Indholdsfortegnelse for 05/12/24 i Autosport

Not for the first time in the 2024 Formula 1 season, Max Verstappen won a grand prix that his Red Bull probably shouldn’t have done last weekend. Lando Norris’s McLaren was the fastest car around the Losail circuit but Verstappen got the job done in qualifying (penalty aside), made a good start and maximised what he had. Given McLaren’s pace on the harder tyre, Norris’s best chance would have come in the final stint, but that was scuppered by his penalty for not lifting for double waved yellow flags. Race control’s decision not to throw a virtual safety car or the real thing for Alex Albon’s wing mirror was controversial, but it was still Norris’s mistake that led to the censure. Alex Kalinauckas outlines the key moments in our report…

FORMULA 1 Audi has reached an agreement to sell a minority stake in its Formula 1 team to the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA). Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund has already been investing in Audi parent company the Volkswagen Group since 2009, and has now agreed to acquire a reported 30% stake of the F1 team, which currently races under the Sauber name, for $350million. The deal come at a time when the VW Group is under pressure in Germany over plans to shut down factories and make tens of thousands of workers redundant – regardless of Audi CEO Gernot Dollner’s claim that the QIA deal has nothing to do with the Group’s financial issues. VW recently reported a 60% drop in profits. Dollner made clear that there was no question of…

WEC Mick Schumacher will remain as part of a rejigged driver roster at Alpine for its second World Endurance Championship assault with its A424 LMDh prototype. Long-time Porsche driver Frederic Makowiecki has joined the squad, while Jules Gounon takes a full-season race seat after acting as reserve in 2024. Former Haas driver Schumacher will continue in sportscar racing after failing to secure a return to Formula 1, which he insisted was his priority throughout this season. The announcement by Alpine last week was quickly followed by the news that he will no longer act as Mercedes’ F1 reserve in 2025. Makowiecki and Gounon have come into the Hypercar class line-up in place of Nicolas Lapierre and Matthieu Vaxiviere. Lapierre retired from the cockpit after September’s Fuji WEC round to concentrate…

Very fine margins are deciding Formula 1 races. Even over the course of a grand prix or sprint distance – think Lando Norris leaving the door ajar for Max Verstappen in the shorter Austrian contest this year – a split-second call can make the difference. Maybe this is why the drivers are so tetchy these days, George Russell’s understandable efforts to get Verstappen penalised after Qatar GP qualifying last weekend utterly enraging the Dutchman. Yet Verstappen emerged as the winner in the fifth nailbitingly close direct contest against Norris of this term. It was another Verstappen performance peak that the rest just don’t seem able to scale. But the main Qatar race was also a reminder of how much title potential Norris possesses. He edged a team-mate as good as…

For two hours last Saturday, Max Verstappen had secured his first official pole position since June’s Austrian Grand Prix. But, as the clock ticked into Sunday, the wait for the FIA’s final classification document suggested predictions that he’d “only get a reprimand” for impeding Mercedes’ George Russell ahead of their final qualifying laps were premature. Verstappen had been completing the second of his cooldown laps, after taking one out of the pits and then pushing for a sighter lap – the same tyre preparation strategy he’d used to vault from relative obscurity to lead Q2. Finally, around post-sprint-race ride height adjustments, he and Red Bull had nailed the main tyre challenge of the weekend – getting the rubber on both axles into the narrow temperature windows, with no big-stop slower…

Pierre Gasly enjoyed “an incredible race” in the Qatar Grand Prix, and finished fifth after winning out in a late tussle with Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari. Gasly’s race had initially focused on Kevin Magnussen, with Alpine and Haas hoping to strike a decisive blow in the battle for sixth in the constructors’ championship. This seemed to be going the American team’s way while Magnussen and Gasly recovered from falling back at the start, with the Frenchman taking longer to rise back ahead of Fernando Alonso and Yuki Tsunoda. When Magnussen pitted, Gasly upped his pace and gained massively by staying out until the second safety car and rising to fifth. Sainz’s puncture contributed to this, but he was already feeling a problem with his left-front even before he hit Alex Albon’s…

FERNANDO ALONSO ASTON MARTIN DRIVER How did you get on, going from eighth to seventh? A very good Sunday for us. A lot of points, six points for the team. P7 is better than we anticipated. Obviously, we capitalised on some of the action in front of us, some DNFs, some penalties. We were ready there to take the opportunity and happy for that. Did you expect such a strong display? It was unexpected. But the car felt good already in qualifying and P8 I think it was a good surprise. In the race, we were relatively fast together with Alpine and Haas, and a little bit lucky at the end with all the safety cars and penalties of [Lando] Norris and DNF of Checo [Perez]. You have to be…

F1 ACADEMY LOSAIL (QAT) 30 NOVEMBER-1 DECEMBER ROUND 6/7 Abbi Pulling secured the F1 Academy title in last Saturday’s opening race in support of the Qatar Grand Prix before Sunday’s action was cancelled due to a heavy crash in the preceding Porsche Carrera Cup Middle East event. Alpine junior Pulling needed just 18 points from the remaining four races across Qatar and Abu Dhabi to seal the deal, irrespective of what chief rival Doriane Pin could achieve. The Rodin Motorsport-run Briton had featured on the front row for every race this term, but her streak was ended on Saturday when Pin, in Mercedes colours, and her Ferrari-backed Prema Racing stablemate Maya Weug locked out the top two positions for both outings. There was another first for Pulling in the opening…

1 JAGUAR THE BIGGEST THREAT DESPITE ISSUES After coming within a whisker of the drivers’ title with both Mitch Evans and Nick Cassidy last season, Jaguar enters the new Gen3 Evo era as the reigning teams’ champion and appears to be Porsche’s biggest rival once again. Evans finished pre-season testing at Jarama fastest on the final day, with Porsche’s Antonio Felix da Costa suggesting that the Big Cats had been sandbagging during the earlier part of the running. But the test wasn’t without its issues. Jaguar, as well as Nissan, were forced to miss the opening three-hour session in Spain after both teams were found in breach of the cost cap limit for the 2022-23 season. Cassidy also came to a halt on track with a technical problem during one session,…

JORGE MARTIN 1 Martin aboard the Ducati GP24 was the fastest package out of the box most weekends. GP mistakes while leading at Jerez and Sachsenring taught him that trying to manage races was not his thing. Going full throttle did the trick. MARC MARQUEZ 2 Overdue switch to a competitive bike confirmed the genius is still there. Took 20 of the 22 podiums for the year-old Ducati. Also won on it when conditions levelled playing field at Motorland Aragon, Misano and Phillip Island. FRANCESCO BAGNAIA 3 Unbeatable once he had the bike to his liking. But he led the championship thrice before letting Martin back with mistakes and incidents. Difficulty finding pace early in the weekend exposed him under current format. FABIO QUARTARARO 4 Over double the points of…

KARTING Ex-Formula 1 engineer Rob Smedley has launched the FAT Karting League, an initiative that aims to create greater opportunities for aspiring young racing drivers while also keeping costs down. Each championship consists of nine rounds, with two categories – Regional and Pro – set to be held at UK outdoor circuits, with drivers using high-performance electric karts capable of 60mph. A season of racing in the UK is estimated to cost £3800 for drivers from age six, while FKL’s Junior Pro Series is priced at £5300, considerably less than the current system. Top drivers from each proposed global hub will tackle the World Finals, with the winner securing a fully funded British Formula 4 drive for 2026. ➔ P59 GUEST COLUMN…

BRITISH F4 Ginetta Junior and OK World Karting champion Ethan Jeff-Hall will move into single-seaters with Argenti Motorsport in the British Formula 4 Championship in 2025. The 16-year-old’s impressive title double this season earned him Motorsport UK’s Outstanding Achievement Award, following a Ginetta campaign that included six wins and a further eight podiums. “Heading into the 2025 British F4 season with Argenti Motorsport, I’m excited and ready to face the challenge,” he said. “Winning championships like Ginetta Juniors and the FIA World Karting title has taught me a lot about consistency, adaptability and handling pressure at the highest level. “I know British F4 is a big step up, but I feel confident that my previous experiences will help me quickly adapt to the car and the competition. I’m eager to…

The Christmas songs have already been heard for at least a month, the weather has turned cold and frosty, and another club racing season has drawn to a close. That can only mean one thing: Autosport has got its calculator out once again and produced our annual feature looking at club racing entries over the past year! After poring over the data, the headline for 2024 has to be that it was a very mixed picture. Of the 128 English and Welsh series (we do not include Scottish, Irish or Northern Irish categories in this comparison since they have a far more limited pool of competitors to draw from), exactly half suffered a drop in their average grid size this season. And that is a clear sign of the challenges…

All of the clubs included in this feature are different. They all have varying structures and specialities. For example, some also operate tracks and, for others, circuit racing is just a small element of their offering. Therefore, their business models are also different and that is an important factor to remember when comparing their relative performances. The British Automobile Racing Club is a good example of this. Unlike many organisers, it only owns a couple of the championships that appear in its portfolio after taking a fresh approach for 2020. “In the past, the risk was all on the BARC,” says group CEO Ben Taylor. “We shelled out £1million a year and were then waiting and hoping that enough people would enter those events that entry fees would cover our…

“A single-venue category is always difficult to keep fresh,” says Ken Davies, chairman of the Castle Combe Racing Club, which administers a suite of series based at the Wiltshire venue. Yet there was a fairly significant change for its Hot Hatch division this year – feedback from competitors resulted in it becoming a championship. “I think it went very well,” adds Davies after entries rose to an impressive average of 29, having dipped a little the previous year. But there are further tweaks on the way. “For next season, we’ve dropped Class F, the Libre class with nonstandard engines,” explains Davies, the move affecting the likes of regular frontrunner Shaun Goverd’s Citroen AX. “We’ve created a home for them in Saloons and they will drop in and don’t have to…

This year was a hectic one for the Vintage Sports-Car Club as the organiser celebrated its landmark 90th birthday. A host of special events were held in August to ensure the moment was celebrated in style. “We had 12 permitted events in eight days, including a pop-up event at the old home of Chateau Impney,” says club secretary Tania Brown. “On the Wednesday, it looked as it has done since the hotel closed – by Thursday night we had a hillclimb set up. We had something for everyone and have just got club of the year at the Historic Motoring Awards. It’s been a mad year, but it’s been a fantastic year and that was really the cherry on top.” As part of the anniversary commemorations, its traditional Silverstone racing…

Alex Premat hasn’t been short of rapid team-mates during a varied career across the world. But above Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton, the 2004 Macau Grand Prix winner picks out Scott McLaughlin as his favourite after six seasons together in Australian Supercars. Premat was initially a full-season team-mate of McLaughlin’s at Garry Rogers Motorsport in 2013, and became his co-driver for the endurance races at Sandown, Bathurst and Surfers Paradise in 2014-15 following GRM’s switch from Holden to Volvo. They teamed up again from 2017-19 after the Kiwi joined DJR Team Penske, culminating in winning the 2019 Bathurst 1000, while Premat’s input was vital in the first two of McLaughlin’s three Supercars titles before his move to IndyCar for 2021. The West Coast-domiciled Frenchman calls McLaughlin “an amazing guy” and…

FORMULA 1 Jack Doohan will make an early Formula 1 race debut for Alpine when he replaces Esteban Ocon in the season-closing Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at Yas Marina this weekend. Discussions had been taking place between Ocon and the team about the Frenchman standing down for Abu Dhabi. Ocon has struggled for performance compared to team-mate Pierre Gasly in recent races, despite a podium finish in the Brazilian Grand Prix. Changing drivers now works out for all parties, since it allows Alpine to kickstart six-time Formula 2 race winner Doohan’s (right) preparation for the step up to a full-time seat next year, while also clearing the way for Ocon to begin work early for the Haas squad, which he is joining for 2025. It is understood that one of…

BTCC What continues to be a highly entertaining silly season in the British Touring Car Championship has continued apace in recent days, in no small part prompted by series organiser TOCA revealing the list of TBL entrants’ licences for the 2025 campaign. Although the TBL total of 24 is down on the 27 from 12 months ago, the signs are that the grid will be bigger than the 20 cars we saw for the majority of the 2024 season. TOCA supremo Alan Gow described the drop-off in numbers this year as “the outlier” caused by the late withdrawals of One Motorsport and Team Hard. But while Hard is gone, albeit with its Cupra Leon machinery living on in new hands, One is back, with the Steve Dudman-owned team credited with…

I started my 2024 season with the Bathurst 12 Hour. That came off the back of winning all three races in the Porsche Carrera Cup Australia there last year, and we won our class. An endurance race is always tricky, so it was great to do it with an awesome team around me in EMA Motorsport. I adapted quite quickly to GT3. You have assists, so you’ve got to understand how they work and how they help you. I also had the dynamic of not driving flat-out for 30 minutes, which was new territory for me, so I was delighted do a faultless job – and to come away with the Pro-Am class win was the cherry on top. A dynamic I hadn’t seen before was the pitstops and the…

“I made my mind up in Brazil,” Lando Norris revealed after handing his McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri victory in the Qatar sprint race. “I don’t think any of us are necessarily proud of winning a sprint…” A McLaren 1-2 opened the team’s first chance to seal the 2024 constructors’ championship, but they hadn’t lined up in that order after SQ3. Mercedes driver George Russell had trailed Norris by only 0.012 seconds and might have qualified ahead had he not pinned it flat through Turn 15. This confused his engine’s mapping, meaning it didn’t deploy off the corner because the software didn’t recognise that it had gone through without a lift. This trio’s fortunes would define the 19-lap Saturday evening contest, which began with Norris and Russell launching in unison from…

“Just exiting the whole season at Q1 – that’s not what I wanted to put myself in before I go to start my new chapter.” Thankfully for Zhou Guanyu, his Formula 1 career-equalling best finish of eighth in the 2024 Qatar GP means he will leave the top tier on a high. His Losail result also helped Sauber avoid becoming F1’s first point-less team since Haas in 2021. Zhou had reached Q2 for the second time in a week and started the GP 12th, but his race initially took a hit when he had to go off at Turn 4 avoiding the consequences of Lance Stroll whacking Alex Albon. From 15th at the first restart, he gained when Liam Lawson lightly tagged Valtteri Bottas in the other Sauber, then pressed…

FORMULA 2 LOSAIL (QAT) 30 NOVEMBER-1 DECEMBER ROUND 13/14 Just half a point – that’s all that separates Gabriel Bortoleto and Isack Hadjar in the Formula 2 standings going into this weekend’s finale in Abu Dhabi. That’s after Paul Aron – who retains an outside shot of the crown himself – beat both of them in the feature race in Qatar last weekend, but only after on-the-road winner Bortoleto was given a penalty. Hadjar would be in front were it not for an error just after conceding the lead of Saturday’s reversed-grid sprint race to Ollie Bearman. Prema driver Bearman started from pole position with hard tyres fitted, and somehow had enough grip to surge ahead at the start to lead from the mediumshod Campos Racing car of Red Bull…

GT4 EUROPEAN SERIES JEDDAH (SAU) 29-30 NOVEMBER ROUND 6/6 British duo Tom Lebbon and Josh Rattican swept to GT4 European Series Silver Cup title glory in Jeddah, despite championship rivals Robert Consani and Benjamin Lariche winning both races. After a power failure in free practice, Rattican qualified on the front row for the opening race, which was won by the French drivers’ Audi while the Elite Motorsport McLaren headed for third place. That gave Consani and Lariche a mathematical chance of taking the title, especially when former rally driver Consani qualified on pole for race two, but he was given a three-place grid drop for impeding the second McLaren of Alex Denning. Consani battled his way into the lead during the opening stint, but Rattican and Lebbon only needed to…

Another season, another duel between Jorge Martin and Francesco ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia. But this time it was a year-long fight; a gruelling contest of 40 battles. In essence, this production set up as a repeat of 2023. Independent Pramac Ducati tries to topple mighty factory Ducati; a private wrangle set against the Italian marque’s choking dominance in terms of both numbers and performance. But casting matters. And one of the protagonists came to the stage a new man in 2024. A playwright might call it character development. Name it what you will: it was a subtly different performance by Martin that earned him success this time around. The words ‘if’ and ‘would’ crop up with monotonous regularity in any analysis of an attritional tug of war that fell to Martin by…

BOOKS This year has been particularly good for motorsport books, with options to suit all interest levels from the ultranerdy among us to those just beginning to find their passion. Strong options for newcomers are Will Buxton’s An Illustrated History of F1 Grand Prix or Jennie Gow’s How to Read F1, while Formula 2: The Glory Years takes it to the other extreme. For something more visually stimulating, World Championship Cars: Michael Schumacher is a treat for those feeling nostalgic for the 1990s and early 2000s, showcasing some of the German’s most iconic vehicles. RETRO F1 STYLE CLOTHING Everyone loves a bit of nostalgia, and vv10.store has you covered in the retro clothing department. With designs inspired by helmets and sponsors of years gone by, these are certain to go…

GB3 British Formula 4 runner-up Alex Ninovic will graduate to the GB3 Championship with Rodin Motorsport next season. The Australian claimed five wins and a further 13 podiums with the team en route to finishing second in the F4 standings behind runaway champion Deagen Fairclough, who is also progressing to GB3. Ninovic also contested Spanish F4, again with Rodin, where he placed 10th in his first season of European racing in 2023. “I am so pleased to be continuing the journey into 2025 with the awesome guys and girls that make up the Rodin Motorsport team,” said Ninovic. “Next year will bring on a new challenge which is GB3 but I know that as a team we can achieve anything. As I always say: effort equals results.” GB3 team manager…

CIRCUIT RALLYING John Griffiths and Emma Morrison made it two Circuit Rally Championship wins on the bounce at the Donington Rally last weekend. The Citroen C3 Rally2 of reigning champions Michael Igoe and Will Atkins led the first two stages, but then picked up a 30-second penalty for missing a chicane. “We didn’t hit it but, if I hadn’t taken to the grass, we would have done,” said Igoe. Griffiths changed the set-up on his Skoda Fabia R5 after the opening stage and was now left with a lead to defend. By the end of the sixth and final stage Igoe had reduced the gap to 17s, but it was victory for Griffiths. “I was so cautious on the last stage, braking early and leaving plenty of room into the…

The 750 Motor Club’s self-styled status as the ‘home of affordable motorsport’ has served it well during the years of turbulent financial fortunes recently endured in the UK. It has enjoyed the largest average grid size of all the major clubs in the past three seasons, but has technically been knocked off top spot this time. Why technically? Well, the Classic Sports Car Club’s average is greater, but it opted to amalgamate a swathe of categories so its figure is, arguably, artificially higher. Among the organisers not introducing widespread grid sharing, the 750MC still leads the way. “We were quite satisfied with our season,” states managing director Giles Groombridge. “Taking a holistic view of the club, it was slightly better than anticipated, which was pleasing. Some championships did better than…

There is certainly a recurring theme among clubs this year of trying to do their best against a more challenging landscape than was predicted. And MotorSport Vision Racing is another good example of this. Its overall average grid size remained the same despite some notable increases and reductions among individual categories. “I think all organisers found 2024 to be a slightly more challenging year than they expected, with a difficult financial climate,” says MSVR commercial and competitions manager Joe East. “This wasn’t helped by the dreadful weather in the first half of the year and all the uncertainty around the general election and autumn budget.” One of the undoubted success stories continues to be the Bernie’s V8s category. The main series goes from strength to strength and, after last year’s…

The Historic Sports Car Club is another organiser that has amalgamated grids this year, which has helped boost its overall average and the bottom line of its accounts. Historic and 70s Road Sports have regularly paired up, sometimes also with a smattering of Historic Touring Cars, to enable the HSCC to then sell track time to guesting categories. While the individual championships have suffered in recent years, putting them on one grid has worked well. “We’ve combined them at some events because you’ve got to have full grids,” says HSCC CEO Andy Dee-Crowne. “That’s what pays the bills. The club is well and we’re actually expanding and achieving our goals. We’ve had to revamp our offering, which has resulted in a positive break-even result.” As for the fortunes of the…

Alongside the main players, there were – as ever – a host of smaller organisers that ran series during 2024. And many of these continued to enjoy some very strong grids. The Historic Racing Drivers Club attracts some of the largest entries in historic motorsport with its friendly paddocks for its series and, although numbers in its Jack Sears Trophy and Gerry Marshall Trophy tin-top contests dipped slightly, they were still a very strong 30 and 29 on average, respectively. The Mini 7 Racing Club is another organiser that performed well this season, even if its Miglia and Se7en grids swapped in terms of which was largest. Elsewhere, Monoposto continued to attract a healthy mix of single-seaters, while the Darlington & District Motor Club-operated Northern Saloon & Sports Car Championship…

FORMULA 1 Defiant FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem has dismissed talk of turmoil within the governing body, and told Formula 1 drivers it is “none of their business” how he runs the organisation. Ben Sulayem has found himself under the spotlight recently in the wake of a host of high-level departures from the FIA, including F1 race director Niels Wittich (see p8). Furthermore, he was sent an open letter from the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, which demanded he start treating them like adults and asked for transparency about where the money from fines goes. Speaking for the first time since the latest developments, Ben Sulayem told Autosport ahead of last weekend’s Qatar Grand Prix that he was unmoved by any recent criticisms or suggestions that the FIA had descended into…

FORMULA 1 Williams Racing Academy driver Luke Browning has been lined up for his maiden grand prix weekend outing with the Grove-based squad – taking part in the first free practice session at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix tomorrow (Friday). The 22-year-old Briton, who is also competing in his third F2 round at the Yas Marina season finale, will then participate in the end-of-season young driver test on the Tuesday after the race. Browning, the 2022 Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Award winner, gets the nod after impressing with a third place in the 2024 F3 season, where he was in the title fight until the final round at Monza and scored a brace of poles and feature race wins. Williams was originally expected to put fellow academy driver Franco Colapinto…

WEC Andre Lotterer and Pipo Derani are the first drivers to be named for the Hyundai Genesis brand’s new LMDh prototype that it has been confirmed will debut in the World Endurance Championship in 2026. Their announcement came yesterday (Wednesday) as Hyundai Motorsport launched its programme in Dubai. Genesis laid out plans for its entry into the top flight of sportscar racing, revealed in September, with a contender to be known as the GMR-001 Hypercar co-developed by the German Hyundai Motorsport organisation and French constructor ORECA. It will field a two-car WEC entry under the Genesis Magma Racing banner after a development year in 2025 with reigning WEC champion Lotterer and four-time Sebring 12 Hours winner Derani, who will then segue into race seats. That will be followed in 2027…

Yas Marina Length 3.281 miles Number of laps 58 UK START TIMES Friday 6 December FP1 0930 FP2 1300 Saturday 7 December FP3 1030 QUALIFYING 1400 Sunday 8 December RACE 1300 CATCH THE RACE LIVE SKY SPORTS F1 BBC RADIO 5 LIVE SPORTS EXTRA Highlights CHANNEL 4 1730 TYRE ALLOCATION CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS Drivers Constructors YAS MARINA STATS Previous winners 2023 POLE POSITION Max Verstappen 1m23.445s POLE LAP RECORD Max Verstappen 1m22.109s (2021) RACE LAP RECORD Max Verstappen 1m26.103s (2021) Yas Marina podiums Lewis Hamilton 10 Sebastian Vettel 7 Max Verstappen 6 Valtteri Bottas 3 Nico Rosberg 3 Charles Leclerc 3 Jenson Button 3 Kimi Raikkonen 2 Mark Webber 2 Fernando Alonso 2…

That’s more like it. The outcome that we got so used to from mid 2022 to early 2024 returned last weekend at the Qatar Grand Prix: Max Verstappen displaying utter brilliance to win for Red Bull. It was a race of intrigue and controversy, like so many of this season’s contests. Once again at the Losail venue, there was tyre drama. And for McLaren and Lando Norris, as Verstappen’s closest challenger yet again, there were more reminders of the tiny details they still need to nail to prevail in their expected 2025 title challenge, and their first chance to seal this year’s constructors’ title after a dominant sprint race performance ultimately went begging. In the end, however, Verstappen ended the weekend with career GP victory number 63. And the driver…

Formula 1 cars racing around the Losail International circuit have a unique audible quality. Which is good, because everything visually about this place is relentlessly repetitive. Desert, lights, run-off – repeat, repeat, repeat. But, standing on the inside of the Turns 12-14 run of high-speed right-handers for the sole practice running at the Qatar Grand Prix, the extra noise really stands out. It’s coming from how long the drivers are still willing to spend on the raised kerbs here, even after the disastrous results this approach had for the tyres in 2023. “It’s with our ears we first notice how the Mercedes are taking different lines” Go to any circuit on the current calendar and you’ll hear the same noise at specific turns, albeit infrequently. Here, because of how often…

Haas slipped perhaps conclusively behind Alpine in the fight for sixth in the constructors’ championship, with Kevin Magnussen undone by the second safety car in Qatar and Nico Hulkenberg enduring a horror show. Magnussen’s first-lap off into the gravel at Turn 5 undid his typical good work at the start and he slipped back, but he soon recovered past Fernando Alonso and Yuki Tsunoda. Critically, he led Pierre Gasly in ninth at DRS-arm’s length until he pitted, with Haas’s tactics centred solely on beating the lead Alpine. But Magnussen’s lap 27 service for hard tyres was eight tours before the second safety car, and he was 10th after the final two restarts. He fell behind Alex Albon and was narked by the Williams driver’s subsequent defence, but he eventually powered…

GT WORLD CHALLENGE EUROPE ENDURANCE CUP JEDDAH (SAU) 30 NOVEMBER ROUND 5/5 At the end of the first hour of the final GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup race of the season, AF Corse’s race-leading and championship-chasing Ferrari looked to have shot itself in the metaphorical foot. A dreadful pitstop under a full course yellow cost it over 30 seconds and caused Alessio Rovera, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Davide Rigon to tumble down the order. The team had scrambled the car into the pitlane to cover off the Team WRT BMW of Valentino Rossi, Raffaele Marciello and Maxime Martin, who had vaulted up the order by pitting as the FCY was called. By the end of the six hours, though, the picture was very different. Rovera led the opening stint…

When Pascal Wehrlein prevailed in a three-way, winner-takes-all title fight at the final round just five months ago, his superb drive and championship win showcased his abilities to their very best, and proved why the German was once on the books of Mercedes. Wehrlein’s journey to the Formula E crown had been a long and winding one. He joined the series in 2018 with something of a point to prove after failing to make his mark in Formula 1, first with Manor and then Sauber, which somewhat diminished his achievement of becoming the youngest champion in DTM history in 2015. Since he joined Porsche in 2021, the partnership has developed and ultimately flourished last season. And despite technical regulation changes initially threatening to flip the pecking order, it shows every…

TCR UK The creator of the TCR touring car ruleset has issued a stark warning to UK owners of TCR machines that, if they race in British categories other than the official TCR UK championship, their cars will lose their homologation status. WSC Ltd has composed the warning letter in the wake of last month’s launch of the new Ultimate Racing Championship from Club Time Attack (see Autosport, 28 November), which is open to under two-litre turbocharged touring cars built since 2011, and therefore TCR cars are eligible. Although the letter does not explicitly reference the URC, it makes it clear that legal action will be taken against what it considers to be “unofficial” series that make use of TCR cars, logos or branding in their promotional material. “It has…

Sobering. That’s the word I’d use to describe what it’s been like since I took the decision in 2019 to step away from working directly with Formula 1 teams and discover what it’s like in the outside world. Back then, I didn’t know what would come next, I just wanted to stop. Then I decided whatever I did, I wanted to give back to the community, to do something that was more purpose driven. That was the ambition behind my Global Karting League, as I’ve described on this page before (21 March), to make motorsport more accessible and diverse by collapsing the price of entry, opening up the market and closing the loop to F1. And now we are taking the next step and scaling up with the launch of…

The British Racing & Sports Car Club continues to be one of the best performing organisers when it comes to attracting large grids. In fact, it is the only club to boast six categories in its portfolio (C1 Endurance Series, Clubsport Trophy, Modified Fords, British GT, CityCar Cup and Supersport Endurance Cup) that enjoyed an average number of entries of 30 or above this year. Furthermore, all six of these top performers either enjoyed an increase compared to 2023 or stayed the same, underlining their genuine health. And the return of the C1 24 Hours at Silverstone next year is set to provide an additional boost. But for all the success of these series, BRSCC chairman Peter Daly admits the overall picture is mixed after another year battling a “tough”…

This was a momentous season for the Classic Sports Car Club. Having spent its first 20 years exclusively running series, it decided to expand into the world of championships for 2024 with a swathe of existing contests joining from other organisers. “It was a worry because we’ve never done it before – for good reason, series have worked well for us,” admits club director David Smitheram. Yet he need not have been concerned – it turned out be a successful new frontier for the club. The Midget & Sprite Challenge was a particularly good fit as several existing CSCC drivers with eligible cars were able to join the fray, and the championship enjoyed its largest grid in over a decade at Anglesey when 32 cars took part. “Before his passing,…

Equipe Classic Racing had a year of two distinctly different halves in 2024. “If I had to encapsulate this year, I would say tricky start, strong finish,” says Equipe partner Rob Cull. The organiser started on the back foot after Race Retro, an important event to launch its season, was cancelled amid flooding. Equipe then had modest grids at its March Brands Hatch opener before its Cadwell Park event had to be slimmed from two days to one because it could not fill the meeting, causing financial headaches. But its fortunes picked up with packed Equipe Libre grids at the GT World Challenge meeting on the Brands Grand Prix circuit. “That rejuvenated everybody – it was like the reboot the season needed,” says Cull. From there, the Libre and GTS…

Given the nature of the saying, it’s perhaps ironic that the origins of the phrase ‘there’s lies, damned lies and statistics’ are murky. Over the previous eight pages there are plenty of statistics about the club racing campaign that has just concluded, which can be interpreted in many different ways. Take the headline figure of 50% of series with comparable year-on-year data having a smaller average grid size this season than last. The impression that gives can depend on whether you are a glass-half-full or half-empty kind of person. If you are an optimist, you can spin that to say it’s pretty impressive that half of all series grew or at least maintained their numbers in a tricky financial climate. Take the opposing view, and it’s a fairly large percentage…

The fervent home fans of Spanish hero Carlos Sainz did not get the result they had hoped for when they flocked stage-side at Rally Catalunya in 1997 for round five of the world championship. In the first two events Sainz had finished in second place, then a pair of retirements followed, and any chance of a bounceback was banjaxed from the off when his Ford Escort WRC, and that of team-mate Armin Schwarz, suffered a rear braking imbalance and, by the time the issue was fixed, they were out of contention. Sainz managed to run in a frustrated fifth place before both Fords were struck with a propshaft problem that forced Schwarz out and delayed Sainz further. Throwing caution to the wind post-repair he rewarded the crowds with a fastest…