Innehållsförteckning för 05/09/19 från Autosport

Every now and again – fortunately very rarely in the modern era – race victories, championship battles and car set-up issues are put into perspective. Anthoine Hubert’s death in the horrible Formula 2 accident last weekend affected everyone at Spa, and many more around the motorsport world. It’s easy to go over the top when it comes to praising those lost far too early but, as Jack Benyon’s personal tribute on page 4 shows, Hubert (above) was widely regarded as one of the most likeable and hard-working characters in the F1 support paddock. Not to mention a driver whose career had been gathering momentum since he took the GP3 crown last year. That he died doing what he loved is something of a cliche, but hopefully provides some solace to…

The traditional Porsche motorsport colours of white, black and red return to adorn its new 99X Electric racer, which Neel Jani and Andre Lotterer will pilot in the 2019-20 ABB FIA Formula E season. Keeping the traditional Porsche three-‘digit’ naming code, “the highest number, nine, was used twice, to re-emphasise the importance of the Formula E project for Porsche, while the X stands for the forward-looking approach and prototype racing”, said a Porsche statement.…

The final 10 candidates for the 2019 Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award have been selected. The Award, which started in 1989, aims to find and assist the best junior British racing drivers. Aston Martin joined the Award this year and the prize for the 2019 winner includes £200,000 and a test drive with the Aston Martin Red Bull Racing F1 team. Finalists have to be primarily competing in a category below FIA Formula 3, and be 16 years old by the time of the Award tests at Silverstone in October. They must also be under 24 at the start of the relevant year. This year’s final 10 are Japanese F3 race winner Enaam Ahmed, Formula Regional Europe racer Olli Caldwell, W Series champion Jamie Chadwick,…

Can you have too much of a good thing? That’s a question Formula 1 must ask itself as the calendar grows increasingly bloated: a record 22 races are scheduled for next year thanks to the addition of the Dutch and Vietnam Grands Prix more than offsetting the loss of Germany. The first world championship calendar in 1950 comprised just seven races, one of them being the anomalous Indianapolis 500 (which can be disregarded given the lack of participation from F1 regulars), spread over a total of 113 days. This year’s championship comprises 21 grand prix weekends spread over 259 days. Next year, an extra race is crammed into that same period. That equates to a race every 12.3 days this year, with the frequency increasing to one every 11.8 next…

The 2019 Belgian Grand Prix may prove to be the moment when Charles Leclerc decisively stamped his authority over team-mate Sebastian Vettel by claiming his first Formula 1 victory to make Ferrari his team. But perversely, it was also a race Leclerc owed partly to Vettel’s contribution after a far more slender triumph than his qualifying supremacy had suggested. Leclerc drove superbly throughout the Spa weekend, particularly when he had Lewis Hamilton bearing down on him in the tense closing laps of the race. The tragic loss of Formula 2 ace Anthoine Hubert a day earlier made it even more impressive, and it was only right and proper that he dedicated this victory to his friend and rival. But had Vettel not played his part over five crucial laps, Hamilton…

McLaren’s Belgian Grand Prix was bookended by engine trouble. Carlos Sainz’s early retirement was preceded by an issue on the formation lap, on which he experienced a sudden loss of power, while Lando Norris stopped near the end while running fifth. “I already had no power there,” explained Sainz. “Halfway through the formation lap I lost all the power and got to maybe do some defaults on the steering wheel to see if the power would come back and it didn’t for two laps.” Sainz returned to the pits after the formation lap, hoping a reset could alleviate his woes, but could not shake the problem. After Sainz retired on his second lap at the Bus Stop runoff, McLaren’s hopes rested with Norris. But expectations of a surefire fifth place…

Pierre Gasly finished ninth on his return to Toro Rosso after being dropped by the Red Bull team – although a late off cost him a place. He started 13th and rose to ninth in the race’s early stages. He passed Kevin Magnussen for eighth on lap 11 but stopped at the end of lap 13 to take mediums. This left him vulnerable to those who’d stopped later during his second stint. Although Gasly gained two places thanks to the retirements of Lando Norris and Antonio Giovinazzi, he was passed by Alex Albon, Daniil Kvyat and, thanks to an off at Les Combes on the last lap, Nico Hulkenberg. “In the second part of the race, it was difficult to keep the others with the softer compound behind but I…

Cool Racing had what may turn out to be a rare shot at a World Endurance Championship class victory, and the series debutant seized it with both hands. The Swiss team’s bronze-rated driver, Alexandre Coigny, was ruled out of the race after an accident in Saturday’s European Le Mans Series race. That put Nicolas Lapierre and silver driver Antonin Borga on level terms with the LMP2 class favourites. Reigning class champion Lapierre, who was lured away from Signatech Alpine by the offer of a long-term deal by Cool, moved his ORECA-Gibson 07 into the lead early in hour three. The Michelin-shod car finished 50s clear of its nearest rival despite a drivethrough for a safety car infringement and a puncture at the end. Cool didn’t put a foot wrong in…

With Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports rookie Marcus Ericsson called to Spa at the 11th hour by the Alfa Romeo Formula 1 squad, which wanted him on standby should Kimi Raikkonen be unable to race due to a muscle injury, Sam Schmidt and Ric Peterson were left casting around for potential replacements. They didn’t have to look far, in the form of their part-time 2011 Indy Lights racer. Conor Daly raced for Andretti Autosport at Indy and will again at Laguna Seca, and he has also been competing on ovals for Carlin since Max Chilton stepped away from left-turn-only tracks. But he had nothing arranged for last weekend until he got the call… Considering he hadn’t raced an IndyCar on a road course this year, and had never raced at Portland…

PORSCHE SUPERCUP SPA (BEL) 1 SEPTEMBER ROUND 7/9 Dylan Pereira absorbed Ayhancan Guven’s last-lap attack to secure his first full-distance Porsche Supercup victory in the round at Spa, having already won in the red-flagged round at Hockenheim. Michael Ammermuller also drew level with points leader Julien Andlauer after the two finished eighth and ninth respectively. From pole position, Pereira defended his lead into La Source from a fast-starting Guven, who harried the Luxembourger off the line. With two strong opening laps, Pereira opened up the lead to 1.4 seconds, leaving Guven in the clutches of Jaxon Evans, who posted the fastest lap of the race at the end of the second lap. Guven then halved the lead gap on the following tour, finding a healthy chunk of pace on the…

WORLD RALLYCROSS LOHEAC (FRA) 1 SEPTEMBER ROUND 8/10 When the World Rallycross Championship left the French round at Loheac in 2018, Johan Kristoffersson was just an event and a half away from securing his second straight title. At that stage of the season, with four events still to run, Kristoffersson held a 59-point margin over Andreas Bakkerud in second. Moving forward 12 months, as the series departed the venue last Sunday evening, it was Bakkerud who led the standings, but with just a two-point margin over brothers Timmy and Kevin Hansen, tied in second with two rounds remaining. Four different drivers set a fastest time in qualifying. Toomas Heikkinen set the best time in Q1, returning for a one-off with Marcus Gronholm’s GRX team. Reigning European rallycross Super1600 champion Rokas…

FORMULA RENAULT EUROCUP NURBURGRING (DEU) 31 AUGUST-1 SEPTEMBER ROUND 6/10 Oscar Piastri and Victor Martins could not have had more contrasting fortunes at the Nurburgring as the Formula Renault Eurocup title momentum swung in Piastri’s favour last weekend. The pair came into the meeting tied on points, but a dominant performance across the two races allowed R-ace GP driver Piastri to open up a commanding 40-point margin leaving the Eifel Mountains. Piastri dealt the first blow on Saturday by topping qualifying, while Renault Junior Martins toiled to eighth on the grid. Saturday’s opener was a cagey affair, with Arden’s Patrik Pasma getting the jump on Piastri off the line and leading the majority of the 16-lap race. The Finn came under attack from Piastri, newcomer Alex Quinn, Alexander Smolyar and…

Preparations for the 2020 W Series season are already underway, with the selection process for next year’s grid set to start at Almeria in southern Spain later this month. The top 12 finishers from the 2019 championship have all earned the option of a guaranteed return to the series for its second year, where superlicence points will be on offer for the first time. Those dozen drivers will not be required to attend the private Almeria test from 16-18 September, but a handful may be invited in order to set comparative lap times for hopeful applicants. “Altogether we’ve had more than 40 new applications,” says W Series race director Dave Ryan. “Inevitably some look quite promising and others rather less so, so there’s no way we’ll test anything like 40.…

SMRC Leading Scottish Formula Ford 1600 figures voiced frustration over the continued use of Knockhill’s reversed-layout configuration following last weekend’s Scottish Motor Racing Club meeting. Jordan Gronkowski secured the title with third place in race one, but elected not to take part in the second contest in order to preserve his car for the season finale next month. “We feel, and have felt for some time, that the anticlockwise circuit layout is unsuitable for Formula Ford cars – as evidenced by the damage we and others have sustained,” he said. Graham Millar’s Rotor Racing team has been outspoken over the nature of the reversed circuit and did not field either of its two Mygales, for Kenny Cowie and James Pinkerton. Critics of the layout referred to the raised ‘sausage kerbs’…

BRANDS HATCH MSVR 31 AUGUST-1 SEPTEMBER Treacherous track conditions in the closing laps of Saturday’s second GT Cup race could not stop Will Tregurtha playing a starring role at Brands Hatch as he helped Grahame Tilley claim a thrilling victory in their Nissan GT-R. In the early stages of the race, Richard Neary had set the pace in his Mercedes GT3, chased hard by the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 of Michael Igoe. After running close for several laps, Igoe attempted to make a move as the duo came across backmarkers along Cooper Straight. Neary tried to defend the line, but found himself pitched into a lurid spin. Amazingly, he avoided further contact with either the barriers or nearby traffic as he gathered back control, but the damage suffered in the collision…

OULTON PARK MGCC 31 AUGUST Reigning MG Trophy champion Graham Ross added another win to his sizeable 2019 collection at Oulton Park, though a penalty denied him a double triumph. The first race was held in wet conditions and its green-flag running was truncated by a safety-car period, caused by a multi-car accident at the Shell Oils hairpin on lap one. This left three laps of racing to the end, which poleman Ross completed in first place. But just as he took the chequered flag, he was given a 10-second penalty for being lined up incorrectly on the starting grid. This dropped him to fifth overall and second in class, and Robin Walker inherited victory. Ross made some amends by winning the dry race two. He led all the way…

KNOCKHILL SMRC 1 SEPTEMBER Steve McGill, David Newall and John Paterson were all victorious in the Scottish Legends as Paterson was left to lament a change to a new chassis around Knockhill’s anti-clockwise configuration. Paterson struggled with the handling of his car, but managed to keep his championship deficit to Newall at 55 points – the same margin that separated the duo ahead of the weekend. McGill won from pole position in the first heat before it was Newall’s turn to grace the top step in the following contest. Paterson survived a heart-stopping moment in the final while leading – he was being pushed along the straight by team-mate Duncan Vincent but speared off onto the grass at high speed. Sensationally, he managed to gather the car together and rejoin…

INTERNATIONAL MOTORSPORT Italian Grand Prix Formula 1 World Championship Round 14/21 Monza, Italy 8 September TV Live Sky Sports F1, Sunday 1230 TV Highlights Sky Sports F1, Sun 1800, Channel 4, Sun 1900 FIA Formula 2 Round 10/12 Monza, Italy 7-8 September TV Live Sky Sports F1, Saturday 1535, Sun 0945 FIA Formula 3 Round 7/8 Monza, Italy 7-8 September TV Live Sky Sports F1, Sat 0930, Sun 0830 Porsche Supercup Round 8/9 Monza, Italy 8 September TV Live Sky Sports F1, Sun 1105 Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe Round 5/5 Hungaroring, Hungary 7-8 September Livestream Motorsport.tv, Fri 0930, Sat 1340, Sun 1215 Formula Renault Eurocup Round 7/10 Hungaroring, Hungary 7-8 September Super GT Round 6/8 Autopolis, Japan 8 September Livestream Motorsport.tv, Sun 0620 NASCAR Cup Round 26/36 Indianapolis, Indiana,…

1) Who, what, where, when? 2) Who is this? Fast but unpredictable, this charging silverback played a cameo role in the sport’s halcyon era. From hallowed grounds he started on two wheels, a passion that remained. With a full understanding of the nuts and bolts in a family affair, domestic success came quickly after the switch to four wheels and he held his own among future greats as he made the step up to the second tier. He marched into the top flight, where the pace was apparent but the finesse was lacking. In the right place at the right time he took his chance with both hands (although things went less well when he removed one to celebrate). Partnered with a fellow bike lover he was the forgotten casualty…

A road-going version of the Lynk & Co WTCR racer has set new Nurburgring Nordschleife lap records for the fastest front-wheel-drive and fastest four-door vehicle. Developed by Cyan Racing, the competition arm of the Geely Group that owns the Lynk & Co, Volvo and Lotus brands, the 528bhp 03 Cyan Concept lapped in 7m20s with 2017 World Touring Car champion Thed Bjork at the wheel. It was three seconds quicker than the Jaguar XE SV Project 8’s previous record for four-door cars, and 25s faster than Renault’s front-wheel-drive record with the Megane R.S. Trophy-R set in May. The 03 Cyan Concept is set to undergo further development during the rest of the year before it is made available for limited sale. Bjork said: “The record that we achieved here is…

MoRe Modena Racing became the first Italian team to win the UK edition of Formula Student in July, as the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia beat over 100 undergraduate squads from 20 countries at Silverstone. MoRe’s petrol-engined M19L scored maximum points in the endurance and acceleration tests, and placed second in the autocross and design categories. MoRe also entered a hybrid that won the best powertrain installation award, finishing 39th overall. Oxford Brookes held onto its runner-up spot from last year and was again the best-placed British university, while the universities of Loughborough, Huddersfield, Aberdeen, West of England and Hertfordshire featured in the top 10. Huddersfield’s rise from 69th last year to sixth was recognised with the breakthrough award. Following demonstrations of AI technology in 2018 commissioned by organiser…

OBITUARY The last year and a half was a whirlwind for Anthoine Hubert, and he was finally starting to force people to take him seriously as a future Formula 1 driver before his death at Spa last weekend. “That’s one hell of a talent lost,” one person close to the fallen driver said in the wake of the tragedy. But he was so much more than just “talent”. Always greeting you with a “hey mate” in the paddock, 22-year-old Hubert was a social butterfly. A smile always partnered his black-rimmed glasses and he was forever making jokes in the paddock. Even if he was too busy to stop and chat, he made sure to acknowledge you – on Saturday he whistled past on his bicycle but still stuck out an…

FORMULA 1 Formula 1 plans to trial new race formats at some grands prix in 2020, with teams set to discuss the idea in the coming weeks. Ahead of a major overhaul of F1’s rules for 2021, F1 owner Liberty Media wants to evaluate different ideas – including Saturday qualifying races – at a number of events next season to see if they could be introduced on a permanent basis. F1 managing director of motorsport Ross Brawn believes that the only way the championship can decide that changes would be better for future events would be to try them out in a series of experiments. “I would like to see us in 2020 try a few things,” Brawn told Sky F1. “In 2020 we have a stable platform with the…

RACING POINT ABANDONS ‘NOSTRIL’ PHILOSOPHY When Ross Brawn admitted that his Formula 1 technical team could only recognise three or four cars if they were all painted black, it’s reasonable to assume the Racing Point RP19 was one of the cars they could identify. Ever since the team decided to put a pair of ‘nostrils’ into the front end of its 2015 Force India VJM08, designs following this theme have almost become a part of the squad’s identity. Then, this weekend, Racing Point emerged from its summer holidays with a new front end, removing the nostrils from the nose to create a more conventional design. The extension required to satisfy the crash structure requirements has shrunk slightly, easing the airflow path underneath the nose. Without the nostrils, the amount of…

Does Formula 1 need extra teams to bolster the grid to 22 or 24 cars? Or should Liberty Media be preparing the ground for a new entrant to come in should any of the current competitors drop out? Those questions have been given extra focus by confirmation that at least one new project is bubbling away in the background. French-backed Panthera Team Asia F1 has recruited former Super Aguri, Caterham and Manor man Tim Milne as its head of aero, and he’s been working since January with a small group in a design office at Silverstone. The names on Milne’s CV provide an unfortunate reminder of the recent history of new teams, and how they struggled to find a foothold before folding. The entities that were originally known as Lotus…

Charles Leclerc pumped his fists as he cruised down the Kemmel Straight after taking his third Formula 1 pole position. This wasn’t his celebration when he first learned he had pole position – there had been plenty of time to digest that. Instead, this was as he was told the gap to Sebastian Vettel. This wasn’t just pole; it was pole by three quarters of a second ahead of a quadruple world champion at one of the grandest circuits of all. Not that it came as a surprise. Other than Friday’s first practice session, Leclerc was fastest throughout the weekend. He also showed a clear head prior to the second runs in Q3 by telling the team he didn’t want to chase the perfect tow and instead focus on ensuring…

It was business as usual at the front of the World Endurance Championship at the start of the new season at Silverstone last Sunday. Toyota dominated, putting on a bit of show, and the privateers weren’t quite in the mix, even though Rebellion hit the front twice over the course of the four-hour race. Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez ended up taking a first WEC victory since Shanghai last November aboard the #7 Toyota TS050 HYBRID on a day when they appeared to have a slight edge over team-mates Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Kazuki Nakajima, who finished less than two seconds behind. Or at least that’s what Toyota told us after revealing the scrap between Kobayashi and Hartley in the middle portion of the race wasn’t…

A bash from an LMP2 car proved to be the catalyst for an unlikely GTE Pro victory for the new mark two version of the mid-engined Porsche 911 RSR shared by Gianmaria Bruni and Richard Lietz. The incident knocked Bruni down from second to fourth and caused an early final pitstop. With two new Michelin tyres and a couple of laps on a clear track, the Italian put his head down and got the overlap on the cars ahead of him during the sequence of stops that followed. Bruni leapfrogged not only the sister Porsche with Michael Christensen at the wheel and Maxime Martin’s Aston Martin Vantage GTE, the cars that had got past him in the incident, but also the race-leading Ferrari driven by Alessandro Pier Guidi. Bruni spent…

FIA FORMULA 3 SPA (BEL) 31 AUGUST-1 SEPTEMBER ROUND 6/8 With two full rounds remaining, Prema Racing wrapped up the teams’ title in the first year of the new-look FIA Formula 3, and its Ferrari/SMP Racing-backed driver Robert Shwartzman took a leap towards the drivers’ crown at Spa. But no one cared. The loss of Anthoine Hubert was too fresh. The drivers observed a minute’s silence – with Hubert’s mum and brother holding his crash helmet – before getting ready for the second race of the weekend on Sunday, in what were horrendous circumstances. Marcus Armstrong had turned a woeful qualifying and 19th on the grid into eighth in race one, and that gifted him pole for Sunday’s race. His engineer told him to clear his head and be“an animal”…

FORMULA REGIONAL EUROPEAN IMOLA (ITA) 31 AUGUST-1 SEPTEMBER ROUND 5/8 Formula Regional European Championship leader Frederik Vesti was twice denied victory at Imola as safety car infringements resulted in time penalties. Vesti took a hat-trick of wins on track, but only the first – which came after a battle with team-mate Olli Caldwell in race two – resulted in maximum points. In race three Vesti led from start to finish, but was penalised five seconds for an improper safety car restart. Though he was able to pull away from the field, it wasn’t enough to keep him ahead of team-mate Enzo Fittipaldi on the corrected timings. Fittipaldi thus scored his second win of the season, with DR Formula’s Igor Fraga relegating Vesti to third. In the finale, the rerun of…

PORSCHE CARRERA CUP GB Dan Harper extended his Porsche Carrera Cup GB points lead, despite a messy second race at Silverstone last weekend when he twice spun after contact with title rival Lewis Plato. Harper won the opening race from pole. Then, despite the incidents, the JTR driver took fourth in the reversed-grid race two. The second contest was won by 2014 champion Josh Webster after he passed polesitter George Gamble early on. “In a weird way, I really enjoyed race two,” said Harper. “I felt we had the pace to win it, so it’s a shame we didn’t get the chance to challenge, but it was an exciting race with lots of overtaking and a chance to put on a show. “The two races couldn’t have been much more…

SPECIAL SALOONS & MODSPORTS A Reliant Scimitar SS1 joined the Classic Sports Car Club’s Special Saloons and Modsports grid at Brands Hatch at the end of last month in the hands of marque specialist Ben Gough. Gough debuted the car two weeks earlier in the CNC Heads Sports and Saloon Championship race at Donington Park, but spun in wet conditions. He was restricted by teething issues at Brands, notably high water temperatures in the very hot ambient conditions, but managed to finish the final race of the weekend in 11th overall. The car features a 1.8-litre, 16-valve turbocharged engine from a Nissan 200SX. “I bought it about two and a half years ago as an unfinished project,” said Gough, who previously raced a Marcos 3-Litre with the CSCC. “I’ve flared…

SNETTERTON EQUIPE GTS ‘A’ Tom Smith (MGB) EQUIPE PRE ’63 & GTS ‘B’ Mark Holme (Austin-Healey 3000 MkII) GT CHALLENGE Paul Whight/Jake Hill (Aston Martin Vantage GT2) JACK FAIRMAN CUP INCLUDING JAGUAR XK & MIKE HAWTHORN CHALLENGE & INNES IRELAND CUP Roger Wills (Lotus 15) AMOC INTERMARQUE & ASTON MARTIN GT4 CHALLENGE Chris Kemp (Aston Martin Vantage GT4) PRE-WAR TEAM CHALLENGE John Polson (Talbot AV 105, below) For full results visit: tsl-timing.com KNOCKHILL SCOTTISH LEGENDS Heat 1 Steve McGill Heat 2 David Newall Final John Paterson SCOTTISH MINI COOPER CUP Race 1 Mark Geraghty Race 2 Vic Covey Jr Race 3 Robbie Dalgleish SCOTTISH CITROEN C1 CUP Race 1 Steven Brewster Race 2 Finlay Brunton SCOTTISH MINI COOPER S & FIESTAS Race 1 Oly Mortimer (Mini) Race 2 Jack Davidson (Fiesta) SCOTTISH FORMULA…

DESPITE CHANGES TO THE regulations, developments in alternative technology or even global political crises, these five picks extended a dying breed’s time in the limelight. 5 TWO-WHEEL-DRIVE WRC Around 300kg lighter than their World Rally Car bigger brothers and built closer to race car specification, the short-lived 2-Litre World Rally Cup sub class had the potential to cause an upset on asphalt stages. Philippe Bugalski did just that during 1999, taking the naturally aspirated, front-driven Citroen Xsara Kit Car to consecutive wins – first in Catalunya and then on the Tour de Corse. To date, it is the last time a two-wheel-drive car has won a WRC event overall. After upstaging the premier class cars, the Cup died at the end of the season. 4 SUPER TOURING ENCORE It’s still regarded as…

You didn’t have to be a dyed-in-the-wool MotoGP fan to appreciate the thrilling conclusion to the British GP at Silverstone last month, as Alex Rins prevailed in the joint fourth-closest finish in top class history – just 0.013s – over runaway points leader Marc Marquez. Rins’ second win of the year was also significant as the first time a Suzuki rider has managed more than one victory in a season since 2000, when the Spaniard was four years old. That’s a remarkable statistic given the manufacturer’s storied history in motorcycle racing that dates back to Barry Sheene’s mid-1970s pomp. But even if the Silverstone result had been reversed in Marquez’s favour, the efforts of Davide Brivio’s team to be regularly challenging for wins and have Rins splitting the two Ducatis…

The Australian Supercars championship is planning to introduce a dashboard warning light system as an additional safety aid next year, following the adoption of a similar system at the Bathurst 12 Hour in February. The topic of in-car warning systems, which would complement trackside yellow flags and lights deployed by race control to warn drivers of hazards on the road ahead, was raised by Supercars and Australian motorsport governing body CAMS after the race-ending shunt in last year’s 12 Hour when an unsighted John Martin T-boned the stricken Audi of Ash Walsh at the top of the Mountain. Both avoided serious injury. After MoTeC developed a warning system that was fitted to every car in the 12 Hour, Supercars has commenced work on its own system, which could be incorporated…

AVL SIGNS GARCIA TO YOUNG DRIVER PROGRAMME Austrian engineering giant AVL RACING has signed W Series race winner Marta Garcia (above) to its young driver programme. The Graz firm, which provides manufacturing, simulation and testing solutions to race teams across all motorsport disciplines, has provided drivers with training opportunities since 2012. Garcia joins DTM racer Ferdinand Habsburg on the programme, and will assist in developing projects using its state-of-the-art simulator, linked up to a full-vehicle testbed, while benefiting from its engineering expertise. AVL RACING director Michael Resl told Autosport: “She makes a super impression in the sim and has potential to go beyond W Series in future.” PORSCHE REOPENS NARDO TECHNICAL CENTRE The Nardo technical centre in Italy has been reopened after seven months of renovation work. Porsche Engineering Group,…

Alex Rins’ recent victory at Silverstone carries with it a series of connotations way beyond the last-corner move that the Suzuki rider put on Marc Marquez. First, the result puts the Spaniard into third place in the championship, 23 points behind Andrea Dovizioso. Along with Marquez and Dovizioso, Rins is also the only rider with two wins to his name this season, and given that his chances of fighting for the title remain mathematically alive, as much as they are remote, his performances throughout the campaign so far can only mean that the title has to be the next target for the Hamamatsu factory. Suzuki has always been something of an oddity. Willing to strike back-room deals to get Ernst Degner to defect from East Germany with MZ and Walter…

One of the key factors that a driver will assess when they look to do a deal with a racing team is the engineering strength behind that particular operation. It is a vital cog in how well a squad will perform from weekend to weekend, and also an indicator as to how a season will run, particularly if there are obstacles to be overcome. This is something that generally takes place with a team of in-house brains, but veteran Italian engineer Marco Calovolo figured out a new way of helping teams to perform at a higher level 10 seasons ago, when he founded Hexathron Racing Systems. Calovolo’s history in motorsport dates back to his time as a technician on the Lancia Deltas that won four out of five world rally…

GT CHAMP PLACED IN COMA Enzo Ide, the 2016 Blancpain GT Sprint champion, is in an artificial coma following an accident at home in which it is thought he suffered a head injury. He was found by his wife in a confused state and taken to hospital suffering internal bleeding. He underwent surgery before an artificial coma was induced. His condition is reported to be stable. LMP1 CLASS LOSES AN ENTRY Privateer LMP1 outfit Rebellion is set to drop back to a single entry for most of the remainder of the 2019-20 World Endurance Championship season. Team owner Alexandre Pesci downplayed the prospect of last-minute funding being found to field a second car, which was entered on a race-by-race basis at Silverstone. INDYCAR DITCHES POCONO The 2020 IndyCar calendar has…

UK START TIMES Friday 6 September FP1 1000 FP2 1400 Saturday 7 September FP3 1100 QUALIFYING 1400 Sunday 8 September RACE 1410 CATCH THE RACE LIVE SKY SPORTS F1 BBC RADIO 5 LIVE HIGHLIGHTS CHANNEL 4 1900 TYRE ALLOCATION CHAMPIONSHIP Drivers 1 Hamilton……………………….268 2 Bottas…………………………..203 3 Verstappen…………………….181 4 Vettel…………………………..169 5 Leclerc………………………….157 Constructors 1 Mercedes……………………….471 2 Ferrari…………………………326 3 Red Bull………………………..254 4 McLaren………………………. 82 5 Toro Rosso…………………….. 51 RACE STATS Previous winners 2018 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 2017 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 2016 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 2015 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 2014 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 2013 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 2012 Lewis Hamilton McLaren 2011 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 2010 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 2009 Rubens Barrichello Brawn Monza masters Average points per race at Monza from the current F1 drivers. Races before 2010 converted to…

Make the drivers use all three tyre compounds With all this hand-wringing about the tyres – degradation, being able to ‘push’/follow closely etc – surely the most obvious solution is to mandate a minimum two stops and all three compounds to be used. Especially if there is a good spread in pace over the three compounds. This would encourage less tyre management (horrible term for driving slowly to the tyre performance), but throw up diverse strategies and lengths of stints and so on. Maybe it would also help to allow free choice of starting tyre to roll the dice more. The original aim of trying to tie the fastest 10 to softs was to mix up the field and give 11th place back an ‘advantage’ with free choice, but it…

Sergio Perez took his and the Racing Point team’s first ‘Class B’ midfield victory since April’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix with a strong run to sixth. Renault had set the pace in qualifying, but both drivers had five-place grid penalties after introducing new-specification engines during Friday practice. That put Kimi Raikkonen at the front of the group, only to have his race ruined by the first-corner clash with Max Verstappen. Lando Norris should have finished fifth and ahead of Perez but for his late-race engine problem, leaving Perez to bag his best finish since Baku. Perez ran eighth in the early stages before passing Kevin Magnussen for seventh, and later overtook the other Haas of Romain Grosjean in the second stint for sixth. Norris’s retirement briefly elevated him to fifth, only…

Ginetta and its in-house Team LNT squad didn’t have a straightforward World Endurance Championship debut, although that was to be expected given that the team barely existed a couple of months ago. The British constructor, remember, built the G60-LT-P1 as a customer car and was still ruling out the prospect of racing the thing itself as recently as the spring. The team mostly comprised personnel from the Ginetta Cars factory and so, reckoned technical director Peter Smith, it is “going to take a bit of time to gel”. “Some of the people have never gone racing at this level; the majority of the team are usually building up our other race cars or working on engines,” said the former assistant race engineer with Audi and Joest in the WEC. “This…

Last weekend’s Grand Prix of Portland could and should have evolved into a classic fight between two wily and superfast IndyCar veterans, something to help eradicate the memory of the early laps when – as in too many races this year – a couple of highly experienced drivers made elementary errors. Approaching the halfway point of the race, Scott Dixon’s Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara-Honda held a three-second lead over Will Power’s Chevrolet-powered Team Penske machine. The five-time and defending champion was confident he could win; Power was confident that his car was better at looking after its tyres, so had a pace advantage in the second half of a stint. Theoretically, we could have had a gripping classic like 22 years earlier at the same venue, when Mark Blundell edged…

BLANCPAIN GT WORLD CHALLENGE EUROPE NURBURGRING (DEU) 31 AUGUST-1 SEPTEMBER ROUND 4/5 FFF Racing’s Andrea Caldarelli and Marco Mapelli made an impressive surge to the top of the Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe standings with a win and a third place at the Nurburgring last weekend. In a season where momentum has often been hard to come by, the Lamborghini duo made the most of a frustrating weekend for erstwhile points leaders Maro Engel and Luca Stolz in their Black Falcon Mercedes to take an eight-point advantage heading into this weekend’s final round in Hungary. Not that you could have predicted such a result after qualifying. Indeed, the form book was bucked when Mirko Bortolotti put his GRT Huracan on pole, with Engel alongside the Italian on the front row.…

EUROPEAN LE MANS SERIES SILVERSTONE (GBR) 31 AUGUST ROUND 4/6 Just four minutes of the four-hour European Le Mans Series race at Silverstone denied G-Drive Racing from taking a third win on the bounce. Jean-Eric Vergne was at the wheel in the final stint when he was forced to pit for fuel, forcing the reigning champions to settle for the runner-up spot. G-Drive may well have held on to its lead at the top of the standings, but it was the IDEC Sport crew who topped the day. Paul Lafargue/Paul-Loup Chatin/Memo Rojas netted the team’s first win in the championship, having survived the treacherous early laps in a weather-affected bout. Rain prior to the green flag lap meant a wet race was declared, but the cars were running on slick…

Jamie Chadwick set the fastest time in the first ever W Series free practice session at Hockenheim, then set it again in the second, and in qualifying blitzed the field on her way to pole. A dominant win followed and, just three months later, Chadwick stood on the W Series hospitality balcony lifting the inaugural championship trophy at Brands Hatch. Ahead of the season, critics lampooned W Series for segregating women from male competition in motorsport. Many used the argument that there was a risk of one proven talent – which Chadwick is, having won the 2015 GT4 championship in British GT and taken the MRF Challenge crown at the start of this year – eclipsing the rest of the field and doing more damage to the reputation of female…

BRITCAR While the Brabham marque remains strongly represented throughout historic racing, it has not featured in contemporary motorsport since the 1992 Formula 1 season. But the BT62 track car, which revived the brand last year, is set to end that absence. Across 9-10 November, the BT62 will take part in the twilight Britcar race at Brands Hatch in preparation for a planned campaign in the 2022 World Endurance Championship. After a tie-up with tyre manufacturer Goodyear, with which Jack Brabham became the first and so far only driver to win the F1 world title in a car bearing his own name, the 5.4-litre V8-powered BT62 will run as an invitational entry. David Brabham – 2009 Le Mans 24 Hours winner, director of Brabham Automotive and son of Jack – said:…

September has become a crazy month for historic racing’s hardcore competitors. The first Zandvoort Historic Grand Prix in 2012, so close to the established Spa Six Hours and Goodwood Revival events (originated in 1993 and 1998 respectively) test their support teams to the limit. And that’s if the cars – some of which do all three – survive each meeting intact, therefore ‘just’ need servicing. If they sustain repairable damage, the routine becomes a logistical nightmare. Many a time battle-weary mechanics have rejoined the circus, disgorging a patched-up machine on which they worked up to the moment it was loaded into the transporter, perhaps still to be finished. Even in current truncated form, the Dutch seaside circuit of Zandvoort rewards proper drivers who love its challenging contours in the dunes…

The first ever Classic Sports Car Club Magnificent Sevens event was held at Snetterton in 2009, attracting 22 entries. A decade on, the popularity of the series has grown to such an extent that grid numbers now regularly exceed 30. And the field was even bigger still at Brands Hatch last weekend. A capacity grid of 46 Lotus Seven-derived cars – reduced from an initial 51 after qualifying – took to the Grand Prix circuit for a single race on Sunday, providing the kind of frantic action for which the series has become synonymous. Series coordinator Peter French, a racer himself in the category in his Caterham Superlight, has little doubt why the series has such great appeal for drivers. “I think the main factors that encourage drivers to the…

SNETTERTON AMOC 31 AUGUST Equipe GTS provided the biggest grids and the best drama at Snetterton, with the GTS‘A’ race just edging it for action. Tom Smith was the best of the 43 entrants, repeating his 2018 win at the same meeting. He claims to not be a huge fan of the Norfolk circuit, but he looked completely at home as he powered into a substantial lead, timing the compulsory pitstop perfectly in his MGB and retaining his advantage. While Smith was impressive, the real drama took place behind him. Neil Fisher narrowly edged out Ollie Neaves (MGB) for second in his Austin-Healey Sebring Sprite, settling their battle by passing around the outside at Riches on the final lap. Lee Atkins was fourth on-track in his TVR Grantura, but dropped…

VIDEO GAME WRC 8 RRP £49.99 It’s been a long wait for the next official World Rally Championship game, but Kylotonn Games’ WRC 8 is worth it. And that’s utterly crucial, considering the world of rally games is now so much more competitive. Codemasters upped the level for what’s expected from rally simulation with its sleeper DiRT Rally hit, before improving on an already strong first instalment with DiRT Rally 2.0. Considering that the last few WRC games felt like basic, no-frills and largely forgettable efforts with a lick of paint from the official WRC license, it’s fair to say Autosport was sceptical about a return for the game series – especially after Kylotonn’s rather average V-Rally 4 release in 2018. Truthfully, those fears are almost realised instantly. WRC 8…

Ayrton Senna (McLaren-Honda MP4/5B) leads Alain Prost (Ferrari 641/2), Jean Alesi (Tyrrell-Ford 019) and Senna’s team-mate Gerhard Berger at the start of the 1990 Monaco Grand Prix. Moments later, as the charging Alesi seized second place into Mirabeau, Prost and Berger collided, causing the race to be red-flagged. Both were able to take the restart, albeit in spare cars set up for their team-mates (in Prost’s case, Nigel Mansell). Senna was peerless up front, while the pursuing Prost had to retire when his battery burst. Alesi and Berger followed Senna home. For classic 1990s Formula 1 DVDs head to dukevideo.com/F1 For more great photographs, visit motorsportimages.com…

Delta Motorsport will partner with Cosworth to supply batteries for the British Touring Car Championship’s hybrid system when it is introduced for the 2022 season. Cosworth Electronics won TOCA’s supply tender with a 60-volt system that will weigh no more than 64kg when the full set-up is installed. The BTCC currently uses success ballast to slow the most successful cars – that will be dropped in favour of an incremental restriction on the amount of hybrid power available to the leading drivers. The system, which will be available on an annual lease scheme from Cosworth Electronics complete with support for £20,500, will be equipped with batteries developed by Silverstone-based technology firm Delta Motorsport, which is best known in motorsport circles for its success in the LMP2 division of the World…

The Formula 1-inspired Lotus T125 single-seater track car project has been revived and could form the basis of a new one-make championship. David Dicker is the CEO and chairman of Dicker Data, an Australian computer hardware company that bought the rights to the project in 2016. Styled like a mid-2010s F1 car, the renamed Rodin FZED has been re-engineered with a new Neil Brown-developed engine, titanium 3D printed steering wheel, brakes and tyres. Built and tested at a private facility in New Zealand, five FZEDs are expected to be built and sold for $650,000. They have been granted eligibility in local Formula Libre races as well as in the BOSS GP series. “The Rodin FZED is a far more practical and durable proposition compared with buying and running an historic…

Even 40 years on, Gilles Villeneuve versus Rene Arnoux at Dijon in 1979 remains Formula 1’s ultimate battle, so you would be forgiven for not noticing much on its periphery that day. But up the road there was something just as remarkable, appearing like nothing of this Earth. Low, squat, wingless, like a gold bullet with bodywork, the Arrows A2 resembled something from the future – and still does. “It was different looking, that’s for sure,” says Tony Southgate, designer of the car in question. “We kept calling it the Heinkel Bomber, as it had this round nose and whatnot.” The A2 reflected its era. This was the apex of F1’s ground-effect exploration, using airflow under the car to create downforce. Lotus was the pioneer – in 1977 the team’s…

Race engineers must have a unique skillset, combining an intricate knowledge of vehicle dynamics with a flair for amateur psychology when instilling belief in the driver. Having engineered Jean Alesi to the 1989 International Formula 3000 title and subsequently turned his hand to contesting regularity rally events – with great success – in his 1969 Porsche 911, Paul Crosby knows this balancing act well. “It’s like being a tennis coach,” he says. “You don’t have to be able to hit the ball as well as them, but you still need to know the theory on what’s good and what isn’t.” But Crosby isn’t your typical race engineer – and not just because he eschewed the now ubiquitous route of a mechanical engineering university degree for an apprenticeship at his local…