Innehållsförteckning för 09/04/20 från Autosport

It’s been clear for some time that Lando Norris was a potential Formula 1 star. He’s been a winner since his karting days, dominated the 2016 McLaren Autosport BRDC Award, won the 2017 European Formula 3 Championship against powerhouse Prema and had an impressive rookie F1 season alongside Carlos Sainz Jr at McLaren. In the past, a break from racing as long as the one we are currently facing could have really sapped the momentum from a young driver’s career but, if anything, Norris is increasing his profile at the moment. As Norris says in Alex Kalinauckas’s cover piece on page 16, his year in F1 has given the 20-year-old more of a voice – and he is prepared to use it. The data he has available means he can…

WEC A reduced calendar with fewer races could be part of a reset for next season’s World Endurance Championship after the series abandoned its winter-series format straddling two calendar years. That’s the stark warning from WEC boss Gerard Neveu. A rejig of the current 2019-20 campaign around the new Le Mans 24 Hours date of 19-20 September has pushed its end back into November, more than two months beyond the intended start of the 2020-21 campaign at Silverstone in early September. That has forced the end of the winter-series concept and means what will now be the 2021 WEC – rather than the 2020-21 edition – is not going to start until March next year at the earliest. That start will almost certainly come with the Sebring 1000 Miles on…

FORMULA RENAULT The FIA has U-turned on its decision to downgrade the hotly contested Formula Renault Eurocup on its Formula 1 superlicence points chart. The series, which for 2019 switched to the FIA-approved Tatuus Regional F3 chassis, was hit last December with a reduction from 18 superlicence points for its champion to 15. This was despite the Renault Eurocup having a far bigger grid in 2019 than its main rival, the FIA-sanctioned Formula Regional European Championship, which retained its status of 25 points for its champion for 2020. The FIA’s downgrading of the Renault Eurocup for 2020 attracted adverse comment in the industry, and Autosport understands that among those lobbying for its reinstatement to 18 points was the governing body’s own Drivers’ Commission. The decision to move back to 18…

The winter-series format introduced for this season’s World Endurance Championship has ended up as collateral damage in motorsport’s struggles with the world health crisis. The rejig of the current campaign has led to its abandonment for the ninth season of the reborn series. We’ll now be talking about the 2021 WEC and not the 2020-21 WEC, and I can’t say I’m disappointed. I was never convinced about the idea of running the championship across two calendar years and climaxing with the Le Mans 24 Hours. It was philosophically ill-founded to my mind. Abandoning the winter-series format is the correct decision on every front. It makes sense as the WEC attempts to complete its present campaign and as the series looks to the future. Once Le Mans was put back to…

While the 2020 Formula 1 season – whenever it gets under way – will feature technical rules stability from the previous year, there were a few smaller regulation tweaks, one of which will have appealed to the more colourful drivers on the grid. For this year, the FIA has removed the rule that governed how many times a driver could change their helmet livery throughout a season. This was introduced back in 2015 – with only one complete design change allowed in the years since then – to try to help fans identify drivers more easily. This change of tack, surely a welcome move when it comes to freedom of expression, has stirred Lando Norris, who used his single permitted design change in 2019 to pay homage to his hero…

Ken Tyrrell was on the horns of a dilemma. Long-standing partner Matra – on behalf of new parent company Chrysler – was demanding that he use its sonorous but gutless V12, whereas he wanted to stick with Ford and its gutsy Cosworth DFV. He had approached Brabham, Lotus and McLaren – and even BRM – about running a semi-works car in 1970 and been politely declined due to clashing oil/tyre deals, among other considerations. Thus the reigning Formula 1 world champions were in danger of going without. External forces were dictating what they could and could not do. Though it would complicate matters and cost more, Tyrrell realised that his team would have to design and build its own car if it wanted to stay competitive and hang onto its…

VELOCE ESPORTS VARIOUS VENUES 5 APRIL ROUND 2 McLaren Formula 1 star Lando Norris was victorious in the latest round of the Veloce Esports #NotTheGP series, organised in partnership with Motorsport Games. The 16 drivers – who ranged from Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois to 2020 F1 pilots Norris and Nicholas Latifi – went head-to-head in a one-lap knockout. Norris’s first scalp was his old flatmate, Super Formula driver Sacha Fenestraz, who he barged down the inside of in the final braking zone at the virtual Interlagos circuit. Fenestraz was sent spinning onto the grass, while Norris advanced to a quarter-final showdown at Monza with Will ‘WillNE’ Lenney, who boasts well over 3million subscribers on YouTube. Lenney shocked W Series champion and debutant Jamie Chadwick in the first-round race, leaving…

HISTORICS Historic Mini Cooper S racer Ellie Birchenhough, daughter of Le Mans 24 Hours competitor Tony, has bought the Chevron B8 her late father raced in 1971. The car will showcase the Dorset Racing team, which Birchenhough and her partner Jack Williamson relaunched last year. Bought by Roger Heavens in 1969 and debuted in that September’s Nurburgring 500Km, CH-DBE-87 was the penultimate of 44 B8s. In 1970 Heavens and Mike Garton landed class wins in the Nurburgring 1000Km and Montlhery’s Paris 1000Km. Second owner Birchenhough added to its CV in 1971. He and Brian Joscelyne scored a class victory in the Spa 1000Km and second in the Nurburgring 1000Km. The ex-Guy Edwards Lola T212’s arrival led to the B8 being sold to Scottish expat Billy Blackledge, who mopped up in…

ESPORTS Key figures from the Scottish Motor Racing Club’s Esports Spring Championship have hailed the inaugural round a success after it attracted a capacity entry of 145 drivers. Former Knockhill circuit commentator David Christie, whose Camber Media company organised the event, believes SMRC Esports can thrive during the lockdown. “It was brilliant entertainment, especially the PC races where you had some of the most experienced drivers,” he said. “Clearly, with the global situation, it is the perfect storm for Esports to flourish.” John Munro heads the PC standings after the Knockhill opener and was impressed by the quality of the opposition. “The competition was really strong,” said Munro, who won the MaX5 title in 2016 and is a Club Enduro regular. “Esports is really hot at the moment, and it’s…

Victory in the 2003 Le Mans 24 Hours with Bentley was followed by a second place for Audi the year after, but otherwise Guy Smith had no full-time drive for 2004. With two Indy Lights seasons under his belt and an itch to scratch in American single-seaters, he leapt at the chance to fill a Champ Car vacancy. Smith was signed by Rocketspeed team founder Paul Gentilozzi alongside Alex Tagliani to replace Nelson Philippe, who had covered the costs but stepped aside after struggling to find performance. “No disrespect to Nelson, but he’d not done that much racing,” says Smith. “I thought his lack of results was probably down to just his inexperience. But when I arrived it started to dawn on me…” Smith soon realised the second car ran…

Mika Hakkinen’s superb start to the season and Ferrari’s struggle to keep pace with McLaren were the key Formula 1 themes in the 9 April 1998 issue of Autosport. After winning the first two grands prix of the year, Hakkinen talked to Andrew Benson about how he was enjoying racing again now that he had a competitive car in the form of the MP4-13. The Finn also spoke of how much he had bonded with the McLaren team through the difficult times, which included his serious accident during qualifying for the 1995 Australian GP. “Every day is a new experience, and every day you have to try to be the best, and that’s what I’m targeting,” said Hakkinen about his championship chances. “You can never be so confident to think,…

FORMULA 1 Silverstone is open to hosting more than one Formula 1 World Championship race this year to help boost the 2020 schedule – but the circuit must decide by the end of April whether it will stick to its current July date for the British Grand Prix. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused the opening eight races of the 2020 F1 season to be called off or postponed, as well as triggering a number of international sporting events scheduled for the summer to be cancelled. The Olympic Games in Tokyo and the Euro 2020 football championships have been postponed until 2021, while the Wimbledon tennis championship – scheduled to finish just one week before the British Grand Prix – has been cancelled. The British GP is scheduled for 19 July,…

FORMULA 1 Mercedes has agreed to a plan not to allow dual-axis steering to remain in Formula 1 in 2021, despite emergency measures to roll over the current cars into next year. The coronavirus pandemic has forced dramatic changes to F1, with teams agreeing last month to delay the introduction of the major rules revamp planned for next season until 2022. That means teams will continue to use their current chassis next year, with some aerodynamic modifications being allowed. The move to keep the current regulations for 2021 could have left the door open for Mercedes to keep the advantage it has from its DAS system, which allows drivers to adjust the toe angle of its front wheels while the car is in motion, and was set to be banned…

INDYCAR/IMSA/DTM The Detroit Grand Prix for the IndyCar Series and the IMSA SportsCar Championship has become a victim of the coronavirus pandemic with its cancellation for 2020, while fears are also growing for the DTM’s flagship Norisring street race. Detroit had become the new scheduled opener for the IndyCar season following the cancellation or postponement of all races up to and including the Indianapolis 500 in late May, but the event on the Belle Isle temporary course has also bitten the dust. Detroit GP chairman Bud Denker said: “We looked at every possible scenario to reschedule the race, but all of them would have been too disruptive to the hundreds of fall events that will take place on Belle Isle.” IndyCar has turned its Iowa Speedway fixture in July and…

Memories of a brilliant boss On opening my Autosport last week I was very sorry to see an obituary for my old boss Tommy Clapham, a true gentleman and brilliant engineer (Club Autosport, page 61). I joined TR Clapham Engineers Ltd Alfa Romeo dealers as an apprentice in the late 1960s and was with him at the inception and build of the Taydec. I last saw Tom at his home late in 2019 and spent a great afternoon reminiscing. One name missing from this story is George Drake (deceased), another brilliant engineer who along with Tommy designed and built a Group 6 sports-racing car and a Formula Atlantic car in a two-car showroom, which would originally accommodate – with a squeeze and a trolley jack – a 1750 GTV and…

Lando Norris is no stranger to sim racing. He entered the competitive virtual world long before he made his real-life car racing debut in Ginetta Junior in 2014, and used his simulator during his rapid rise up the junior single-seater ladder. He uses a simulator provided by Pro Sim – a company run by GP2 race winner Adrian Quaife-Hobbs – worth in excess of £30,000. Complete with individually adjustable pedals and a high-definition triple-screen set-up, it really is the closest you can come to the real thing in your living room. It has been vital to Norris’s success not only in junior single-seaters but in providing support to McLaren as test driver in 2018, which led to his F1 promotion in 2019. But it’s far more than just a training…

Rallying’s equivalent of Star Wars was unveiled in Bologna when Lancia’s Group S project made an unexpected appearance during the Memorial Bettega event. The totally carbonfibre machine (from wheelrims to roof) has already been tested in secret and the Turin engineers were greatly impressed with their latest creation. Twin turbochargers provide 600bhp and a completely new engine has been designed to replace the supercharged/turbocharged unit in the now defunct Group B Delta S4. Officially, Group S is no more, dropped after the May tragedies [that took the lives of Henri Toivonen and Sergio Cresto on the Tour of Corsica], but while some parties reflect on what might have been had the existing category been allowed to continue, others give knowing looks as they cover the supercar once more. Maybe there…

VIRTUAL GRAND PRIX ALBERT PARK (AUS) 5 APRIL ROUND 2 Ferrari Formula 1 driver Charles Leclerc needed just eight days’ worth of practice to annihilate the Virtual Grand Prix field and score victory on his debut competitive Esports outing. F1’s first Virtual GP a fortnight ago verged on farcical as just two drivers from the current F1 grid took part in a race riddled with crashes. Fortunately, the Virtual Vietnam GP (at Australia’s Albert Park) proved to be leagues ahead in quality, with six 2020 F1 drivers participating as well as 2009 champion Jenson Button. The driving standards were far better too, as three-time grand prix winner Johnny Herbert this time chose to brake for Turn 1. It was Leclerc who led the field away from pole position after Renault…

TEAM HARD’S BRITCAR 911 Former Ginetta Junior racer Harry Mailer will join up with Team Hard regular Nick Scott-Dickeson in the Britcar Endurance series this year. Mailer finished 17th in the Ginetta standings in 2014 and finished runner-up in Team Hard’s scholarship during the winter. He and Scott-Dickeson will drive the squad’s newly acquired Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car. FENNYMORE BACK AGAIN Former Caterham European and Classic Formula 3 champion Graham Fennymore will be back on track again this year, once the season starts, racing his Reynard SF81 in the Historic Formula Ford 2000 Championship. “It’s yet another swansong,” the ex-Formula Vauxhall racer reckoned after testing at Donington Park last month. CHARITY T-SHIRTS AVAILABLE Track Attack series coordinator Steve Vince has decided to produce a special T-shirt that he is…

Aveteran of 489 race starts in the British Touring Car Championship, Rob Collard scarcely fits the normal definition of ‘rookie’. But when the British GT season eventually gets under way, 51-year-old Collard will be on the grid for the first time – following in the footsteps of sons Ricky and Jordan, both of whom have previously raced in the GT4 class. In signing to race a Lamborghini Huracan GT3 for Barwell Motorsport – which delivered the title for Marco Attard in 2014 and has come close on countless occasions since – Collard has one of the best operations on the grid behind him and, in team boss Mark Lemmer, someone who knows exactly what it’s like to make the switch from touring cars to GT racing. “While we absolutely loved…

David Coulthard (McLaren-Mercedes MP4/17) has an off-track excursion during the 2002 Brazilian Grand Prix weekend at Interlagos. Coulthard qualified in fourth place, behind the Williams-BMW FW24 of Juan Pablo Montoya, the Ferrari F2002 of Michael Schumacher and Montoya’s team-mate, Schumacher’s younger brother Ralf. After Montoya lost his nose at the start and fell down the order, the Schumacher siblings dominated, Ralf chasing Michael to the flag. Coulthard took the final podium position, almost a minute behind. For classic Formula 1 DVDs head to dukevideo.com/F1 For more great photographs, visit motorsportimages.com…

FORMULA 1 McLaren Formula 1 CEO Zak Brown has cautioned that the series could lose as many as four teams if the coronavirus crisis “isn’t handled the right way”. With no races currently taking place until at least June, all teams are facing a financial squeeze. They still have significant overheads such as salaries, while facing the prospect of a loss of income from both the F1 prize fund and their own sponsors. Brown believes F1 should take steps in response to this, such as a further lowering of the budget cap that comes into force in 2021. He also warned that if teams do hit trouble there are no potential buyers around in a position to save them. “This is potentially devastating to teams,” Brown, whose McLaren team recently…

MOTOGP Aprilia CEO Massimo Rivola has said that Andrea Iannone’s 18-month racing ban for a doping infringement is “absurd”, and vows to support the MotoGP race winner’s appeal. Iannone was suspended by MotoGP governing body the FIM over the winter after two urine samples taken during the Malaysian Grand Prix weekend in November tested positive for an anabolic steroid. The suspension was upheld after a verdict was not reached in a hearing last month, while Iannone submitted hair samples – supposedly a more accurate way of testing for banned substances – for analysis. Iannone (pictured) has always maintained his innocence, claiming the banned substance was ingested accidentally through contaminated meat. After numerous weeks of delay, a verdict was confirmed last Wednesday. The Italian was hit with an 18-month ban, although…

REGIONAL F3 Linus Lundqvist, the 2018 BRDC British Formula 3 champion, is moving to the US this season to chase the renamed Formula Americas Regional Championship. The 21-year-old Swede has joined Global Racing Group, which ran Dakota Dickerson to the 2019 title in what used to be known as the F3 Americas series. The championship, for Honda-powered Ligiers, is run to the FIA’s Regional F3 concept, and is now offering an Indy Lights scholarship for the champion. It is the first step away from Europe for Lundqvist, who won his British F3 title with Double R Racing and stayed with the squad last season to compete in the Euroformula Open series, in which he finished fifth. Autosport also understands that Lundqvist tested with all-conquering Japanese F3 team TOM’S over the…

Extraordinary times require extraordinary measures – and most of the world certainly knows that to be true in these difficult times of a deadly disease, healthcare crises and social lockdowns. Formula 1 is already taking its own unprecedented steps in response to the coronavirus pandemic, such as moving to make the 2020 cars usable in 2021 and delaying the rules reset to 2022. But each day of this crisis brings more worry and strain – particularly when it comes to costs. If F1 is going to return to a recognisable state, then it needs to display a trait that has long been hard to find when it comes to making big decisions: flexibility. For so long the championship has been lumbered by its governance structure. In few other sports do…

Leaders, leading, leadership – all things we’re hearing a lot about during the coronavirus pandemic. From inspirational or incompetent political leaders (delete as appropriate) to individuals leading by example or displaying leadership in minor acts. Often, even without meaning to, people can make a big difference. There’s no on-track motorsport action to discuss now, no collisions to micro-analyse, no technical developments to debate. As a result, many people have taken to finding other ways to enjoy and remember the championships they love – whether that’s by watching reruns of old races, viewing films or documentaries about famous characters or events, or watching or taking part in motorsport Esports. That last form of escapism is enjoying a significant boom as it is one of the few online equivalents of sport that…

It was a chance encounter with Michael Schumacher that fired Rodi Basso’s passion for motor racing and set him on the road to working at the pinnacle of the sport, for Ferrari and then for Red Bull as they reached the height of their powers. Not that he knew it was Schumacher at the time. An aerospace engineer by training, Basso had been working in Washington as a consultant for NASA, designing data acquisition systems for satellites. Like any Italian, he saw Ferrari as not just a second national religion, but also a crucible of engineering excellence. “I wasn’t such a motorsport fan before I started but it was more for the technical, the engineering side that took me into this environment,” he says. “I had four interviews with Ferrari.…

HISTORICS Three leading organisers of historic racing in Europe have pledged to work together in rescheduling postponed events over the later part of the 2020 season. The Historic Sports Car Club, Masters Historic Racing and French-based HVM Racing have announced that they will collaborate to help ensure the best deal for historic racers once the season starts. Cooperation on rescheduled dates, shared race meetings and guest races at each other’s events are all options that are currently being discussed. The aim will be to create viable race meetings that offer as many racers as possible the chance to compete at leading venues this year. When approval for racing to resume is given, the later months of 2020 could be very crowded as promoters try to reschedule events postponed from earlier…

In these difficult times, a common-sense approach is more important than ever. That’s why it’s very reassuring that three major historic racing organisers have decided to work together to ensure a well-thought-out resumption of motorsport activities whenever the coronavirus crisis finally passes. Historic Sports Car Club chief Andy Dee-Crowne has previously talked of the congested historic calendar and the greater need for organisers to adapt to meet their competitors’ requirements. That is exactly what he is doing by working together with Masters Historic Racing and French organiser HVM. The financial implications of the COVID-19 pandemic are clearly going to be significant, and we do not yet know what this will mean in terms of grid numbers in individual series. If there is a noticeable reduction, then the last thing motorsport…

OBITUARY East Londoner Alan Fowler, who died at the age of 80 on 24 March following a recurrence of cancer, was a successful builders’ merchant who ‘wheeled-and-dealed’ in racing cars and created a short series of Mercury sports-racers. With Dennis Pollard he founded D&A Shells in Stratford from premises adjacent to the mainstream business. It became a mecca for enthusiasts seeking cheap racing cars and parts to fuel their dreams. The first Mercurys appeared around 1967 as GT shells that modernised 1962-63 Lotus 23/23Bs to run against the emerging Chevron GTs, Ginetta G12s and others. The lanky Fowler campaigned his metallic green example with verve. Later square-tube Mercurys were open cars. Fowler entered selected European 2-litre championship rounds in 1971-72, competing against rising stars. He won domestic BARC Castrol/Motoring News…

ESPORTS The Scottish Motor Racing Club kicked off its 2020 season as scheduled last weekend, albeit through its Esports Spring Championship at a virtual Knockhill. Such was the popularity of the opening round – a total of 145 real-world, sim and amateur drivers entered – that the club held qualifying heats for PC, Xbox and PlayStation 4 players of the Project Cars 2 game during the week. Former Scottish Sprint champion John Munro emerged as the top PC player following a pair of tightly fought ‘Formula Rookie’ races. Craig Lax started from pole and led the early stages but spun out of contention exiting Clark’s on the third lap of 12, handing the advantage to Lorenzo Turri. Munro eventually found a way into second and launched an attack on Turri…

VIDEOGAME REVIEW TT ISLE OF MAN – RIDE ON THE EDGE 2 The cancellation of the 2020 Isle of Man TT was unavoidable, but was still no less devastating to the motorcycling world. The annual event is the jewel in the road-racing calendar, and its absence leaves a huge void for the fans, as well as having severe financial ramifications for all involved. A small consolation for all keen followers of the race may prove to be the release of developer Kylotonn’s TT Isle of Man – Ride on The Edge, a sequel to its 2018 release, which was an unexpected commercial hit and received a reasonable critical response. Racing game sequels can go one of two ways – they either build on the success of the original and establish…

Cliff Allison (#16, Ferrari Dino 246) is about to be lapped at Zandvoort in the 1959 Dutch Grand Prix. Following closely are Jean Behra (#1, Ferrari Dino 246), Stirling Moss (#11, Cooper-Climax T51), Graham Hill (#14, Lotus-Climax 16) and backmarker Carel Godin de Beaufort’s incongruous Porsche RSK sportscar. By halfway, only Moss would still be in contention, in third behind Jack Brabham (Cooper) and Jo Bonnier (BRM). Moss passed Brabham on lap 48 but his gearbox failed, leaving Bonnier to claim his and BRM’s first grand prix win. For classic 1950s Formula 1 DVDs head to dukevideo.com/F1 For more great photographs, visit motorsportimages.com…