford this season, will campaign the team’s full-time entries. Mikkelsen (above) is no stranger to Hyundai. He drove for the team from 2017-19 following a stint at Volkswagen, where he scored three WRC wins before the German marque withdrew from the championship. The 34-year-old Norwegian has been striving to return to the top level and was considered by Hyundai for a 2023 drive before Lappi’s arrival. “We have a…

FORMULA E Reigning Formula E champion Jake Dennis has re-signed with Andretti Global on a multi-year deal that will keep him with the American squad beyond 2025. The 28-year-old Briton, who clinched his maiden FE title on home soil in July, was on a contract that was set to expire at the end of 2024. His new deal overlaps with the intended entry of Andretti to Formula 1. The team’s application has been approved by the FIA and is now in the hands of FOM, and any acceptance could put Dennis in line for F1 opportunities. Dennis’s last full-time, regular single-seater season came in 2016 in GP3, but in 2015 he beat current F1 stars Charles Leclerc, Lance Stroll, George Russell and Alexander Albon to third place in the F3…

Nothing wrong with a bit of wheel-banging It was disappointing that the stewards saw fit to impose a penalty on Sergio Perez following his wheel-banging episode with Lando Norris in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which resulted in little damage to either car. Formula 1 needs to improve the ‘wow’, which it has been striving to do for so many years, and these decisions serve only to instigate yet further clinical and negative constraints to ruin the show. Wheel-banging, provided it is not deemed to be inherently dangerous such as deliberately causing a driver to crash and sustain injury, injects excitement and unpredictability that the genuine motorsport fan wants to see. The last few laps of the French GP at Dijon in 1979 (right) is a case in point, providing…

10 Nico Hulkenberg - RE-ENTRY A surprise? Perhaps, but the German has earned his place, despite having to struggle with a severely flawed car, thanks to a series of strong qualifying efforts and pouncing on opportunities across the races in which Haas was not so severely hampered. There was rust to shake off after three years out, save for a handful of COVID-enforced cameos for Racing Point/Aston Martin, but Hulkenberg immediately broke into Q3 in his first race back in the saddle in Bahrain. A shame, then, that Haas’s 2023 car was completely incompatible with the Pirelli tyre range, ensuring that the VF-23s would regress in race trim. His defensive efforts in Australia were excellent while warding off Lando Norris to claim a season-best seventh; had the last-gasp madness shaken…

Did Toto Wolff pack a travel-size tombola drum in his suitcase this season? For when it came to appraising the W14, it seemed as though the Mercedes motorsport boss had cranked the handle, picked a random ticket, then relayed the corresponding epithet. The car was a “surprise box”, “Diva 2.0”, “miserable thing” and a “nasty piece of work”, to list but a few unflattering testimonials. The first winless creation to emerge from the Brackley factory since 2011 needed until the dying laps of the Abu Dhabi finale to secure second position in the constructors’ championship over Ferrari as George Russell bagged the last of only eight podium finishes for the squad. At least its Italian rival could toast a grand prix victory and is now entitled to more aerodynamic testing…

McLaren and Aston Martin ended up battling for fourth place in the 2023 Formula 1 constructors’ championship. That was a position it looked like McLaren could never reach early on, and one not good enough for Aston at the same time. But their fortunes waxed and waned in wildly contrasting campaigns. This then, is the timeline to explain it all. McLaren’s muted launch McLaren unveils the MCL60 at its sprawling Woking headquarters on 13 February, with much to look forward to based on discussions over the team’s upcoming celebrations of the 60th anniversary of its founding – hence the car name. But new team principal Andrea Stella and McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown are pointedly downcast in their predictions for the year ahead. The Italian says that McLaren is “not…

What does Fernando Alonso reckon was his best race performance in 2023? His Bahrain debut with Aston Martin must be in with a shout. A swashbuckling, wild charge back to an unexpected podium – add in the very Alonso aggrandising team radio and it stands out even further. Then there was leading the next race in Jeddah, being in the victory hunt in Monaco, and beating arch-rival Lewis Hamilton to second in Canada even while battling a fuel system problem. Surely, though, it’s his sterling defence against Sergio Perez through the long final stint in Brazil, which featured Alonso adjusting his lines to gain traction on corner exits against the slippery Red Bull, and had the Spaniard nick third back with a brilliant final-lap pass to secure a final podium…

Paddock politics largely imitated on-track proceedings this year: the drama was turned right down. Formula 1 wasn’t still reeling from an intensely controversial title decider, no teams were found guilty of breaching the cost cap, dolphins could reclaim ownership of ‘porpoising’, and Oscar Piastri didn’t find himself at the centre of a custody battle. But F1 and the FIA certainly weren’t playing happy families. That marriage of convenience remained just as loveless. For many, that it didn’t all boil over was a welcome change, given the exhausting vitriol that has hung around the series since the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix finale. For others, it underlined why 2023 was very far from a season for the ages amid the Max Verstappen monopoly. But perhaps the past 12 months have at…

OBITUARY John Turner, who died on 4 December, was a 1970s Special Saloon star, synonymous with the Skoda-Chevrolet S110R he and friends created and campaigned across a 23-event 1974 season. The timber merchant’s quiet, understated character was diametrically opposed to his fierce determination on track, and having built a stream of winners in the woodyard’s workshop, Turner’s results speak volumes. In 1970, he won the British Automobile Racing Club’s Osram-GEC and Brands Hatch’s Atlantic Petroleum championships in a 1000cc Hillman Imp and, the following year, he contested the British Saloon Car Championship with a Group 2 Sunbeam version. Bill McGovern dominated again in George Bevan’s remarkable Imp, but Turner snatched a round win when the Irishman tripped up at Silverstone. Having notched more Special Saloon victories at Thruxton and Castle…

FASTEST MINI IN THE WORLD Dyno testing of the sustainable fuel used in this year’s Fastest Mini in the World race has shown it offers a slight increase in performance compared to petrol. All of the cars in the annual Brands Hatch contest used Coryton’s Sustain Classic Racing 50 fuel this summer, which reduces carbon emissions by 35%. But to prove how the alternative fuel is still competitive on track, a Mini A-Series engine was tested by Swiftune on its dyno using the Coryton product and it yielded impressive results. “The test shows the Sustain Classic Racing 50 fuel versus the unleaded are virtually the same but the Sustain fuel gives very slightly more power from 7000rpm to 8300rpm over the unleaded race fuel – showing a 0.4bhp to 1.8bhp…

HISTORICS Masters Historic Racing, one of the leading historic racing organisers, has merged with GP Extreme, enabling founder Ron Maydon to step back from the day-to-day running of the business after 20 years. The 2024 schedule will remain unchanged and continue to be operated by Masters Historic Racing’s regular organisational team before transitioning across to GP Extreme, which is headed by Fred Fatien and organises the Historic Dubai Grand Prix Revival. “It felt like the right time to find someone to take Masters onto its next phase,” said Maydon, who founded Masters in 2004. “I will truly enjoy watching Fred, and his team at GP Extreme, embrace the ethos of Masters and implement the great enthusiasm and ideas he has for the future.”…

GOODWOOD Four new house captains in the form of Tom Kristensen, Dario Franchitti, Andy Priaulx and Gordon Shedden have been selected ahead of next year’s 81st Goodwood Members’ Meeting. Each driver will lead one of the four houses, Darnley, Torbolton, Aubigny and Methuen respectively, with events on and off the track dictating which one will come away with the coveted house shield. The quartet will replace the outgoing incumbents, Jochen Mass, Emanuele Pirro, Nicolas Minassian and Anthony Reid – who had been in place since the event was first revived in 2014 – for the 13-14 April meeting. “Of course, I hope Aubigny can win the house shield but first and foremost it’s an honour to be chosen as a house captain at the Members’ Meeting,” said three-time World Touring…

Yes, the headline to this feature may sound like a bold claim. And, yes, we are talking about a driver with only one full season of car racing under their belt. But there’s undoubtedly something special about Freddie Slater’s glittering career to date. It’s rare for a driver to combine remarkable talent behind the wheel – a plethora of top karting titles and his domination of the Ginetta Junior field this year demonstrate that – with the right backing and people around them to make it all the way to the very top of the sport. Slater ticks all of those boxes, and that’s what makes him such an exciting prospect. It’s certainly no surprise that the 15-year-old has entered the world of motorsport. His father Adrian – managing director…