Innehållsförteckning för 23/08/18 från Autosport

Fernando Alonso certainly took us by surprise last week. Actually, we were a bit miffed about the timing of his announcement that he was quitting Formula 1 for 2019, coming as it did just as we were about to close for press on last week’s issue… Edd Straw quickly put together a holding story in between hosting various podcasts, then set to work on providing us with a detailed cover story for this week’s magazine. Alonso hasn’t held back on his reasons for falling out of love with F1, and you can find the full feature on page 16. What the news also did was to continue this silliest of silly seasons. The house of cards that was the 2019 driver line-up is being built back up again, with Carlos…

DTM The DTM name that was first used in 1984 could become a thing of the past, with series boss Gerhard Berger telling Autosport that a change is “on the radar” as organising body the ITR attempts to broaden the category’s global appeal. Berger, who was announced as the ITR chairman in March 2017, has repeatedly stated his desire to improve the DTM’s worldwide credentials. His plans include drawing an international “premium” manufacturer – such as the possible R-Motorsport Aston Martin tie-up – to the championship, after Mercedes exits for 2019. But Berger reckons the full Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters name could be a limiting factor in the category’s marketability. “[DTM] has a lot of pluses and a lot of minuses,” he told Autosport. “It’s always a matter, but in Germany…

WRC As far as the World Rally Championship is concerned, the end is nigh for five-time title winner Sebastien Ogier. OK, it’s near, but not quite here. If the Frenchman signs a new deal to stay in rallying next year it will, he says, be his last. Ogier has made single-season deals with M-Sport to lead its Ford-based attack for the past two years, and the Cumbrian firm remains at the forefront of his negotiations for 2019. But Citroen’s bid to bring back a driver once seen by some in Versailles as the black sheep of the flock is gathering pace. Some of the service park’s wilder speculation in Germany last weekend even priced a potential Citroen deal at €10million, an agreement that would top anything the firm paid for…

Jackie Chan DC Racing notched up what, on the face of it, was a dominant one-two in LMP2 at Silverstone. The two Jota-run ORECA-Gibson 07s were ahead for the majority of the race, right through to a thrilling finish as they crossed the line a couple of seconds apart. Both cars had their setbacks over the course of the six hours, but it was the #38 car of Ho-Pin Tung, Stephane Richelmi and Gabriel Aubry that claimed the team’s first class win of the superseason ahead of the all-Malaysian crew of Jazeman Jaafar, Nabil Jeffri and Weiron Tan. It might have been very different, however, had the TDS Racing ORECA (below) not sustained a broken front upright — not a new failure on the French car — in the fourth…

INDYCAR SERIES POCONO (USA) AUGUST 19 ROUND 13/16 The most dominant performance of his IndyCar career put Alexander Rossi within striking distance of Scott Dixon in the 2018 championship battle with just three rounds to go, the last of which offers double points. The Andretti Autosport Dallara-Honda driver, who qualified third, passed Josef Newgarden at the start of the race. He then jumped Will Power at the first restart and left him behind on the second – two hours later – going on to lead 180 of 200 laps. The reason for that yawning gap between first and second restart, despite coming just six laps apart, was a red flag caused by a vicious shunt for Robert Wickens – he kept his nose alongside Ryan Hunter-Reay’s Andretti Autosport car for…

SUPER FORMULA MOTEGI (J) AUGUST 19 ROUND 5/8 Reigning Super Formula champion Hiroaki Ishiura finally got off the mark in 2018 with victory at Motegi. The Cerumo Inging driver collected his sixth series pole, his Toyota-powered car beating top Honda runner Tomoki Nojiri by just 0.05 seconds. But, more impressively, this is now the fourth time Ishiura has converted his pole into the win. Nojiri’s Dandelion Racing team-mate Nobuharu Matsushita started in third spot, and he made a good start to jump down the inside of Ishiura on the first lap to lead. Matsushita was able to hold first until he dived in for his pitstop. Ishiura responded to the threat, dropping his laptimes consistently through to his stop 13 laps later. He resumed first, pursued by Team Impul driver…

TCR UK TCR UK frontrunner Ollie Taylor will compete in the final two rounds of TCR Europe at Monza and Barcelona, with a view to switching to the series next year. Taylor, currently second in the UK championship behind runaway leader Dan Lloyd, will race his regular Team Pyro Honda Civic Type R FK8. “It was always the plan to do TCR with the intention of taking the car elsewhere in the world,” Taylor said. Taylor was present at last weekend’s TCR Germany round at Zandvoort and has not ruled out a partial season in this championship either. “I’m doing the last two rounds of Europe to get an idea of what it’s all about,” he added. “Germany is also an option for us. “We don’t want to do it…

Minshaw’s limitations mean driving historic machinery with a clutch pedal is that bit more challenging than modern-day semi-automatic-transmission-equipped GT3s with ABS and traction control, but it’s one he relishes. He has spurned opportunities to race in Europe specifically to free up time for his historic racing activities. When it comes to choosing his favourite period machine to race, there’s only one contender. “The Jaguar E-type,” he says without hesitation. “My father introduced me to E-types around 1997 and I felt I could do a reasonable job racing it. I’ve owned and raced E-types now every year since then, so I’m very fond of them.” It’s no coincidence that his favourite historic memory also comes in an E-type, winning the all-E-type Fordwater Trophy at the Goodwood Revival in 2011. “That was the pinnacle…

Mario Andretti’s Lotus 78 rides the kerb of the Osterreichring’s new Hella-Licht chicane at the 1977 Austrian Grand Prix. Andretti qualified third on the grid and leaped into the lead at the start, pulling out a sizeable advantage before his Cosworth engine blew up on lap 12. The race was won by Alan Jones (Shadow-Ford DN8A) ahead of Niki Lauda (Ferrari 312T2) and Hans-Joachim Stuck (Brabham-Alfa Romeo BT45B). It was Jones’s maiden grand prix victory and the sole win for the Shadow team. For more great photographs, visit motorsportimages.com…

FORMULA 1 McLaren reserve driver Lando Norris will make his Formula 1 free practice debut at this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix as he fights Esteban Ocon to earn a race seat alongside Carlos Sainz Jr in 2019. The 2017 Formula 3 European champion, who recently drove for McLaren in the post-Hungarian GP test, will replace Fernando Alonso in FP1 at Spa. Alonso’s exit at the end of this year, combined with McLaren’s lack of confidence in Stoffel Vandoorne, left both McLaren seats up for grabs. But Sainz was quickly announced as Alonso’s replacement, which means that Vandoorne, Norris and Mercedes junior Ocon are vying over one drive. It is understood that Norris’s FP1 run in Belgium is part of an ongoing evaluation regarding his potential to step up to a…

WORLD RALLYCROSS The World Rallycross Championship’s planned switch to electric cars has been postponed until 2021. World RX had intended to make the transition to electrically powered, four-wheel-drive, twin (250kW)-motor cars from the end of next season, but the delay is “to allow optimal time for all manufacturers investigating the possibility of competing to develop their plans,” said a WRX statement. The move to electric WRX is a concept proposed by manufacturers to showcase electric cars, with plans having been formed between a group of car makers, the FIA and WRX promotor IMG. But while the sign-up deadline for the 2020 season had been August 15, marques will now have until March 29 next year to file intention to compete in ’21. It’s understood that nine manufacturers have been involved…

TRACK STATS LENGTH 4.352 miles NUMBER OF LAPS 44 2017 POLE POSITION Lewis Hamilton 1m42.553s POLE LAP RECORD Lewis Hamilton 1m42.553s (2017) RACE LAP RECORD Sebastian Vettel 1m46.577s (2017) PREVIOUS WINNERS 2017 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 2016 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 2015 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 2014 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 2013 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 2012 Jenson Button McLaren 2011 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 2010 Lewis Hamilton McLaren 2009 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 2008 Felipe Massa Ferrari THEMES TO WATCH FERRARI’S POWER TRIP Power counts at Spa, and based on the first half of the season Ferrari has the advantage on that score. Can Mercedes do anything to hit back? And if Ferrari does have the pace, can it do what it failed to in the previous two races and turn pace into…

Alonso’s perfect home Fernando Alonso has stepped away from Formula 1. Are we really surprised? We should have known that, after his victory at Le Mans in June, he would return to Indianapolis to try and become only the second person in motorsport history to claim the triple crown, after Graham Hill. We also must remember that Alonso loves a challenge and IndyCar will be the perfect championship for him. With its mix of ovals, road courses and street courses, Alonso will be challenged every step of the way. I wish Alonso the best of luck with this endeavour and hope he makes up for his Honda engine failure on lap 179 of the 2017 Indianapolis 500. Joshua Kerr Kidderminster, Worcestershire IMSA proves sportscar racing’s fickle nature I was dismayed,…

Fernando Alonso has already ticked off his number-one priority in sportscars – winning the Le Mans 24 Hours. Now, the focus is on converting leadership of the World Endurance Championship 2018-19 superseason into what would qualify as his ‘third’ world title after his 2005 and ’06 Formula 1 successes. The one thing we can be certain of about Alonso’s 2019 season is that he will contest the final three rounds of the championship, culminating in an attempt to win Le Mans for the second time alongside team-mates Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima. Beyond that, his future in sportscars is unclear, but the man himself sees it as a discipline he won’t be done with in June next year. “I think that is a big possibility, that I run sportscars for…

Dan Ticktum is down in third or fourth place in the Formula 3 European Championship in any other year, and in some seasons he’s over 100 points off the top. OK, OK, he’s leading this year, but his points tally after 18 races would put him way off the pace at an identical stage of the 2013-17 campaigns. Such is F3 2018-style. Ticktum won at Silverstone last weekend but, as we now expect, this was a rollercoaster weekend for most of the title protagonists. Ticktum’s win came in a thrilling opening race, one where the Red Bull Junior hunted down his Renault counterpart Sacha Fenestraz and pulled off a superb manoeuvre at Stowe Corner with four laps remaining. And it came on a weekend where Ticktum’s Motopark team had stolen…

Having toyed with the proverbial tiger through Friday’s opening leg of Rally Germany, Ott Tanak took a big stick and smacked the bigger cat on the nose. Why not? If you want to rev things up then you’re better off doing the job properly. Such is Tanak’s supreme confidence right now that he was happy to wind a five-time world champion up in the middle of another fascinating battle. At Friday evening’s end-of-day press conference, held ahead of a packed crowd in the service park, the Estonian put his hand on Sebastien Ogier’s shoulder and told him his time had come. The new generation was here now. You had to feel for Ogier. Flanked by man of the moment Tanak on one side and Thierry Neuville – the one intent…

IMSA SPORTSCAR VIRGINIA INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY (USA), AUGUST 19 ROUND 10/12 The second GT-only race of the IMSA season, at the scenic Virginia International Raceway, provided another thrilling contest as Alexander Sims and Connor De Phillippi combined to score a well-earned first victory for the 2018 BMW M8 GTE. Antonio Garcia and Jan Magnussen ultimately came up just short of a third successive victory at the undulating 3.27-mile road course, but the Corvette pair’s sixth successive podium finish was enough to move them into the points lead with just two races remaining. There were three distinct phases of the race, each with a different manufacturer holding the upper hand. Chip Ganassi’s Ford GTs were the first to shine. After securing pole with an opportunistic late effort in wet-but-drying conditions, Richard Westbrook…

RENAULT UK CLIO CUP The cars of the top three drivers in the Renault UK Clio Cup standings have been impounded by Renault Sport to be stripped down ahead of the next round of the series at Silverstone. The Clios of Max Coates (Team Pyro), Paul Rivett (WDE Motorsport) and James Dorlin (Westbourne Motorsport) were all taken away from Rockingham by series officials after the recent races. They will be thoroughly checked to make sure they are completely legal ahead of the final two weekends of the season. Autosport understands it is the first time for a number of years that the championship has taken this action. Points leader Coates and three-time Clio champion Rivett both support the move. “It’s good, I have no problem with that,” said Coates. “I…

CARRERA CUP SCANDINAVIA Current BRDC British Formula 3 Championship leader Linus Lundqvist got his first taste of GT racing as he made a guest appearance in Porsche Carrera Cup Scandinavia last weekend. Lundqvist, who races with Double R in British F3 and has won six races so far this year, competed in Mtech Competition’s Porsche 991 GT3 car at the Karlskoga Motorstadion circuit in Sweden. The 19-year-old Swede, who also leads the Sunoco Whelen Challenge and could earn the chance to race at the 2019 Daytona 24 Hours, finished seventh in both races. “It’s definitely a new experience – in the end it’s a racing car, it has a steering wheel and four wheels and you want to drive it as quick as you can,” said the Swede. “But compared…

MONDELLO PARK CCC AUGUST 18-19 Tommy Byrne, returning to Ireland to race James Hagan’s ex-James Hunt Hesketh, was surely responsible for a fair portion of the massive crowd who attended the Historic Racing Festival, which celebrated both Mondello Park’s 50th anniversary and the life of Martin Birrane. With classic car drivers gaining free access to the event, and many drivers from the history of the circuit invited to attend, both the grandstand and paddock were packed and the atmosphere was wonderful. Byrne sensationally snatched pole for the Derek Bell Trophy opener in qualifying’s dying minutes. The former Theodore F1 driver led away in the race but, after a hectic scrap, Michael Lyons in a Lola F5000 wrested first from him. Byrne put up a fight but contact damaged his front…

Fifty-nine thousandths of a second was Peugeot 206 racer Steve Simpson’s margin of victory as he mugged Richard Jason Field’s crippled Proton Persona GTi Coupe on the line at the climax of an action-packed 40-minute Tin Top race, which justified the CSCC’s Thruxton Thriller event title. The popular brand of “run-what-ya-brung” racing, embroiling cars of all ages, ‘rewards’ most of its enduro competitors with a 30-second penalty per win (served at the mandatory pitstop), which mixes up the racing and spices up the challenge. Father and son Colin and Steve Simpson effectively started from pole after engine dramas sidelined the Honda Integra C5 of Nigel Ainge and Danny Cassar, whose superb 1m26.621s (97.91mph) lap topped the qualifying table by half a second. The Simpsons were penalised for their Oulton Park…

WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN? WHO IS THIS? The shooting star from another era still shines brightly as a byword for greatness. Hailing from the same home as Virgil, he was a poet on two wheels and four – open or guarded. In an era of creeping nationalism he represented his home teams with distinction, although he was implicated in perhaps the sport’s biggest scandal of the time. Il Duce persuaded the Old Man to give him a second chance, which resulted in the Impossible Victory and a place in immortality. He was a part of a grand union before the gathering storm blew across to cut his career off at his prime and, when competition resumed, age and injury had taken their toll. He missed out on taking a place…

INDYCAR SERIES As Autosport went to press, Robert Wickens was undergoing surgery for the spinal injuries he incurred in a huge shunt in last Sunday’s IndyCar race at Pocono. Details from both the series and his Schmidt Peterson Motorsports team have been vague in the aftermath of the accident, but what has been revealed is that he has broken both legs, his right arm and suffered bruised lungs. But it is the damage to his back that has inevitably worried fans the most, and a statement from IndyCar and SPM on Monday afternoon from Lehigh Valley Hospital–Cedar Crest revealed only that “an MRI was instrumental in revealing the most appropriate surgical course and Wickens is undergoing surgery Monday evening for a spinal injury. Further updates will be provided when available.”…

WEC The World Endurance Championship is going back to its roots, with the first of its winter-series calendars in 2019-20 made up of races of a variety of different lengths. There will be races of four, six and eight-hour durations – in addition to the Le Mans 24 Hours, of course – and the organisers aren’t ruling out 10 and 12-hour events in the future. It harks back to the days when each world championship sportscar racing round had its own unique character and, often, duration. The Silverstone and Shanghai events will be four-hour races, while the returning Bahrain fixture will be of eight hours’ duration like the Sebring 1000 Miles event on the 2018-19 superseason calendar. Fuji, Spa and Interlagos – the Brazilian venue another returnee on the eight-race…

SHOCK was the only appropriate reaction when Fernando Alonso’s absence from the Formula 1 grid in 2019 was announced last week. It wasn’t that his decision blindsided anyone, as he’d dropped hints for months and was widely expected not to waste another year in a grand prix car not worthy of him. But this is the kind of shock that follows when a famous luminary dies of old age. Unsurprising, but seismic nonetheless. At 37 and still at the top of his game, nobody seriously doubts Alonso’s ability to fight for – and win – another world championship given his performances for McLaren this year. And he is on course to win the 2018-19 World Endurance Championship with Toyota. But while he’s left the door open for an F1 comeback…

All signs are pointing to double Formula 1 world champion Fernando Alonso heading to IndyCar for 2019, with the series finally confirming one of motorsport’s worst-kept secrets to Autosport last week. “McLaren is working to put all the necessary arrangements in place, and we are supporting their efforts,” said Mark Miles, the CEO of IndyCar parent company Hulman & Co. “I don’t expect this to be resolved until closer to the end of this year.” But despite Miles’s suggested timeline, Autosport understands that McLaren’s IndyCar programme may be in place by the end of this month, although the priority is its 2019 Formula 1 line-up, a process helped by Carlos Sainz joining as Alonso’s replacement last week. Not only is the movement gathering pace off-track, with an affiliation with Andretti…

James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi weren’t confident of their chances ahead of the start at Silverstone. The AF Corse Ferrari duo had only qualified ninth in GTE Pro and weren’t convinced that the 488 GTE was a competitive proposition. But a creative fuel strategy paid dividends and rewarded the reigning champions with a first class victory of the season. Calado and Pier Guidi had by their own admission messed up their set-up for qualifying, but even so they reckoned the evolution version of the 488 once again wasn’t in the game despite a pre-race Balance of Performance tweak. That explains why they went for an aggressive strategy of fuel saving in the hope that they could benefit from any yellow-flag periods. And that’s exactly how it worked out, while…

Prema Powerteam did a great job to get Guan Yu Zhou and Mick Schumacher onto front-row starting slots while using four tyres fewer for each of its drivers across the two qualifying sessions, but the team’s first race turned to disaster and effectively cancelled out that strategic advantage. Schumacher only got to the seventh lap in race one when his left-rear tyre blew while he was running fourth, and it was the 15th lap when an identical failure struck Zhou as he ran third. For Zhou, a title contender for most of the season, this was another disaster, after punctures ruined all three of his races last time out at Spa. In Belgium these had all been caused by contact, none of which were predominantly the Shanghai racer’s fault. One…

ROCKINGHAM Motorsport at Rockingham Motor Speedway will “cease” at the end of 2018, according to current CEO Peter Hardman, after the circuit was sold last week. The Northamptonshire track – the first oval of its size to be built in the UK since the famous Brooklands venue near Weybridge in Surrey in the early 1900s – had already been dropped from the British Touring Car Championship and British GT calendars for 2019 amid growing speculation over its future. While Rockingham has confirmed that its remaining 2018 events will go ahead, Hardman told the Northamptonshire Telegraph: “All events to the end of 2018 will be run with the professionalism and enthusiasm that are the hallmark of Rockingham, but circuit activities will cease from the beginning of 2019.” Autosport understands that the…

ROAD TO INDY Formula Ford team bosses and drivers are hopeful that the Road to Indy scholarship will continue in a new guise, after Mazda announced it would be pulling out at the end of this year. The British Racing & Sports Car Club’s National FF1600 Championship has been a part of the scheme since 2016, with the winner of the series gaining a ticket to the Mazda Road to Indy Shootout. FF1600 driver Keith Donegan won the Shootout last year – after gaining a ticket with a runner-up spot in the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch – and has been competing in USF2000 this term. Jamie Thorburn also claimed a spot last year after winning James Beckett’s Super Series Shootout. “I think it’s vital – a lot of…

THRUXTON CSCC AUGUST 18-19 A surprise first win for bold BMW E46 M3 driver Matty Evans over the vastly experienced Peter Challis (Porsche 997 Cup), having traded places in Saturday’s 40-minute New Millennium finale, was among many highlights of the Classic Sports Car Club’s third Thruxton Thriller. Race sponsor Evans shot his car into the lead from P4 at the start. An “eleven quid” plywood splitter bolted to its nose to counteract understeer after the original was damaged in qualifying was almost his undoing, though, with the car’s handling becoming ever lairier as its left corner was ground away. Challis locked up into the Complex, but was homing in on the BMW again when another E46 driver inadvertently let Evans off the hook. Bal Sidhu’s erratic adventure ended in a…

BRANDS HATCH MSVR AUGUST 18-19 Reigning Sports 2000 champion Tom Stoten came to Brands Hatch on the back of five straight victories in his Gunn TS11, and remains on course for another title despite being beaten by Michael Gibbins’s MCR. A poor start left Stoten trying to catch the runaway Gibbins, who eased his pace and finished narrowly ahead after 19 laps of the long circuit. Dominic Lesniewski lost a distant third place when he stopped with a broken clutch after coming under pressure from David Houghton and Joshua Law. Jeremy Timms looked a likely double Monoposto winner after qualifying, but almost gave the first race to Ben Cater when he slowed to avoid lapping backmarkers on the final corner. Second time out, a terrible start left Timms playing catch-up…

VIDEOGAME F1 2018 RRP £44.99 Fernando Alonso has pulled his customary stunt and got his McLaren further up the order than it deserves to be in the British Grand Prix. But we’re catching him in our Sauber, which has improved well enough over the course of the season to have both cars running in the points at Silverstone. Passing Alonso, with the help of DRS, is quite straightforward, but hanging onto seventh until the finish is not. Alonso catches us napping on the brakes into Club with a lunge, and he’s back ahead. We make another pass, and a lap later he sweeps around the outside of us into Abbey, with a bold chop. We waste no time in trying to get back ahead on the brakes at Village, and…