Innehållsförteckning för 19/01/23 från Autosport

Since Lando Norris arrived on the Formula 1 grid in 2019, Pierre Gasly, Esteban Ocon, Carlos Sainz and George Russell have joined the list of world championship race winners. And two of those, one a former team-mate of Norris, now have seats in two of the big three F1 squads. McLaren, of course, used to be an F1 powerhouse, and Zak Brown’s team did give Norris his big break. But loyalty will surely only last so long as the Briton watches his contemporaries rack up wins and, perhaps, world titles. And given his recent performances, Norris would be hot property in the paddock if he decides to look elsewhere. As Norris tells Matt Kew on page 16, he still believes in McLaren and is making all the right noises. But…

FORMULA 1 Silverstone wants to extend the British Grand Prix to a four-day event to allow for more on-track action. The race has become one of the most popular on the Formula 1 calendar amid the series’ current boom, and enjoyed a record crowd of 400,000 over three days last year. Now Silverstone managing director Stuart Pringle wants to open up the track on the Thursday of race weekend to allow more scope for support categories to appear on the undercard. A similar approach is adopted for the Australian GP to incorporate series such as Supercars, Porsche Carrera Cup and S5000. Silverstone has occasionally done the same for the British GP. “We’re looking to extend the weekend,” said Pringle last week on the main stage at Autosport International in Birmingham.…

OBITUARY Roy Pierpoint, the British Saloon Car champion of 1965, died last week aged 93. Through the 1950s, Pierpoint and Alan Mann made The Wayside Garage in Rusper, Sussex, an enthusiasts’ mecca, but work precluded regular racing until 1961 (although he had made his debut at Goodwood in 1949), when he scored wins in his first Lotus 15. Fourth, behind Graham Hill (Lotus 19) and Mike Parkes and John Surtees (Ferrari 250 GTOs), in Snetterton’s 1962 Archie Scott Brown Trophy race impressed too. He also shared Equipe Endeavour’s Jaguar Mk2 with Bruce Halford in the Motor Six Hours at Brands Hatch. Having piloted Val Dare-Bryan’s Attila-Climax in 1963, a rare win in its Ford V8-powered Mk3 successor at Ouston in 1964 came amid much disappointment. Pierpoint thus looked to tin-tops,…

“I wouldn’t consider it a mini-Mercedes,” says James Vowles of his vision for Williams after being made team principal last week. But it would be advisable to treat his words with an element of caution. For one, the ex-Mercedes Formula 1 chief strategist uttered them in a media call organised by Mercedes, during which he featured alongside Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff, and the pair spent plenty of time talking about their life together at, er, Mercedes… It’s easy to be flippant. The Three-Pointed Star made a conscious effort to control the narrative to ensure that no one was reporting any falsehoods. This is an amicable parting of ways between Vowles and the grand prix superteam that’s won eight constructors’ crowns. After all, he has been commuting to Brackley since…

M-Sport could have spent the off season licking its wounds after a difficult 2022, but instead it’s gone all in to rejuvenate its World Rally Championship title hopes by luring back one its favourite sons, Ott Tanak. The news that Tanak will rejoin the Cumbrian squad, 12 years after it gave him his first break in the WRC, instantly added a new dimension to the 2023 title fight. That came after Tanak had dropped the bombshell that he would be leaving Hyundai at the end of last season with a year remaining on his contract. It means that all three teams boast either world champions or rally winners in their ranks of full-time drivers, a situation the WRC last experienced in 2019, when Tanak won the world title for Toyota.…

Lancia’s surprise victory to kick off the 1983 World Rally Championship season on the Monte Carlo Rally, and in doing so defeat the all-conquering four-wheel-drive Audi Quattro, has gone down in rallying folklore and deserves a place among the great motorsport giant-killing stories. It was a win that kicked off a fierce yet fascinating rivalry with Audi that ultimately went the way of the plucky Italian marque. To this day, Lancia’s rear-wheel-drive 037 rocket remains the last two-wheel-drive car to win the manufacturers’ crown. “I think the biggest surprise was for us to win the Monte Carlo event,” recounts Cesare Fiorio, Lancia’s team principal of the time. “It was the first event of the year and normally it was a rally that we should have lost as there was snow,…

WOES FOR VERGNE Jean-Eric Vergne worked his way back into the points for DS Penske after a miserable qualifying session, but a battery issue at the end relegated him to 12th. He’d clashed earlier with Sacha Fenestraz, breaking his front wing. “I fought very hard with no front wing to score some points, but it all went away in the last lap,” he lamented. CONFUSION HURTS HUGHES Jake Hughes looked set for a fourth place on his debut, and reckoned confusion over a Turn 9 yellow flag cost him a position to Andre Lotterer. “Apparently it was removed and I didn’t get told,” said Hughes. There was still a light on at the exit of Turn 6. I lifted and unfortunately Andre got told the right message, so he got…

The theme of memories was fitting for the return of Autosport International following two years away due to COVID-19, because it was the first talking point that sprang up for most – including three-time Formula 1 world champion Sir Jackie Stewart when he took to the main stage at the Birmingham NEC. As the opening UK motorsport event of the year, it had been sorely missed by fans, competitors and tradesfolk alike, a feeling Stewart shared as he offered his fondest memory of the show, from 26 years ago. “One of the biggest years I ever had here was when we started Stewart Grand Prix,” he told a packed audience. “I came straight from Detroit, when Ford said they would support us starting up a Formula 1 team. The first…

As the motorsport world mourned the loss of Ken Block, Autosport International took its moment to provide a tribute, and perhaps it was the most fitting of all. The thrill ride that is the Live Action Arena was made for Block, or rather the American’s exploits gave the daredevil acts on show a greater platform to shine upon, as the NEC was shaken into life by the noise and action. Like the rest of the show, two years away from Birmingham due to COVID-19 meant many in the grandstands struggled to remember the last time they’d got this up close and personal with the thunderous display of horsepower and bravery. Picking the opening show slot, one of five held each day over the weekend, acted as the perfect wakeup call…

SILVERSTONE FESTIVAL This year’s Silverstone Festival will celebrate the circuit’s 75th anniversary with several special races, including one for the front-engined grand prix cars that were in action at the Northamptonshire venue’s inaugural event and also a Formula Libre contest. The circuit’s first race meeting in October 1948 was an international grand prix event with the headline race won by Luigi Villoresi in a Maserati 4CLT. Those machines will get a standalone contest at the rebranded Festival, formerly the Silverstone Classic. The Historic Grand Prix Cars Association will invite 30 front-engined and 30 rear-engined cars, which will share a grid for two races in addition to a trophy contest just for the older models. Another special feature for the 25-27 August fixture is due to be a Formula Libre contest…

HISTORICS The DAF V8 that wowed spectators in Special and Super Saloon races in the early 1970s is an early registration for the inaugural Historic Sports Car Club Historic Modsports and Saloon series, organised in response to competitor interest in pilot events last year. Owner Andy Wilson, a seasoned V8 tamer, has spent the winter refettling the car and the five-litre engine, which broke a valve seat following a run last year. Ford Cortina V8 graduate Tony Hazlewood and Ray Kilminster originally shoehorned an aluminium Oldsmobile V8 into a factory DAF 55 coupe shell fitted with March Formula 2 corners, set up by Chas Beattie in 1972. Initially unruly, the short-wheelbase car became wieldier on F1-sized wheels and tyres. In October 1973, Hazlewood posted the first 100mph saloon lap at…

All too often in recent weeks and months, this page of Autosport has been dedicated to analysis of a somewhat depressing topic or news story. From poor decisions by those in race control, and drivers (or, for that matter, clerks) behaving badly, to concern about Brexit’s impact and fears for the future of the sport, it can be easy to focus on the negatives. But, when there is good news to tell, it’s important that it’s properly celebrated – and there have been some happier stories to emerge from last week’s Autosport International show that provide welcome reassurance that things are far from all bad. Take the expanded partnership between the British Racing & Sports Car Club and The Motorsports School. This has resulted in a car being developed that…

Great expectation greets the renewal of the Penske and Porsche partnership with the new 963 LMDh car. That owes much to the success of their last joint venture – the RS Spyder. The V8-powered LMP2 machine was lighter and nimbler than the LMP1 Audis it raced against in the American Le Mans Series. Sascha Maassen, who gave the RS Spyder its baptism in 2005 in a continuation of his successful partnership from GT racing with Lucas Luhr, doesn’t hesitate to label it as his favourite car. “You can ask any driver, and they will always say how good this car was,” says Maassen, praising Porsche’s work on revised bodywork for 2007 that increased downforce and reduced drag. “Especially the 2007 and 2008 car, it was even easier to drive and…

LE MANS 24 HOURS/WEC The Le Mans 24 Hours is on course for its biggest field in the top category since 2010. Additional cars from Cadillac, Glickenhaus and Vanwall could boost the 13-strong Hypercar class World Endurance Championship entry announced last week to 17 for the French enduro. Cadillac appears set to bring both its regular IMSA SportsCar Championship entries over from North America for the centrepiece WEC round on 10-11 June, while Glickenhaus has committed to again fielding a second car and the ByKolles-run Vanwall Racing squad has revealed that it is working on one. That would make the Hypercar field at the 24 Hours the largest in the top class since 2010 when there were 18 LMP1s on the grid. Should the extra Vanwall fail to come to…

WEC/IMSA Cadillac’s proposed Formula 1 entry with the Andretti team will have no effect on its IMSA SportsCar Championship and World Endurance Championship campaigns. That was the message loud and clear last week from the General Motors marque. Board member Rory Harvey, global vice-president of Cadillac, described the manufacturer’s continuing involvement in sportscar racing with the new V-LMDh, which will race for the first time this month in the Daytona 24 Hours IMSA opener, as “a complement” to what it has planned for F1 from 2026. “We don’t see F1 impacting this series in any way,” he added. “The US is very important to us and the IMSA series is very important to us,” said Harvey. “This season, with some new entrants, is going to be super-exciting. The fans are…

INDYCAR Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Takuma Sato will tackle this year’s edition of the race from the seat of a Chip Ganassi Racing car after joining the Honda-powered team for an oval-only programme. The Japanese star, who turns 46 next week, will share the full-time #11 Ganassi entry with ex-Formula 2 racer Marcus Armstrong, who was confirmed in December as Ganassi’s replacement for Jimmie Johnson on road and street courses. Sato’s arrival means that, despite Ganassi losing Tony Kanaan to Arrow McLaren SP for the Memorial Day Weekend classic and reducing its car count to four, it will still have three former winners of the 500 on board: Sato, Scott Dixon (2008) and Marcus Ericsson (2022). The #11 car will be engineered by Eric Cowdin, Johnson’s engineer for the past…

On paper, Hyundai’s appointment of Cyril Abiteboul as team principal of its World Rally Championship squad seems a strange decision, but it could be the change of leadership it required. The Frenchman has spent the majority of his career in Formula 1, as team principal at Caterham before snaring the top role at Renault until it rebranded to Alpine in 2021. But by his own admission, he is new to rallying and has a lot to learn about the discipline. For a team desperate to return to the top of the WRC pyramid, it seems odd to hire someone with no rally experience. In the past, team bosses have transferred from rallying to F1 – think Jean Todt (Peugeot to Ferrari in 1994) and more recently Jost Capito, who enjoyed…

DAKAR RALLY SAUDI ARABIA 31 DECEMBER-15 JANUARY Nasser Al-Attiyah cemented himself among the greatest competitors in the history of cross-country rallying with an emphatic fifth triumph in the Dakar Rally. The Qatari produced a virtually error-free drive across the two weeks in Saudi Arabia, earning plaudits for his measured approach to a rally that favours those who play the long game. Combined with the robust reliability of the Toyota Hilux, Al-Attiyah was an unstoppable force in the 45th running of the event, with his victory all but certain well before the halfway point in Riyadh. While Al-Attiyah had an easy run to the finish after all his rivals fell out of contention in quick succession, the Toyota star was still able to unleash his ultimate pace early on, picking up…

FORMULA REGIONAL MIDDLE EAST DUBAI (ARE) 13-14 JANUARY ROUND 1/5 Dino Beganovic and Gabriele Mini may be taking their rivalry into FIA Formula 3 this season, but they’re giving it one last hurrah at Formula Regional level and it resulted in a thrilling opener to the renamed FR Middle East (formerly FR Asian) series at Dubai Autodrome. Mini qualified his Hitech Grand Prix car on a dominant pole, while Swedish Ferrari protege Beganovic, who beat the Sicilian to the FR European crown in 2022, started his Prema-run Mumbai Falcons car from fourth. Beganovic made quick early progress to move past Matias Zagazeta and then Andrea Kimi Antonelli into second place, but it wasn’t until after the last of two safety car interludes that the race really caught fire. There was…

HISTORY OF F1 SHOWCASE MATT KEW There’s a very big difference between beautiful patina and plain old wear and tear. The former tells a story of a life well lived. That’s why it was so pleasing to see the nicked seat upholstery and stress cracks in the dark green paint of the ex-Reg Parnell BRM P15, chassis #1, which headlined the GP Racing magazine and Silverstone Interactive Museum stand. Housing a 1.5-litre V16 that’s quite capable of blowing the roof off the NEC, the Bourne-built machine lays claim to being the best-sounding grand prix car of all time. And it’s back in the headlines now that historic racing specialist Hall & Hall (based in the same Lincolnshire town) is building three continuation examples comprising 36,000 parts. Nick and Paul Owen…

Autosport would like to thank all the drivers, team bosses, designers and industry specialists who generously gave us their time and for their valued contributions to this year’s Autosport International show. We would like to give special appreciation to Sir Jackie Stewart and the Race Against Dementia team, David Brabham, Tom Ingram, Allan McNish, Darren Turner, Car Composites, Cosworth, eBay, Demon Tweeks, F1 in Schools, Sadev Racing Transmission, Silverstone Interactive Museum, Wera Tools, Williams Esports, all the contributors to the EV Showcase and many other supporters. Thanks also to Solutions2, Image Innovations and Network Productions for their work on the excellent Live Action Arena. Finally, our thanks to the tireless Autosport International production team, especially Mandy Cox, for their amazing work in putting the 2023 show together.…

CASTLE COMBE Castle Combe has undergone a rebrand that is the beginning of “an aggressive regeneration vision”, according to new managing director Piero Stobbia. The Wiltshire circuit’s rebrand, which includes a new logo, was unveiled at the Autosport International show. Stobbia indicated that this was the first of a number of developments set to be announced in coming weeks. “It’s more than just a logo, it’s building a new brand, a modern vision,” said Stobbia. “I want it to look modern, clean and professional.” Stobbia, who took over as MD in October last year, has put together a comprehensive development plan for the circuit that will be fully unveiled in the near future once a new management structure has been assembled. “I want to be the best at what we…

TCR UK Maximum Motorsport has become the UK agent for Hyundai TCR machines, with the Elantra N model set to make its racing debut in the country this year. The partnership, announced last week at the Autosport International show, means that teams running cars – including Hyundai i30 N TCR and Veloster N TCR examples – can now rely on a full spare-parts supply service from Maximum at the circuit and between races. Maximum team principal Stewart Lines, whose organisation also runs TCR UK, said: “This is another step forwards for TCR UK, having factory support by Hyundai which involves providing spares, race cars and engineering to our UK customers. This will enable us to grow the Hyundai brand even further in the UK and present the TCR UK Touring…

BRITCAR TROPHY British Endurance Championship racers Rhys Lloyd and Max Coates have launched a new Dragon Sport Scholarship and Academy to help young drivers progress through the sport, with inaugural winner Jack Meakin securing a season alongside Lloyd in the Britcar Trophy. Former Welsh Sports and Saloons champion Lloyd shared an Opel Astra TCR in the BEC last season with Mini Challenge racer Coates, and now wants to help others climb the motorsport ladder. He came up with the scholarship idea and 30 drivers took part in a shootout at Blyton Park last November to win the prize drive in a Renault Clio in the Britcar Trophy. As well as the drivers’ on-track performance, their media skills and fitness were also tested. Winner Meakin graduated from Junior Saloon Cars into…

GB4 CHAMPIONSHIP Exciting racing was overshadowed somewhat by low average grid sizes for the inaugural season of the GB4 Championship, an entry-level single-seater category from MotorSport Vision. Only nine drivers completed the full eight-round campaign – this total also proved to be a season low at the second Snetterton meeting – but come the Donington Park finale a high of 14 drivers took to the grid. Fortec Motorsports’ Nikolas Taylor claimed the title at the final round, winning the £50,000 prize fund, and will graduate with the squad into GB3 this season, fulfilling the main purpose of the championship. Last term’s National Formula Ford shootout winner Colin Queen will also move into GB4 this year, again fulfilling another aspiration set out by MSV, while interest for the upcoming campaign looks…

BOOK REVIEW F1 GREATS Rainer W Schlegelmilch/Motorsport Images and Hartmut Lehbrink RRP €299 Back in 2017, Autosport published a pair of supplements to celebrate the expansion of Motorsport Images following the acquisition of two remarkable picture archives, one of which represented 50 years of Rainer Schlegelmilch’s extraordinary output. At the time we described him as one of the world’s most respected photographers. He’s arguably the most famous, and a strong case can be made for him being the finest. This writer spends no small amount of time sourcing images for Autosport’s ‘From the Archive’ pages. And no other photographer’s work is so immediately recognisable – there’s little need to check the accompanying info, you just know an image is one of his. It’s the result of a rich chemistry of…

FORMULA 1 Williams has named Mercedes strategy director James Vowles as its new Formula 1 team principal. Vowles, 43, will step into a team principal role for the first time when he takes over at Williams following the departure of Jost Capito in December. He has worked in F1 for over 20 years, the majority spent at Brackley through the team’s BAR, Honda, Brawn and Mercedes guises. With Mercedes, Vowles established himself as the right-hand man to team principal Toto Wolff, playing a key role within the senior management of the team through its recent F1 domination. Talks accelerated with Williams over the past month, with Wolff and Mercedes giving their full support. Vowles is under no illusions of the challenge he faces in turning Williams around. The team has…

NASCAR Former NASCAR Cup champion Kevin Harvick is to retire at the end of this season. The 47-year-old’s title came in 2014 with the Stewart-Haas Racing Ford squad and he has been a regular with the team since then, but is calling time on a glittering career that counts wins in the Daytona 500, Coca-Cola 600, Brickyard 400 and Southern 500. Harvick was promoted into the Cup series in 2001 by Richard Childress Racing to replace Dale Earnhardt Sr following his death in the Daytona 500 and won in his third start at Atlanta. Last year he made the playoffs for the 13th consecutive season. Since their inception in 2004, he’s only missed the cut three times, and will end his career with over 800 Cup starts. “There is absolutely…

OBITUARY John Wickham did it all in a career that spanned five decades and all six continents. A Formula 1 team owner with Spirit in the 1980s, he was at the reins of the Bentley squad when it won the Le Mans 24 Hours in 2003. But those are just two of the credits to the well-travelled team manager’s story. Wickham, who has died aged 73 after a long and stoically fought battle with motor neurone disease, worked in just about every international racing formula bar Indycars, though that’s to overlook the stillborn CART contender Spirit had on the go after its withdrawal from F1. Programmes in touring cars, Formula 2 and 3000 and Formula 3 all benefited from his meticulous organisational skills, which came into their own when he…

Had Hyundai’s package been as good at the start of 2022 as it was at the end of the campaign, then Ott Tanak could have given Kalle Rovanpera a much closer run to the title. In the second half of the season, he outscored the Finn thanks to a consistent run of results that included two wins among six podiums from the final seven events. The 2019 world champion remains a force to be reckoned with and is tipped among the favourites to challenge for this year’s championship, despite a switch to M-Sport following the breakdown of his three-year relationship with Hyundai. Tanak faced an uncertain future when he dropped the bombshell that he would be leaving Hyundai, but after months of talks his move to M-Sport was secured, returning…

Now back in a full-time manufacturer seat for the first time since 2019, Esapekka Lappi could steal in to pose a title threat with Hyundai. His return to form was one of the feelgood stories of last year – the Finn grabbed a career lifeline thrown by Toyota and guided the third GR Yaris to three podiums in seven events, helping secure the manufacturers’ title. After slipping out of the WRC’s top tier at the end of 2020, the one-time rally winner (Finland 2017) has now found himself elevated back into one of the WRC’s plum seats thanks to Ott Tanak’s Hyundai departure. “It’s been crazy to go from not having a drive and then suddenly I’m a full-time driver again,” offers Lappi. “I can say that I was lucky…

REVISED RALLY1 CARS WRC teams have spent the off-season refining their Rally1 machines ahead of a second season under the hybrid rules. Reigning champion Toyota has not stood still. The pronounced airboxes that adorned the flanks of the car to cool the hybrid unit have been replaced with a much smoother, more aerodynamic design, since it was found that the 2022 design overestimated the amount of cooling required for the hybrid unit. This has resulted in a redesign of the rear fenders and arches. The rear wing has also been tweaked to compensate for the new aero package. In addition to the aero changes, Toyota has elected to upgrade its 1.6-litre engine to improve the delivery of power and torque. Hyundai has revealed noticeable changes to the aero on its…

The Hankook tyres screeched like banshees as the drivers tortured the last ounce of grip from them through the medium-speed corners. And, through the Peraltada, they were on a knife-edge; Rene Rast and Edoardo Mortara went beyond the limits in practice as the cars bucked under load and threw them into the wall. A lot was expected of the new cars during the race, particularly with how the drivers would go into battle in them. Their diminutive size hinted that they would be much more conducive to close on-track fights through Formula E’s notoriously narrow cast of circuits, while the increase in power promised faster lap times. Both of those plot points remained relatively inconclusive in Mexico City, for multiple reasons. Firstly, the addition of the chicane for this year…

DUBAI 24 HOURS DUBAI (ARE) 14-15 JANUARY Belgian sportscar monolith WRT’s first race with BMW after a long history with Audi ended with its second consecutive Dubai 24 Hours triumph and a third place. Last year’s winners Dries Vanthoor and Mohamed Al Saud were joined by Jens Klingmann, Diego Menchaca and Jean-Baptiste Simmenauer to bring victory for the squad’s lead M4 GT3. Haupt Racing Team’s Mercedes-AMG GT3s locked out the front row of the grid and ran first and second during the opening laps in the hands of Luca Stolz and Jules Gounon, before Vanthoor climbed from sixth on the grid to take the lead shortly after the half-hour mark. Newcomer Haas RT enjoyed a spell in front, following an impressive recovery from 43rd on the grid after engine issues…

Technology has advanced a great deal in three years. Since Autosport International was last held in 2020, the world’s first electric SUV championship has come to life, the World Rallycross Championship has switched to EVs, and battery technology has even filtered down to the grassroots of club racing with the announcement of a new single-seater series set to begin in 2024 that will be promoted by the British Racing & Sports Car Club. The presence of the new Formula Foundation-E alongside Extreme E’s Spark-built Odyssey 21 was therefore fitting as part of the show’s EV Showcase feature, where they were joined by the Delta Cosworth-built Envision two-seater, Delta Cosworth’s joint venture with Ariel (the new Hipercar), and one of ex-Formula 1 engineer Rob Smedley’s electric Total Karting chassis. The sixth…

PORSCHE CARRERA CUP GB Porsche Carrera Cup GB runner-up Adam Smalley has moved to Team Parker Racing for his second season as the Porsche GB Junior, and will also tackle the new Southern Europe winter series that starts this weekend. Smalley, the 2021 Ginetta GT4 Supercup champion, took one win and nine further podiums with Redline Racing on his Porsche bow last year, but now switches to the team that carried Kiern Jewiss to the title. “Finishing vice-champion was a very strong result in my first year having to learn the car and I’m looking forward to returning to Carrera Cup GB this season,” said Smalley. “Finishing second was more than I could’ve hoped for and Team Parker Racing have now offered me some very good opportunities, like racing in…

FIESTA JUNIOR The British Racing & Sports Car Club has joined forces with The Motorsports School and given the training organisation a Fiesta Junior-specification car to use. The Mk7 Fiesta will enable youngsters having their first experience of a car on a track to drive something that much more closely represents what they would actually race, offering a more exciting glimpse of competition than a standard road-going vehicle. The Motorsports School will run taster days where teenagers will get the chance to drive the car for free, and it will also be used for junior ARDS tests and training. “The idea is to get them closer to the race car experience – it’s got the cage, the race seat and the harnesses,” said BRSCC chief operating officer Paul McErlean. “The…

DONINGTON HISTORIC RACES The 2023 Donington Historic Festival timetable has been revealed. Alongside tin-top, sportscar and pre-war races from Motor Racing Legends, the full complement of Historic Racing Drivers Club series will be in attendance, while the event will also feature the Ferrari Club Classic category for the first time. MG CUP INTEREST, AND TYRES The MG Cup has already secured 27 registered drivers for its 35th anniversary season this year. The series will be switching tyre supplier after agreeing a deal with Toyo Tires for it to supply control rubber, a move that was supported by its drivers. All competitors must have switched to the new tyres by the third round at MG Live at the latest. CIRCUIT RALLYING RESTART The MGJ Circuit Rally Championship resumes this weekend with…

Alongside these categories, there was also a host of other new series from the world of historic motorsport that enjoyed much softer launches during 2022 with just a few trial events. The Historic Sports Car Club was among the organisers taking this sensibly cautious approach as it tentatively kickstarted two new creations. The first was the Griffiths Haig Trophy for drum-braked 1950s sportscars, harking back to the club’s very origins. There were three UK appearances for these machines, with an encouraging 15 cars participating in the Silverstone opener. Entries were more modest for its Historic Modsports and Saloons offering, but plenty of enquiries for 2023 mean a fuller programme of six events is now planned. Other historic racing organisers are looking to capitalise on the popularity of the Group 1…

Lewis Hamilton catches the tail of his McLaren-Mercedes MP4-22 during qualifying for the 2007 Hungarian Grand Prix, on a day fraught with intra-team strife. Hamilton was knocked off pole position in the dying moments of Q3 by team-mate Fernando Alonso, but started the next day’s race from P1 after Alonso was demoted to sixth on the grid as a penalty for delaying Hamilton in the pitlane. This was in retaliation for Hamilton’s refusal to cede position to the Spaniard at the start of the final qualifying session. And so ‘pitlanegate’ joined the lexicon, only to be overtaken in significance and notoriety by ‘spygate’… For classic motorsport DVDs and downloads head to dukevideo.com For more great photographs, visit motorsportimages.com…