Indholdsfortegnelse for 11/04/24 i Autosport

It’s coming to something when, just four races into a Formula 1 season, the main narrative is along the lines of, “well, at least the number two driver at the top team is doing better than usual”. Bearing in mind the characteristics of the Suzuka circuit play beautifully to the strengths of the Red Bull, few expected anything other than another tour de force from Max Verstappen in the Japanese Grand Prix. Only the event’s switch to spring – and the likely colder weather exacerbating one of Red Bull’s few weaknesses, in the form of tyre warm-up – offered any hope to the rest. The thing is, this time Perez genuinely did step up to the plate, in the spirit of Jochen Mass at Montjuic Park in 1975. As Alex…

AUSTRALIAN SUPERCARS Reigning Australian Supercars champion Brodie Kostecki is to make a shock return to the series at Taupo in New Zealand next week with Erebus Motorsport. Kostecki dramatically stood aside from the opening rounds of the series at Bathurst and Albert Park, with Todd Hazelwood driving his Chevrolet Camaro alongside Jack Le Brocq. Hazelwood is now expected to return to his original role as an endurance co-driver. “I’m excited to be back behind the wheel again – I needed some time away to prioritise my health,” said Kostecki in a team statement. “I’m grateful for the support, privacy and time Betty [Klimenko, team owner], Barry [Ryan, CEO] and the team have given me.” During the time Kostecki was sitting out the early rounds of the series, a number of…

USF JUNIORS The 15-year-old son of late IndyCar hero Dan Wheldon scored two race victories on his debut on the series’ junior ladder at NOLA Motorsports Park last weekend. Andretti Global protege Sebastian Wheldon had already triumphed in Skip Barber series races and the YACAcademy Winter Series (for F4 cars) before joining Velocity Racing Development’s line-up for USF Juniors. He won the first and third races at the Lousiana track, with Briton Liam McNeilly triumphing in the other on his US debut after success in Ginetta Juniors and GB4. “He did a test with us in December and they signed with us in January,” said VRD’s expat English boss Dan Mitchell of Wheldon. “We managed to get the deal done with Andretti to move forward. As soon as he got…

“I think it was my best weekend. I don’t know. Or the top five. Inside the top five ever, for me.” At the classic, brilliant Formula 1 venue of Suzuka, we saw and heard both adjectives in and from Fernando Alonso, too. His assessment after taking his Aston Martin to sixth in Sunday’s race – a day after he’d qualified fifth – brings in another one: vintage Alonso. His unique brand of hyperbole was back on full display. And deservedly so. Suzuka was, after all, a venue where Aston trailed its frontrunning rivals badly on F1’s previous visit just six months ago. Its 2024 position in the pecking order means that ninth place is its baseline expectation. And Lance Stroll’s pitiful weekend in the other AMR24 again highlighted the heights…

For the first time in over year, there was a genuine scrap between the Red Bulls for pole position at Suzuka. Key to this was Sergio Perez feeling “a lot more comfortable, a lot happier and the confidence slowly coming back” now that he and Red Bull have abandoned trying “to chase it too much with the set-up” when taking on Max Verstappen, as he did across 2023. Heading into qualifying, Verstappen had enjoyed a commanding 0.269-second advantage over his team-mate in FP3, which followed the drizzly FP2 washout on Friday. In Q1, Verstappen opened up a massive 0.437s ahead of Perez – a gap big enough for Fernando Alonso (eventually a fine fifth behind Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz in Q3) to slot into. But come Q2, there was just 0.012s…

Fernando Alonso headed off a late-blooming challenge from Oscar Piastri and George Russell as he successfully defended sixth place, hailing the Japanese Grand Prix as one of his “top five” performances. Aston Martin driver Alonso had given up DRS to the chasing Piastri’s McLaren on the main straight, only to counter it with energy deployment after charging up his battery over the rest of the lap. When Russell came to play behind them, Alonso let Piastri battle with the Mercedes, dropping both to cement his position. The trio had all opted for differing flavours of two-stop strategy. Alonso began on the soft tyres, progressing through the mediums and then hards, while Piastri opened with the medium compound prior to two hard-tyre stints. The McLaren driver attempted to undercut Alonso with…

TOTO WOLFF MERCEDES TEAM PRINCIPAL Not great results, but do you have new confidence in the W15? When you look at the results, it’s clearly not good. And everybody knows that. But we’ve definitely made a big step forward in how we want to run the car, and in our understanding. This was one of the worst tracks for us last year and we were pretty close to the frontrunners – not Max, but the guys behind – in qualifying, and that came as a surprise. We were very quick through the Esses; last year we were nowhere. What happened with the strategy? When you look at how it unfolded, we were trying to make a one-stop stick. We probably over-managed the tyres and had an atrocious first stint, but…

GT WORLD CHALLENGE ENDURANCE CUP PAUL RICARD (FRA) 7 APRIL ROUND 1/5 Smarting from last year’s GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup title defeat, BMW bounced back to win the opening round of the 2024 championship at Paul Ricard. Once again, Rowe Racing outshone marque rival WRT, and it was Augusto Farfus, Max Hesse and Dan Harper who teamed up to win the three-hour race. Qualifying had looked good for Lamborghini, with the combined efforts of Mirko Bortolotti, Matteo Cairoli and Andrea Caldarelli good enough for pole in the Iron Lynx Huracan, and it was Bortolotti who led away. It was a messy first hour, however. There was a first-lap safety car to replace bollards that had been scattered across Provence from Turn 1 zealotry, a second when the lighting…

No longer can Tom Ingram’s name be prefaced with the words ‘reigning British Touring Car champion’, but who’s to say that can’t be the case once again in 2025? After winning the 2022 title in his second season with Excelr8 Motorsport and its Hyundai i30 N Fastback, he fell only just short last term after what on the points chart appeared to be a season-long battle with eventual title winner Ash Sutton, but in reality was usually a forlorn struggle. Ingram is chipper, as usual. And this time, at Excelr8’s livery launch to celebrate the centenary of title backer Bristol Street Motors, he’s accompanied by his beloved labrador. In fact, this is potentially the first time in Autosport history that a driver has been interviewed while holding a dog on…

HISTORICS Multiple Daytona 24 Hours winner Wayne Taylor will make a return to the cockpit 10 years on from his last race aboard an ex-Jody Scheckter Wolf Formula 1 car at the Monaco Historic Grand Prix next month. Taylor, who has won Daytona twice as a driver and four times as a team owner, purchased the 1978 Wolf-Cosworth WR4 last year to fulfil the twin ambitions to race an F1 car and to compete at Monaco. A full restoration has been completed ahead of the South African-born driver’s racing return at the age of 67 on the streets of Monte Carlo on 11-12 May. “When I set out as a racing driver, my ambition was to get to F1,” said Taylor, whose single-seater career peaked with victory in the 1986…

BRITISH GT Jann Mardenborough will make his long-awaited return to British GT when he contends the three-hour Silverstone 500 with Team RJN alongside Chris Buncombe. The 27-28 April event will end Mardenborough’s 10-year absence from the series since he last competed for RJN at Brands Hatch in 2014, two years after contesting a full season with the squad. He earned that drive after winning the GT Academy in 2011, which resulted in a professional contract with Nissan – a previous RJN partner. “I’m looking forward to it,” said Mardenborough about the one-off Silverstone outing in a McLaren 720S GT3. “Since my time away racing abroad in Japan and other places, I’m pleased to see the championship expand and grow with more top drivers and teams in both GT3 and GT4.…

TCR UK TCR UK frontrunner Adam Shepherd is targeting this year’s title after securing a late switch to a Cupra Leon Competicion for the 2024 campaign. Shepherd has been a race winner driving a Hyundai i30 N in each of the past two seasons, and was in contention for last year’s title before slipping to fifth in the final standings. The second-generation Cupra has a proven record in TCR UK: Carl Boardley won the 2023 title, while Lewis Brown and Jenson Brickley were also race winners. Shepherd will remain with Area Motorsport to pilot the car in which Brickley scored two poles and finished third in last year’s points. “I’m really looking forward to it,” said Shepherd, who will not drive the car until Friday testing for the opening round…

MINI MIGLIA Three-time Mini 7 Racing Club champion Ian Curley plans to contest a full Mini Miglia campaign this year, having returned to the category for the first time in more than two decades over Easter at Donington Park. Curley won Miglia titles in 1998 and 1999 before spells in the Renault UK Clio Cup and a brief stint driving a Lexus in British Touring Cars in 2005. More recently he has focused on historic Mini racing but has now built a new 1.3-litre Miglia. “There’s not a lot of Mini racing in the historic [scene] at the moment so I want to go racing more,” explained Curley. “Loads of my friends do this. One of my best friends is [reigning champion] Aaron Smith – his car is built in…

Leading the F1 Academy standings after the opening event. Setting fast times in British Formula 4 winter testing. There are clearly some encouraging early-season signs for Abbi Pulling this year. But things have not always looked so strong for the Rodin racer. Just two-and-a-half years ago, she feared for her career after her British F4 budget ran out. And even last season she endured some wildly varying results. But now, Pulling believes she has turned a corner. Putting the highly rated Mercedes-backed Doriane Pin under pressure in the Saudi Arabian F1 Academy opener was very promising. And things got even better when she inherited the race-two win thanks to Pin being penalised for not slowing down after failing to see the chequered flag. Pulling believes a fresh mindset is key…

Any organisation that reaches its 90th birthday is clearly doing something right and deserving of a celebration. And the Vintage Sports-Car Club, which was founded in 1934, is certainly planning to commemorate its 90th in style with a week of festivities later this year. Starting with its traditional Vintage Prescott hillclimb event on the weekend of 3-4 August, the action is then due to transfer to in and around the Stratford-upon-Avon Racecourse on the Monday, when a week’s worth of activities kicks off. “There will be driving tours, rallies and a big gala day on the Saturday – car clubs are invited to come along to that,” says VSCC secretary Tania Brown. “The public is invited to come in on that day and we will have lots of cars running.…

Johnny Herbert won the Le Mans 24 Hours with the vivid Mazda 787B and three Formula 1 races in Benetton and Stewart machinery. But the car he selects from his career is one in which he never scored a podium. The Lotus 107, designed by Peter Wright and Chris Murphy, arrived after the first few rounds of the 1992 F1 season and went on, in one form or another, until the middle of 1994, moving from Ford V8 power to Mugen-Honda V10. Along the way, Herbert picked up three fourth-place finishes and impressed alongside Mika Hakkinen (1992), Alex Zanardi (1993) and Pedro Lamy (1993-94). “The most fun and adrenalin I got was with the 107 Lotus,” says the veteran of 160 grands prix. “We still had the massive diffusers and…

FORMULA 1 A bemused Helmut Marko has said that it is “strange” to see 2026 newcomer Audi putting pressure on the Formula 1 driver market, but his Red Bull team insists it will not rush its decision on who Max Verstappen’s team-mate will be next year. The Milton Keynes-based operation has a vacant slot for 2025, with Sergio Perez’s contract running out at the end of this season. Perez has shown improved form this year and lies second in the drivers’ standings after finishing runner-up behind Verstappen in three of the first four races. But Red Bull still wants to see whether Perez can keep up this form long term – he started last season in similarly good shape before a mid-year slump that prompted questions about his future. The…

INDYCAR Italian single-seater powerhouse Prema Racing is to enter the IndyCar Series in 2025. The team announced on Tuesday plans for a two-car team powered by Chevrolet engines, following weeks of speculation reported in Autosport. Although this is the first expansion into North America under the Prema name, it already has a foothold in the continent via its operation of the Iron Lynx Lamborghini LMDh programme in the IMSA SportsCar Championship in addition to its European-based teams in Formula 2, F3, FRegional and various F4 series. The new team “will operate out of a state-of-the-art facility located in Indiana”. Speculation suggests that the team wants to pair an established IndyCar ace with a rookie from its European programme. “Today’s announcement marks a pivotal moment in the history of Prema Racing,”…

BTCC While Jake Hill stamped in a late time to take first blood in British Touring Car Championship official pre-season testing at Brands Hatch last week in one West Surrey Racing BMW, it was the fate of the driver of another that dominated speculation. Bobby Thompson was given the chance to drive the Sunbury squad’s surplus 330e M Sport as underfunded driver and top team continue to work flat-out on making the commercial numbers add up for 2024. Due to budget – or lack of it – the car did not run the Cosworth hybrid kit and therefore had no transponder, but WSR reported that Thompson circulated in the 48.3s, good enough for the top 10. Further, he lapped at 53.50s in the wet during the opening hour, when pacesetters…

OBITUARY Renowned sportscar journalist Michael Cotton has died aged 86. A career spanning more than 60 years included a stint as editor of Motoring News, occasional articles for Autosport and authorship of 30 books. Yet he will probably be best remembered as a fixture of the endurance racing paddock – he attended every Le Mans 24 Hours between 1968 and 2008 in a working capacity. Less well known were Mike’s rallying success as a co-driver: he was an outright winner of the Tanganyika Rally in East Africa and a class winner on the Tulip Rally in 1960 and 1975 respectively. During a stint as PR boss for Porsche GB he launched a one-make series for the 924, the roots of the current Carrera Cup GB. Cotton joined Teesdale Publications in…

NLS Former IndyCar star Robert Wickens’s hopes of racing in the Nurburgring 24 Hours received a blow last Saturday when he was involved in a high-speed crash in the Nurburgring Langstrecken Serie opener at the fabled Nordschleife. The Canadian’s Target SRL-run Hyundai Elantra N TCR failed to slow down and vaulted the barrier at the Hohenrain chicane that ends the lap of the daunting 12.9-mile circuit, just before it rejoins the Grand Prix track. Wickens, who suffered a serious spinal cord injury in an IndyCar crash at Pocono in 2018 that left him paraplegic, was sharing the car with compatriot Mark Wilkins. Wickens uses hand controls to manipulate the throttle, brake and clutch, a system that can be deactivated so his co-driver can drive in a regular manner. The Hyundai…

Are strike rates the best measure of greatness? For me, it’s the percentages that measure brilliance and reliability in construction and driving skill. Surely Ayrton Senna’s 65 poles from 162 starts (40%) is better than Michael Schumacher’s 68 poles from 306 starts (22%)? Right now, Max Verstappen’s percentage of wins to starts is 30.2% whereas Lewis Hamilton’s is 31.0% despite two years in the doldrums. But Max will surely better Hamilton’s wins this season. Pole positions are a different matter. Max, currently 19%, has just overtaken Charles Leclerc, needs nine to beat Schumacher, 14 to beat Stirling Moss, but needs to almost double his current tally of 36 to catch Hamilton, and that’s assuming Leclerc and Hamilton have no more poles. Senna’s 40% poles? That’s probably beyond even Red Bull…

There’s a particular pilgrimage to take at Suzuka. After you head north-west out of the top of the paddock, squeeze past rusting catchfences between the Casio Triangle chicane and Dunlop Curve at the top of the Esses, and cross the dividing asphalt of the track’s split layout arrangement, you climb over a tyre barrier. After passing the small memorial to Jules Bianchi – this event is the 10th anniversary of the terrible crash here that claimed the Frenchman’s life – and walk for two minutes more, the destination is partially in sight. Degner 1. Climb the grassy knoll on its inside and you’ve made it – a 360-degree vista featuring the second part of the Degner complex in the foreground, behind the track’s crossover bridge and the magnificence of 130R.…

1991 NURBURGRING 430KM JAGUAR XJR-14 STARTED 2ND | RESULT 1ST 10 Emotions were running high for round five of the 1991 world sportscar championship at the Nurburgring. Warwick had contemplated retirement following the death of younger brother Paul in a British Formula 3000 crash at Oulton Park just a month before. Then he was given a rude chop by Michael Schumacher’s Mercedes during qualifying, taking his Jaguar’s left-front wheel off. A furious Warwick reacted by famously chasing the German through the garages. And the TWR Jaguar team was under pressure, its XJR-14 having been caught thanks to significant developments from Peugeot and the Silver Arrows. After Warwick qualified second to team-mate Teo Fabi, debutant David Brabham started the car. He fell to third at the start as Keke Rosberg’s Peugeot came…

1 CAN-AM THUNDER FORECAST IN WEST SUSSEX The Canadian-American Challenge Series – known universally as Can-Am – was a no-holds-barred big-buck sportscar championship that reigned from 1966 until 1974. John Surtees won the inaugural title in his Lola T70 Spyder. Four years of McLaren domination followed – poignantly with Bruce McLaren himself and fellow Kiwi Denny Hulme – before Porsche and Shadow prevailed. Lola T70s pepper Sunday’s Surtees Trophy prototype encounter, but significant later cars are corralled in daily Can-Am demos. The Hepworth team’s thuggish BRM-Chevrolet P154 and P167, Ferrari 712P, Lola T160 and T222, March 717, McLaren M6Bs, M8s and M20, plus a pair of Porsche 917/30s retrace history, but the Shadows will wow onlookers. Not previously seen together in Britain, Don Nichols’s AVS cars – from the wacky 1969…

BRITISH GT Reigning British GT4 champion Matt Cowley is targeting a strong fightback for the next event at Silverstone after his title defence got off to a rocky start at Oulton Park over Easter, when a litany of engine problems prevented him from starting either race. The Paddock Motorsport Mercedes-AMG GT4 that Cowley shares with Ed McDermott was stranded in opening practice on the Saturday by a broken torque tube and could not be repaired in time for qualifying. Replacement parts were sourced and fitted on Sunday, but the engine seized when the team fired it up, leaving the crew sidelined for both of the Monday races. “The car had run faultlessly all the way through testing, and the practice days we did before the season-opener, so it was a…

PORSCHE CARRERA CUP GB Former W Series driver and 2014 Mazda MX-5 Supercup champion Abbie Eaton will move into the Porsche Carrera Cup GB this season, driving an entry run as a partnership between Team Parker Racing and her Rebelleo squad. Eaton raced in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe last year, and also founded Rebelleo, which is designed to help make motorsport more accessible for people from a wide range of backgrounds and genders. “We had several plans for this season, so it’s been a busy few months trying to get things organised,” said Eaton. “It feels like a fantastic car and to be on the TOCA package is ideal. I’ve seen the support and professionalism that Porsche offers, so when Stuart [Parker] said he had a seat available, I…

C1 ENDURANCE SERIES Two Mk2 versions of the Citroen C1 competed in the C1 Endurance Series for the first time at the Snetterton opener last weekend. The C1 Club entry was shared by Mike Harris and Matthew Parkes, with David Drinkwater trying the car in qualifying, while Allen Prebble and Greg Rose piloted the Silverlake car (left). “We did a test day with it at Castle Combe in the dry and it went well,” said Harris, after finishing 31st with a few teething problems. “It’s a bit heavier than the Mk1, and feels like a more solid rear beam. But it’s still in the development stages and we are C1 boss Robin Welsh’s guinea pigs.” The Silverlake car had a few issues too, but took the flag in 27th place.…

RALLYING Former M-Sport WRC2 driver Rhys Yates will return to the British Rally Championship at this weekend’s Rallynuts Severn Valley Stages. Yates hasn’t competed since 2021’s Roger Albert Clark Rally, as he chose to focus on business commitments, but has been enticed back for the second round of this year’s BRC. The 31-year-old will drive a Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 from Dom Buckley RSC, with Craig Drew alongside. “I really fancy getting back out,” Yates said. “Watching the North West Stages, I got massive FOMO [fear of missing out]. I’m looking forward to getting out on some stages I know, which will help with the preparation. But, as sad as it sounds, I’m almost looking forward to the preparation and doing a recce – that’s how much I’ve got a…

MONDELLO PARK MPSC 6-7 APRIL Irish Legends champion Peter Barrable entered the Fiesta Zetec opener at Mondello Park last weekend in the car raced by Tommy Byrne and Michael Fassbender in last November’s endurance race and proved his own star quality. A heroic late effort in qualifying enabled Barrable to grab pole on the capacity 26-car grid, while Northern Irish Zetec champion Michael Graham joined him on the front row on his Mondello debut. A pile-up at Turn 1 eliminated Graham and a few others, and Barrable made no mistakes at the restart to take a fine win, with Dave Maguire and Andy Kavanagh shadowing him across the line. With the top six reversed on the grid, Sean McGovern drove well to take the win in race two. Barrable had…

EXPERIENCES SIM SUITE Silverstone Museum £20-25 Silverstone Museum has opened a new sim racing facility, offering fans yet another way to get closer to the action on circuit. The museum’s simulators have already seen 11,000 people try their hands at sim racing since being introduced nearly a year ago, with 60 people on a normal day and 120 people on an F1 weekend turning some virtual wheels on the virtual track. Now the sims have a dedicated home in the all-new Sim Suite at Silverstone. It offers seven simulators, live timing boards, and even multiple TV screens broadcasting the on-track action for those who aren’t busy driving it virtually. Autosport headed to last month’s opening and enjoyed the chance to try the sims. Jumping behind the wheel of a Radical…

5 ENDING ITS F3000 JINX After six years of varying fortunes, Lola delivered the International Formula 3000 crown in 1990 with DAMS driver Erik Comas. An early adopter of carbon chassis, Lola was a winner in 1986 but couldn’t deny March a third straight title despite claiming four wins in 1987. When March then fell away, Reynard took its place as F3000’s dominant force, but with second-year driver Comas the T90/50 delivered the goods. 4 BIG-BANGER SUCCESS The T70 is probably Lola’s most famous design. As an open-top sports-racer it took the inaugural Can-Am title with John Surtees at the wheel in 1966, then scored successes in Mk3 and Mk3B coupe forms. Usually outgunned by bigger and better teams on a world stage, things were different when Penske got one for 1969.…

FIA FIA member clubs and sport federations of the Americas have recommended that the governing body takes legal action against those who it believes slandered the organisation and its president Mohammed Ben Sulayem. Ben Sulayem was recently cleared of wrongdoing in an internal investigation over allegations of interference in two Formula 1 races last year. Clearly designed to quell any talk of an internal move against Ben Sulayem in the short term, a letter signed by more than 30 representatives of FIA federations from the Americas has shown emphatic support for him. And there is a clear message that they are unhappy about recent allegations made against Ben Sulayem, who was investigated after a whistleblower suggested he had interfered with a stewards’ decision at last year’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix…

WEC Alpine World Endurance Championship driver Ferdinand Habsburg suffered back injuries during testing at Motorland Aragon last month that threaten to rule him out of upcoming rounds of the series. The Austrian sustained two broken vertebrae in the accident aboard one of the French manufacturer’s A424 LMDhs on 27 March at the Spanish circuit. It is still unclear whether Habsburg, who was classified seventh in the 2024 WEC opener in Qatar last month aboard the Alpine he shares with Charles Milesi and Paul-Loup Chatin, will be fit to race at Imola on 21 April. A statement from Alpine said that his period of recovery “has not yet been defined”. A return to the cockpit for round two of the WEC in Italy appears to be a long shot, but the…

NASCAR Hendrick Motorsports celebrated the 40th anniversary of Geoff Bodine taking its first NASCAR Cup win through a victory at Martinsville with another at the same track last Sunday by its emerging star William Byron. Byron’s win on the famed Virginia short oval was his third victory in the season’s first eight races. His Chevrolet was the first car on the lead lap to make a final green-flag pitstop – uncharacteristic on this short track – in the middle of the final stage. When the cycle of stops was completed, he emerged as the leader for the first time. Byron quickly built a big lead and appeared headed to uneventful victory when a wreck with two laps to go brought out a caution and sent the race into overtime. After…

WRC World Rally Championship teams have raised concerns to the FIA regarding the proposed sudden technical changes for 2025 and expressed a desire for the current rules to remain in place. Sources have confirmed to Autosport that Toyota, Hyundai and M-Sport collectively wrote to the FIA last week citing a need for the current Rally1 technical rules to see out their original window of 2022 to the end of 2026. The letter was sent ahead of a planned WRC Commission meeting in Geneva on Monday and Tuesday. In February, the FIA’s working group revealed its vision for the future of top-level rallying, including a raft of proposals incorporating changes to technical and sporting regulations, and the promotion of the category. The proposals will be voted on at June’s World Motor…

NLS Lamborghini ace Jordan Pepper was pipped at the post in the Sunday leg of the NLS opener on the Nurburgring Nordschleife by 0.042 seconds in a bizarre finish. The South African was running low on fuel in the Abt-run Huracan GT3 EVO2 he shared with compatriot Kelvin van der Linde, and knew that if he crossed the line before the four hours had elapsed he would not make it around another lap. He slowed in order to ‘waste’ a crucial few seconds, but could not prevent Laurens Vanthoor, in the Manthey EMA Porsche co-driven by Kevin Estre, surging past just as the chequered flag was unfurled. The victory for the Manthey pair made up for Saturday, when they were narrowly beaten to honours by the Falken Motorsports Porsche of…

The story of the 2024 Japanese Grand Prix was one of changing seasons. Just six months ago, Formula 1 arrived at Suzuka under hot, blazing skies of the mid-autumn climate in the north-western Pacific region. Last weekend, it was back for the first Japanese GP to take place in the spring. That meant cooler conditions and a potentially very different race. New too to F1 eyes was the enchanting cherry blossom, which seemed to herald change in the air. Once again Max Verstappen emerged victorious, but this wasn’t a crushingly dominant display from the Dutchman on his own. As in 2023, the teams arrived at Suzuka following a rare Carlos Sainz triumph for Ferrari. But this time Sergio Perez made it an all-Red Bull front row and a race 1-2.…

Alex Albon admitted to worrying about Williams’s spare parts situation “before I even hit the wall” after his first-lap clash with Daniel Ricciardo, when the RB veteran showed the Anglo-Thai the door into Turn 3. Williams will not have a spare chassis complete until May’s Miami Grand Prix at the earliest, while Logan Sargeant had to roll back to an older-spec front wing after his FP1 crash at the Dunlop Curve. Their incidents put further pressure on the Grove squad’s sparse spare parts department, and Albon’s car will be shipped back to the UK for check-ups and repairs before being sent to China for the 19-21 April weekend. “He didn’t see me, clearly,” Albon remarked about the crash. “I tried to back out of it at the last minute. But…

Logan Sargeant’s “silly” FP1 shunt elicited disappointment from Williams team principal James Vowles, even though the crash did not cause damage to the American’s chassis days after it had been repaired following Alex Albon’s tangle with the wall in Australia. Approaching the Dunlop Curve, Sargeant washed out towards the grass and could not regain control of his FW46, hitting the wall with both the front and rear corners of his car. “It’s at the top of the brow of the hill there – he struggled to see where his positioning was on track,” Vowles reflected. “What you saw here wasn’t a driver making a mistake because he was pushing to the limits. It’s a very different type of mistake, a frustrating one by all accounts, because it wasn’t on the…

Between his successful short-oval career and arrival in Formula 1, Warwick blazed a trail in junior single-seaters, which provided many highlights. Although no one moment stands out, Warwick fondly remembers his Formula Ford efforts, particularly in 1976 when he took more than 30 wins in a Hawke DL15. “All the races were just phenomenal,” he says. “They were exciting and competitive. That’s when I started to believe I wasn’t too bad.” Quality opposition that included David Kennedy, Derek Daly, Rick Morris and competitors from Europe, such as Arie Luyendijk, Michael Bleekemolen and Jan Lammers, kept things tight. “We did as many races as we could,” adds Warwick. “We loved it. The cars were pretty equal so you had to be on form to win.” Warwick battled Nelson Piquet hard throughout…

BRITISH F4 Successful UAE Formula 4 squad Xcel Motorsport is expanding into the British series this year and plans to run at least two cars. The Dubai-based karting and single-seater operation, which has won the UAE F4 teams’ title on three occasions, briefly joined the Spanish F4 series in 2019. But with its British owners having evaluated competing on UK soil “for a while”, they have now decided to set up a base in the country. Zack Scoular, who initially began racing for Xcel in karts aged nine, has been confirmed as the team’s first British F4 driver. “It’s all very exciting for us and we’re looking forward to it,” said team manager Paul Hardy. “We’ve shown some really good speed in testing and managed to be there for every…

BRITISH GT The Lotus name endured a mixed return to British GT at Oulton Park earlier this month when one of two Mahiki Racing Emira GT4s was hindered by damage, team owner and driver Steven Lake has revealed. The season-opener marked the end of Lotus’s six-year absence from British GT, and the car of Lake and Nathan Harrison finished second-last and third from the bottom in the two races, after sustaining damage heading to the grid. “We had a bit of an issue with the brake where the pedal hit the floor before race one,” said Lake. “It’s an error that we’ve never experienced before. “So, we tried to find out what was going on and we had to wind the bias all the way to the rear. That sort…

GINETTA GT ACADEMY PalmerSport Ginetta scholarship winner James Nicholas was left in disbelief after a remarkable victory in his first car racing start in the Oulton Park GT Academy opener over the Easter weekend. Nicholas, who won a shootout to earn the drive and a racing licence just three weeks beforehand, qualified on the front row and then swept around polesitter Mike Taylor at the start before resisting Harry Gamble’s late attack. “I’ve no idea what happened, but somehow I’ve got a trophy in my hand,” he said. “At the end of the day, as much as I played it down, I’m very competitive and once I was in the car, it just took over. It was like it was autopilot. “Unfortunately, I’ve probably put a mark on my back,…

BRITCAR TROPHY The new fifth-generation Renault Clio enjoyed a successful maiden UK race outing over the Easter weekend when Daire Flock scored two Britcar Trophy class victories at Donington Park. Reigning Junior Saloons champion Flock had already been confirmed as racing in the new Clio Cup GB series this year with Westbourne Motorsport but, with the start of that championship pushed back to June amid delays in the delivery of the cars, he used the Britcar races as a way of getting to grips with the machinery. “We were just wanting to test the car – it was about making sure, when we get to the first Clio Cup round at Brands Hatch, we can hit the ground running,” explained Flock, who said the Westbourne team continually improved the set-up…

HILLCLIMB The British Hillclimb Championship will have a delayed start in 2024 after the opening event at Prescott was postponed due to ground conditions. The BHC and the Midland Hillclimb Championship were both due to start at the Gloucestershire venue next weekend. However, the recent extreme wet weather has left the camping and parking area at Prescott waterlogged. With more rain forecast leading up to the event, the Bugatti Owners Club made the difficult decision to postpone the meeting. The event will now move to the weekend of 17-18 August, leaving the BHC to start at Craigantlet in Northern Ireland on 4 May. A statement from Prescott said: “We appreciate this decision will cause disappointment, but we’d like to reassure everyone that it is not being taken lightly. Having assessed…

Rickard Rydell (Volvo S40) locks horns with Jason Plato (Renault Laguna) in race two of the British Touring Car Championship’s August 1997 visit to Thruxton. The Swedish driver’s initial attempt to squeeze past the Briton at Club on lap 16 of 20 was unsuccessful and, although he managed to make the move for sixth place stick at the same spot on the final tour, Plato stole back ahead before the chequered flag. Go to autosport.com/podcast to find out who makes the cut in our BTCC Super Touring drivers top 10, and catch up on previous tin-top content. For more great photographs, visit motorsportimages.com…