Indholdsfortegnelse for 04/04/24 i Autosport

Before all you realists out there reach for your pen/keyboard/smartphone (delete where applicable!), we’re not getting carried away. We don’t think Red Bull and Max Verstappen are about to be toppled off the back of one victory for Carlos Sainz. But there are reasons to believe that Ferrari is heading in the right direction. As Jake Boxall-Legge shows in our cover feature from page 20, team boss Fred Vasseur has already made changes that many, Charles Leclerc included, believe should push Ferrari closer to ending its wait for a Formula 1 world title. It’ll be 16 years at the end of this season since its last constructors’ crown… Sakon Yamamoto never had a proper chance at the pinnacle of the sport, but he tells us how his lessons in motorsport…

FORMULA 1 Mercedes protege and possible Lewis Hamilton heir Andrea Kimi Antonelli has been pencilled in for his first Formula 1 test this month. The 17-year-old Italian is set to jump behind the wheel of a Mercedes W12 from 2021 at the Red Bull Ring for two days, starting on 16 April. Antonelli, who is competing in Formula 2 with Prema Racing, has several top-flight runs planned – as part of the Testing of Previous Car rules, from this year he is allowed to drive the 2022 W13 challenger for a more representative runout in ground-effect machinery. After the opening three rounds of the F2 season, Anontelli sits ninth in the standings owing to a poor start to the campaign for his Italian team. The series does not reconvene until…

FORMULA 1 Williams expects to field two cars at this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix, after repairing the chassis shunted by Alex Albon in free practice at the recent Australian GP. Albon’s spill down under moved the team to bench slower driver Logan Sargeant in a bid to maximise its chances of scoring points, with production delays over the winter leading Williams to gamble on not building up a spare tub. After Albon’s Friday crash, the wreckage arrived back at the Grove factory in the small hours of Monday morning last week and was inspected, stripped and repaired. “We’re in a good place for having the chassis back early enough for Suzuka,” said team principal James Vowles. “Actually, back in Melbourne, there were photographs and techniques called NDT, which is non-destructive…

WEC Cadillac is pushing ahead with plans to run just two drivers in its solo Hypercar entry in the six-hour World Endurance Championship races this year. Earl Bamber and Alex Lynn will drive the Ganassi-run #2 Cadillac V-Series.R LMDh as a duo in this month’s Imola 6 Hours. Final confirmation of an arrangement that bucks the trend of running three drivers in all races in Hypercar, as well as in LMP1 before it, came on Tuesday with the publication of the entry list for the Italian WEC round on 21 April. Team founder Chip Ganassi outlined at the Daytona 24 Hours IMSA SportsCar Championship season-opener in January an intent to run just two drivers in the Cadillac Racing WEC entry in the shorter races. He stated a desire on the…

FORMULA E British racing car company Lola has announced a first project after its revival in 2022. But it will not be building chassis, rather it has partnered with Yamaha to develop a powertrain for the Formula E World Championship next season. A new relationship between Lola Cars and the Yamaha Motor Company was announced last week with the intent to enter FE in time for the start of the 2025 season, when the Gen3 Evo chassis comes on stream. Details of how they will achieve that have not been released, but they are expected to supply the powertrain to an existing team rather than take up the vacant grid slots for a 12th squad. The project is the first for Lola since the brand was purchased by amateur racer…

Pre-season official British Touring Car Championship testing was due to kick off at Brands Hatch yesterday (Wednesday), but the teams had already been getting mileage in. Last week, the West Surrey Racing BMW and Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall squads pitched up at Snetterton, and Adam Morgan is seen leading Mikey Doble. Colin Turkington and Jake Hill also took to the track for WSR, whose 330e M Sports feature an evolution of their previous engines, with Aron Taylor-Smith behind the wheel of the other PMR Astra.…

Suzuka Length 3.608 miles Number of laps 53 UK START TIMES Friday 5 April FP1 0330 FP2 0700 Saturday 6 April FP3 0330 QUALIFYING 0700 Sunday 7 April RACE 0600 CATCH THE RACE LIVE SKY SPORTS F1 BBC RADIO 5 LIVE TV Highlights CHANNEL 4 1230 TYRE ALLOCATION CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS Drivers Constructors SUZUKA STATS Previous winners 2023 POLE POSITION Max Verstappen 1m28.877s POLE LAP RECORD Sebastian Vettel 1m27.064s (2019) RACE LAP RECORD Lewis Hamilton 1m30.983s (2019) Podiums…

Unless Carlos Sainz’s victory at the Australian Grand Prix is the catalyst for a seismic shift in Formula 1’s competitive order, Ferrari will likely match its longest streak without a title at the end of 2024. Sixteen lean years passed between the Prancing Horse’s constructors’ championship trophies in 1983 and 1999, and this remains its biggest drought. But the teams’ title win in 2008 moves ever further away with the passage of time, the fading fingerprints of that year’s success only recently refreshed by Felipe Massa’s legal action against the FIA. In seasons past, Ferrari’s failure to add to its tally of championships was often traced to the team itself. After the Jean Todt era, the group that had been instrumental in securing successive titles slowly began to disband. Ross…

Rob Huff refers frequently to “stars aligning” as he talks enthusiastically of his full-time return to the British Touring Car Championship after an absence of 19 seasons since his rookie campaign of 2004. That’s no surprise bearing in mind the coincidence of life circumstances that have led the 2012 World Touring Car champion into the open arms of Speedworks Motorsport, where he will pilot one of the Cheshire squad’s Toyota Gazoo Racing GB Corolla GR Sports. One particular aspect of astronomy can be ruled out though. Following his 18 seasons in the World Touring Car Championship, World Touring Car Cup and TCR World Tour (he skipped 2020 to go off and win the TCR Scandinavia title, as you do…), Huff still had offers to continue on the global stage despite…

For more than a decade Formula E had attempted to stage a race in Tokyo, and that dream finally became a reality last weekend when the all-electric championship set up shop in the most populous city in the world. The patience of the sell-out crowd was pushed a little further in the race, with the inaugural contest a slow burner that only came to fruition in the final stages, when Maximilian Guenther and his Maserati MSG team put on a strategic masterclass that got the better of Oliver Rowland and home favourite Nissan. Prior to the event Guenther had finished in the points across all four races in 2024, but none had resulted in a podium. Yet a remarkable climb through the order at the previous round in Sao Paulo,…

CTCRC One-time Praga Cup champion and YouTube star Jimmy Broadbent will dovetail a full season of competition in his wild Mazda MX-5 with GT racing in the Nurburgring-based NLS endurance series this year. Broadbent, who took the 2022 Praga title alongside Gordie Mutch, gave his 700bhp MX-5 Mk1 its racing debut in the Classic Touring Car Racing Club’s Classic Thunder series last weekend at Donington Park – the same venue where he first competed in a standard MX-5 three years ago. “I bought this car in 2014 for £700, and it was my little runaround,” said the 32-year-old, who drove the car last year in Time Attack, where contestants compete against the clock. “And since then, it’s gone insane. It started off having a ‘stock’ engine, built to make 340bhp,…

500cc F3 A newly restored works Cooper Mk2 from 1948 that returned to race in the UK for the first time in 75 years was a highlight of Monday’s 500 Owners Association Formula 3 field at Castle Combe. First of a run of eight, the factory car was debuted by John Cooper at the Luton Hoo Speed Trials on Easter Monday 1948, winning the 500cc class. He shared it with Sir Francis Samuelson, who had a sister car on order. Cooper competed in further speed events that season and finished second in the first 500 race at Silverstone, in support of the British Grand Prix in October. The car was sold to Bill and John Lee of Belfast in 1949 for hillclimbing and emigrated with them to New Zealand. Hec…

CIRCUIT RALLYING With the Circuit Rally title already sealed, Michael Igoe and Will Atkins made it six wins in a row with a dominant victory on the Alan Healy Memorial Rally at Cadwell Park on Sunday. Igoe’s Citroen C3 Rally2 was 11 seconds down on the Paul Murro/Craig Simkiss Ford Fiesta R5 after the opening stage, after getting held up. Tony Robinson/Paul Spooner (Skoda Fabia R5) were a further 10s down, despite contact with a barrier. Over the next two stages, Igoe closed the gap to Murro to 4s, but Robinson was down to fourth behind Alasdair Stables/Neil Jones (Vauxhall Chevette HSR) after stalling at a hairpin. Murro had been delayed too and, once Igoe had the scent of top spot, his recovery drive soon turned the deficit into a…

Forsetti Motorsport made a dream British GT debut with victory in the first race at Oulton Park, but it was Team Parker Racing that came away from Cheshire with the points lead. Series returnee Jamie Day and Mikey Porter produced a dominant performance to claim the opener in their Aston Martin Vantage, and a repeat appeared possible when Porter charged from eighth to lead race two. Their 10-second success penalty on top of the mandatory 14s for Silver crews relative to Pro-Am entrants meant Day rejoined third, but he never got the chance to chase after the pair of amateur drivers he’d fallen behind due to the full-course yellow that ended the contest. That left Parker Mercedes duo Seb Morris and Charles Dawson to celebrate victory after taking second in…

OULTON PARK MSVR 30 MARCH & 1 APRIL Alisha Palmowski, Brandon McCaughan and Linus Granfors scored a win apiece as the new GB4 Championship season got under way at Oulton Park. McCaughan edged Palmowski to pole for races one and two, but it was the latter who made the better start to lead the opening contest while McCaughan slipped to fourth. Palmowski built a 3.5-second lead while her Elite Motorsport team-mate Finn Harrison tussled with Harry Burgoyne behind, with Harrison eventually retiring with car damage after being squeezed wide at Cascades. After reeling off a series of consistent laps, Palmowski cruised to maiden car racing victory on her single-seater debut ahead of KMR Sport duo Burgoyne and McCaughan. “I’ve not had a win for a long time so it’s a…

CASTLE COMBE CCRC 1 APRIL The contrast between junior single-seater formulas at Castle Combe in the 1950s and today are marked, yet both provided scintillating highlights at Easter Monday’s season-opener, the Wiltshire venue’s 500th car race meeting. Like 500cc Formula 3, which embroiled young bucks and veterans contemporarily, and does still in historic guise, rising stars measure themselves against champions in the circuit’s FFord category. Tom Waterfield and Alex Wilson won a 500 race apiece in Cooper-Nortons. Waterfield, 26, dominated the soaking wet opening stanza in Bristolian Tim Ross’s Mk9 – originally owned by Jim Russell, winner of Combe’s October 1955 class swansong – and was victorious by over 40 seconds. Wilson’s Mk10 and Harry Painter (ex-Harry Whitney US import Mk7) splashed home behind the Cotswolds engineer. The dry second…

BRANDS HATCH BARC 31 MARCH-1 APRIL Pickups and their heavyweight brethren were rivals for top billing at the Easter truck extravaganza at Brands Hatch and, while Matt Simpson starred among the Pickups, Ryan Smith also commanded attention as he chases a ninth British Trucks title. Engine gremlins in qualifying left Simpson at the back of the first Pickups grid. Instead, early leader Dale Gent came under pressure from quickest qualifier Chris Brockhurst, with Dean Tompkins on their tail. A bold move by Brockhurst on the final lap resulted in contact with Gent and Tompkins being delayed. Bursting through the confusion came the recovering Simpson for an unexpected win, with Mark Willis second and Tompkins third. Through more chaos in race two came Simpson, seemingly having got rid of all his…

MOTOGP Formula 1 owner Liberty Media has expanded its motorsport horizons with a blockbuster deal to take over majority ownership of motorcycle racing’s MotoGP World Championship. The US media giant has owned F1 since buying it from CVC Capital in 2016-17. CVC also owned MotoGP until 2006, when it was forced to sell its shares in commercial rights holder Dorna Sports by the European Commission’s antitrust regulatory board. Since 2006, Dorna has been 40% owned by Bridgepoint Capital, 38% by the Canadian pension fund (CPPIB), and 22% spread among members of Dorna management. The €4.2billion buyout by Liberty means that the company will control 86% of shares in Madrid-based Dorna, with the remainder still in control of management. The deal has been in the works for some time and was…

WEC Sebastian Vettel completed more than 350 miles on his maiden circuit test aboard a sportscar last week. The four-time Formula 1 world champion put in two double stints at Motorland Aragon at the wheel of a Penske-run factory Porsche 963 LMDh. The tryout, officially to sate Vettel’s curiosity for sportscar racing, came at the start of a 36-hour Le Mans 24 Hours test at the Spanish venue for the Porsche Penske Motorsport World Endurance Championship squad. Vettel put in a total of 118 laps (361 miles) over the course of his run. Vettel, who retired from F1 at the end of 2022, described his time in the 963 as “definitely fun”. “I first had to get used to everything and find my rhythm,” he said. “The driving experience is…

FORMULA E Nissan has become the first manufacturer to formally pledge to compete in the Gen4 era of Formula E from 2026 to 2030. The Japanese marque made the commitment ahead of its home race, the inaugural Tokyo E-Prix, last week. Nissan has been involved in the series since 2018, when it took over the Renault e.Dams entry. Since then it has claimed two race wins, with Oliver Rowland currently riding high in the points table in third place. “I’m delighted to confirm our long-term future in Formula E,” said Nissan managing director and team principal Tommaso Volpe. “We’re also proud to be the first company to sign up until 2030, which is a big year for Nissan as we aim to match or exceed the targets set out in…

If you were on the internet at all following the 2024 Australian Grand Prix, you’ll know all about the statistics and quirks that the result churned up – how Carlos Sainz and Ferrari are the only non-Red Bull winners in 26 races, and that in all three of the Spaniard’s Formula 1 career wins George Russell has crashed out in a Mercedes. Now, thanks to F1’s calendar twist for 2024, the championship is also heading back to the same track that followed Sainz’s 2023 Singapore triumph: Suzuka. After been humbled on Singapore’s bumps and kerbs, Max Verstappen was out to set the record straight last year in Japan. The Suzuka track’s mix of corner types and its abrasive surface are exactly the ingredients for a Red Bull of the current…

“I think you cannot do a better Safari Rally than what we did,” said Kalle Rovanpera as he clambered out of his Toyota GR Yaris after a dominant run to a second career Safari victory. The reserved yet supremely talented double world champion is not one for making big statements, often preferring modesty when discussing his own skills and achievements. But on this occasion, it’s difficult to disagree with his claim. Rovanpera and co-driver Jonne Halttunen delivered one of the most intelligent and faultless performances ever witnessed on the World Rally Championship’s toughest round. The Safari Rally is renowned as a battle of attrition, where survival takes precedence over outright speed. Crews expect trials and tribulations while attempting to tame Kenya’s wild terrain, unpredictable weather and car-destroying roads. But this…

ABT’S FIRST POINTS Nico Muller scored Abt’s first points of the season after finishing seventh in Tokyo. The Swiss (above) had started in the same position after making it through to the qualifying duels for the second time in a row. “If I hadn’t got involved in a crash after the start, we could have even finished in the top five,” he said. Muller’s team-mate Lucas di Grassi failed to complete the distance after contact earlier in the race. BIRD BROUGHT BACK DOWN Sao Paulo E-Prix winner Sam Bird suffered a difficult weekend in Japan, the Briton starting last on the grid before retiring from the race, having pitted earlier for a steering wheel check. The second McLaren entry of Jake Hughes fared little better, finishing 14th after having a…

BMW 1 SERIES SUPERCUP The British Racing & Sports Car Club has revealed a completely redeveloped version of its BMW 1 Series Supercup car as eight of the machines took part in a demonstration day at Croft last week. The club first revealed plans to launch a new category for F20 and F21 models of the 1 Series dating from 2011-15 ahead of the 2022 season, but felt the initial creation “didn’t quite hit the mark” and instead opted to concentrate on its new front-wheel-drive Audi TT Cup Racing series. Now interest has grown in that championship, attention has turned back to the 1 Series Supercup and many of the partners involved in creating the Audis have also had a role in the revamped BMW. “Other than the chassis, it’s…

MINI CHALLENGE Mini Challenge champion Dan Zelos will attempt to defend his title this season as he continues in the series with the Excelr8 Motorsport squad. Zelos, who was also the Mini master in 2021, was dominant last year and won half of the races, and only missed out on pole once. It was all the more impressive after a tricky 2022 campaign, during which he only scored three podiums. After being unable to make a British Touring Car move for this year, Zelos has opted to try to secure more Mini success. “It’s no secret we had been targeting a step up to the BTCC, but due to a variety of factors – from budget to some personal reasons – it didn’t fall into place,” he said. “The BTCC…

In the Oulton Park media centre, a colleague gave a hysterical laugh when hearing of the GT4 winners from British GT’s opening round. It was the sudden realisation that he is older than both drivers’ ages combined – and my colleague isn’t exactly ‘old’. On a wet track, an unfazed Jamie Day, 18, and Mikey Porter, 16, comfortably won from pole to give Forsetti Motorsport a victory on its series debut. While many of their olders rivals in more established teams spun off a tight and slippery circuit, the Forsetti boys kept it within the white lines to show extreme maturity. “They’re mega,” says Forsetti’s driver coach Matt George. “Obviously super young, but we’ve done a lot of days on track. They’re like two little sponges: they take in all…

GT3 Race 1 (27 laps) 1 Rob Collard/Ricky Collard (Lamborghini Huracan EVO2); 2 Ian Loggie/Phil Keen (Mercedes-AMG Evo) +1.470s; 3 Alex Martin/Sandy Mitchell (Lamborghini); 4 Mark Radcliffe/Tom Gamble (McLaren 720S Evo); 5 Shaun Balfe/Adam Smalley (McLaren); 6 Mike Price/Callum Macleod (Mercedes). Fastest lap Gamble 1m43.215s (93.89mph). Pole Rob Collard. Starters 19. Race 2 (25 laps) 1 Martin/Mitchell; 2 Radcliffe/Gamble +1.060s; 3 Loggie/Keen; 4 Balfe/Smalley; 5 Collard/Collard; 6 Chris Buncombe/Alex Buncombe (McLaren). FL Andrew Howard (Aston Martin Vantage Evo) 1m41.006s (95.94mph). P Mitchell. S 19. Points 1 Martin/Mitchell 40; 2 Collard/Collard 35; 3 Loggie/Keen 33; 4 Radcliffe/Gamble 30; 5 Balfe/Smalley 22; 6 Buncombe/Buncombe 12. GT4 Race 1 (27 laps) 1 Jamie Day/Mikey Porter (Aston Martin Vantage Evo); 2 Charles Dawson/Seb Morris (Mercedes-AMG) +6.292s; 3 Jack Brown/Zac Meakin (McLaren Artura); 4 Marc…

DONINGTON PARK BARC 29-30 MARCH Saturday’s Pre-’66 Touring Car thrash was the highlight of a busy British Automobile Racing Club meeting at Donington Park. At least half a dozen cars could have won – and one actually did – before Peter Smith was handed the laurels. Joe Ferguson claimed an unusually dominant win in Friday’s opener in the self-prepared Mini he shares with Tom Bell. But the change of driver meant Bell had to start race two from the rear of the 30-car grid. As Bell charged through, reaching eighth within a lap, Alan Greenhalgh powered his Ford Falcon ahead from pole position, harried by Barry Sime (Mini) and the interloping Lotus Cortinas of Ian Thompson and slow-starting Smith in a little-versus-large contest. As Greenhalgh faded, a safety car set…

500 OWNERS’ ASSOCIATION F3 Race 1 Tom Waterfield (Cooper-Norton Mk9) Race 2 Alex Wilson (Cooper-Norton Mk10) CCRC FF1600 Races 1 & 2 Josh Fisher (Van Diemen JL14) CCRC GT/INTERMARQUE SILHOUETTES Race 1 Keith Butcher (Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo, below) Race 2 Doug Watson (Ferrari 488 Challenge) CCRC SALOONS Races 1 & 2 Harrison Chamberlain (VW Golf GTI) CCRC HOT HATCH Races 1 & 2 Dan Brown (Honda Civic) CMMC SUPER SALOONS/TIN TOPS/WRDA Race 1 Rod Birley (BMW E36 M3) Race 2 Chris Everill (Ginetta-Chevrolet G55 GT4) For full results visit: tsl-timing.com…

DONINGTON PARK 750MC 1 APRIL Paul Cook capitalised on a superb start to win the first BMW Car Club race from his fellow M3 driver Wayne Lewis and the E82 135i of Stuart Pywell as the 750 Motor Club season began at Donington Park on Easter Monday. Cook, who enjoys wet tracks, shot into the lead from sixth on the grid, leapfrogging polesitter Pywell. Cook was challenged most strongly by Lewis, who briefly snatched the lead mid-race, although Pywell also stayed within passing range and did attack, getting ahead of Lewis for a time. Ultimately, Cook was able to pull out a small gap on the final lap, with Pywell just making it to second ahead of Lewis. On a drying track, Cook developed a race-winning lead more quickly second…

BOOK REVIEW THE FORMULA Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg RRP £22 An Autosport reader could quite easily give The Formula: How Rogues, Geniuses, and Speed Freaks Reengineered F1 into the World’s Fastest-Growing Sport a bit of a pasting. If you’re a dyed-in-the-wool Formula 1 fan with a penchant for detailed history, one who’s remained invested throughout the Liberty Media makeover, you might come away not having learned an awful lot new. And, as avid lovers of motorsport, we’re the butt of some of the jokes in this, at times, borderline flippant book. However, that shouldn’t make this speedy 280-page read a write-off because, objectively, it’s brilliantly executed. Despite the title, it’s thankfully nothing to do with will.i.am and Lil Wayne’s recent car crash of a song. Instead, The Wall Street…

Inspired by recent discourse about non-championship Formula 1 races (Top 5, 21 March; Your Say, 28 March), we couldn’t resist this image from the 1965 Race of Champions at Brands Hatch. Packed grandstands and grass banks watched the action play out over two 40-lap heats won by Lotus team-mates Jim Clark and Mike Spence, the latter taking overall honours on aggregate. Clark, who also competed in the supporting British Saloon Car Championship round that bisected the RoC, started both heats from pole and was leading the second outing when he crashed out. For classic motorsport DVDs and downloads head to dukevideo.com For more great photographs, visit motorsportimages.com…

FORMULA 1 The McLaren Formula 1 team has executed yet another restructure of its technical department, with head of car concept and performance David Sanchez exiting after only three months. The departure of the ex-Ferrari engineer, who started in January after a period of gardening leave, is billed as a “mutual decision” after it “became apparent that the role, responsibilities, and ambitions associated with David’s position did not align with our original expectations”. Accordingly, team principal Andrea Stella will take on Sanchez’s old role, which has now been “streamlined to focus on performance”, on an interim basis until a permanent appointment is confirmed. Meanwhile, ex-Red Bull stalwart Rob Marshall is now listed as chief designer, Neil Houldey as engineering director, and Peter Prodromou remains as aerodynamics boss. The design team…

FORMULA 1 Honda is setting up a new Formula 1 facility in the UK that will specialise in carrying out post-race maintenance on the power units it will supply to Aston Martin from the 2026 season. The Honda Racing Corporation subsidiary has continued to provide engines to the Red Bull and RB (formerly AlphaTauri) squads since the manufacturer mothballed its top-flight powertrain programme at the end of 2021. But it will return for the advent of the new 2026 regulations, which ditch the expensive and complex Motor Generator Unit–Heat and feature a shift to a 50:50 power split between the 1.6-litre turbocharged engine and hybrid system. To make its works partnership with Silverstone-based Aston Martin as seamless as possible, HRC has decided on the UK factory and will start a…

WEC Cadillac has lost its fourth-place finish from the World Endurance Championship opener in Qatar. The factory V-Series.R shared by Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn and Sebastien Bourdais has been disqualified for homologation irregularities. Rear diffuser strakes were found to be higher than on the car as homologated, as well as being misaligned, at the end of the Qatar 1812Km on 2 March. The inconsistencies were picked up during three-dimensional scanning during scrutineering and confirmed by further checks after the race. Stephen Mitas, team manager of the Cadillac Racing squad, subsequently revealed during a virtual hearing that the offending parts had not gone through the usual quality control checks at the manufacturer’s technical partner, Dallara Automobili. The stewards of the meeting accepted the explanation that the irregularities were unintentional, but still…

INTERNATIONAL GT OPEN Cheshire sportscar stalwart Oli Webb is to contest the International GT Open series this season for the first time with the Greystone GT squad. Webb, the 2014 European Le Mans Series LMP2 champion and a British Formula 3 race winner in his single-seater days, has been a key part of the Greystone team run by fellow ex-Formula Renault UK ace Mark McLoughlin since its inception in 2021. With the team, he has won races in GT Cup plus the GT4 class at the Gulf 12 Hours in 2022. Webb will share a McLaren 720S GT3 Evo with fellow Greystone regular Andrey Borodin, the duo switching across from the British GT Championship. He will dovetail this with another programme in the one-make McLaren Trophy Europe, where he switches…

WRC A return to a longer and more traditional Safari Rally is being pushed by Kenyan president William Samoei Ruto. The Safari Rally is renowned as the most gruelling event on the World Rally Championship and, when it adopted a special stage format from 1996-2002, it featured 1000km of competitive tests. It returned to the WRC calendar in 2021 after a 19-year hiatus, but in a much shorter format – last weekend’s edition was contested over four days, with crews covering 367.8km (228.5 miles) of timed stages. Speaking at the rally’s ceremonial start, President Ruto said: “We would like to revert to the old tradition when it featured longer distances. I direct our Sports Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba to start engaging the FIA and the Promoter on possibilities of a…

The World Rally Championship is at a crossroads as it strives for growth – in terms of manufacturers competing and a widening of its fanbase – to realise its potential. When it comes to spectacular motorsport, few can rival what the WRC can deliver. But there is no hiding from the fact that changes are required in technical, sporting and promotion facets, with the top-tier Rally1 entry struggling to reach double figures. And addressing the WRC’s current weaknesses is a complex job. Assisted by a working group led by FIA deputy president Robert Reid and former WRC team boss David Richards, the FIA has revealed plans for widespread reforms, some of which could come into force next year if ratified by the World Motor Sport Council in June. The sporting…

One of the most satisfied spectators at last weekend’s Formula E race in Tokyo was the man who first drove an electric racing car on the streets of Japan’s capital. Back in 2015, former F1 driver Sakon Yamamoto, who made his only Formula E race start in London that year, conducted a street demo in the Roppongi district. It took almost a decade – and a location switch from the heart of the city to a more remote exhibition centre area – for the category to finally run a race in Tokyo. And Yamamoto played a role by encouraging the local authorities to allow it to happen. That’s because after his racing career ended, he followed in the footsteps of the likes of Carlos Reutemann and Patrick Tambay in moving…

Fuelled by hydration tablets, a determined Gus Greensmith fought off a stomach bug to begin his WRC2 campaign with a thoroughly deserved victory. The Toksport Skoda driver had long targeted the wild surroundings of Kenya to open his WRC2 season, but hadn’t anticipated a health battle on top of taming the toughest stages on the calendar. A severely under-the-weather Greensmith set the pace from the outset before delivering a mistake-free drive to move into a comfortable lead of more than three minutes at the end of Friday. Once out in front, Greensmith could manage his pace after main rival Oliver Solberg dropped almost four minutes following punctures on stages two and three. Greensmith eventually took the victory from Solberg by 1m23.1s. An all-Skoda podium was completed by Kajetan Kajetanowicz. “There…

BRITISH GT British GT paddock figures welcomed the adoption of the full-course yellow procedure into the championship at Oulton Park, but lamented the regular interruptions in the season-opening round. Both hour-long races featured lengthy FCY interventions, one of which filled the final 25 minutes of the second contest. Views on the procedure were broadly positive as organiser SRO moves to align British GT with other categories in its portfolio, including GT World Challenge Europe. The entire field was allowed to complete their pitstops under FCY in the opener when a car needed rescuing just prior to the pit window. Barwell commercial director Chris Needell said: “It’s absolutely the right thing to do. We showed in that race immediately that it allowed it to be a fair race and safe.” Garage…

LIGIER EUROPEAN SERIES Radical Cup UK champion Theo Micouris is progressing to the Ligier European Series this season, in which he will share a Team Virage-run JSP4 with fellow Radical star Haydn Chance. Micouris impressively claimed the SR1 Cup and overall Radical titles last year in his first car racing campaign. He also sampled GB4 but, with an eye on progressing up the prototype ranks, feels that the Ligier series – which is run by Le Mans organiser the Automobile Club de l’Ouest and supports the European Le Mans Series – is a good way to experience the European circuits. “The championship ticks all the boxes and it’s a great step up from Radicals and hopefully into LMP3, LMP2 and maybe Hypercar in the future,” explained Micouris, who has so…

OULTON PARK BRITISH GT 30 MARCH & 1 APRIL Barwell Motorsport enjoyed a bank holiday Monday to remember as its Lamborghini Huracan EVO2s shared victories in the British GT championship curtain-raiser at Oulton Park. Both hour-long races were won from pole in anti-climactic affairs blighted by lengthy full-course yellow periods, as the procedure was adopted for the first time in British GT (see News). Father-and-son pair Rob and Ricky Collard were never headed in the wet opener, before it was the turn of Alex Martin and Sandy Mitchell to prevail on a greasy track in race two. Martin crucially repassed Mark Radcliffe on their out-laps by getting a better exit from Cascades, after the Optimum McLaren emerged from the pits ahead, before the race was neutralised on the following tour…

OULTON PARK GB3 30 MARCH & 1 APRIL Reigning British Formula 4 conqueror Louis Sharp grabbed the early ascendancy in the GB3 Championship by taking a win on his debut at the opening round at Oulton Park. The Rodin Motorsport driver stormed to a double pole in qualifying and converted the first of those into a maiden victory. His only challenge came after the start into Old Hall, with John Bennett trying a move around the outside before conceding at Cascades. A collision at the rear of the field between Aditya Kulkarni and James Hedley necessitated an early safety car period, following which Sharp immediately pulled away and then edged further clear to finish 1.4 seconds ahead of Bennett. “I really couldn’t have asked for a better start,” said Sharp.…

LYDDEN HILL BRX 30 MARCH/1 APRIL Father-and-son team Ollie and Patrick O’Donovan swept the board in the opening British Rallycross weekend at Lydden Hill. O’Donovan Sr, the 2007 champion, entered the campaign embarking on a title effort having not won a round of the series in almost six years, but with five title runner-up placings in the past eight seasons. His son Patrick, meanwhile, had been the driver to beat over the most recent two terms, although the 19-year-old’s 2024 attack is not in the Peugeot 208 WRX with which he defended his title last year, but with the Ford Fiesta in which he was successful in 2022. Even in the older car, O’Donovan Jr was the only driver to get near Q1 pacesetter Oliver Bennett’s time on Saturday and,…

BRANDS HATCH PICKUP TRUCKS Races 1 & 2 Matt Simpson Race 3 Allen Cooper BRITISH TRUCKS Races 1 & 2 Ryan Smith (Daimler Freightliner) Race 3 Steven Powell (MAN TGA) Race 4 Paul Rivett (MAN TGX) Race 5 David Jenkins (MAN TGS) MINI CHALLENGE CLUBSPORT Races 1, 2 & 3 Ross Alexander (Cooper S, above) JUNIOR SALOONS Races 1 & 2 Harry Smith MG OWNERS’ CLUB Races 1 & 2 Andy Preece (ZR) TRACK ACTION Race 1 Gareth Porter (Peugeot 205) Race 2 Paul Roddison (VW Scirocco) CATERHAM GRADUATES – SIGMA 135 Race 1 Tom McEwing Race 2 Paul Goldstein CATERHAM GRADUATES – SIGMA 150 Race 1 Jamie Ellwood Race 2 Harry Senior DONINGTON PARK BMW CAR CLUB RACING Races 1 & 2 Paul Cook (E46 M3) 750 FORMULA Race…

Le Mans winner Stefan Johansson drove for 10 teams in Formula 1, including Ferrari and McLaren, before enjoying a successful Indycar and sportscar career. Now 67, the Swede points to a driver who he partnered for only 16 races, but is someone he believes is a game-changing F1 all-time great, as his favourite team-mate. Johansson joined McLaren for the 1987 F1 season, replacing the retiring 1982 world champion Keke Rosberg, and teamed up with Alain Prost. “I’ve had so many team-mates, and so many great guys too, that it’s hard to pick one,” says Johansson. “But I’d have to pick Prost.” Prost was coming off his second consecutive world championship with McLaren. But 1987 coincided with the rise of Williams-Honda as F1’s dominant force, along with Ayrton Senna starring at…