Innehållsförteckning för 21/03/24 från Autosport

This might sound harsh but, given that Ferrari and McLaren haven’t won a Formula 1 world title since 2008, many neutrals have been looking to Mercedes to provide opposition to Red Bull. And, so far in this second ground-effect era, it has failed to do so. For this year, a change in design concept created some hope that Mercedes could turn the tide. It still could but, as Alex Kalinauckas and Jake Boxall-Legge show in our cover feature starting on page 18, there are still plenty of hurdles to overcome. That’s perhaps to be expected given Red Bull’s head start in this ruleset, but F1 needs someone to challenge Max Verstappen sooner rather than later, and it would be nice to see Lewis Hamilton end his time at Mercedes with…

FORMULA 1 McLaren is eyeing either the Miami Grand Prix in early May or the following Emilia Romagna GP to introduce its first major upgrade package of the 2024 Formula 1 season. While the MCL38 has started the campaign far stronger than both of its ground-effect predecessors, tricky handling habits at low speed and a lacklustre top speed have carried over. Accordingly, team principal Andrea Stella is targeting “race six or race seven” for McLaren to deliver an update that will begin putting these issues to bed, and that means Miami or Imola. “We have some minor things that will come for Australia [this weekend] and hopefully for Japan, but they will be [delivering] a few milliseconds,” the Italian engineer explained. “Then, hopefully, within the first third of the season,…

It was Hyundai squad Excelr8 Motorsport’s turn to unveil its 2024 livery at an event near Stratford-upon-Avon last Friday, and local hero William Shakespeare’s Macbeth-opening salvo of “so fair and foul a day I have not seen” could easily apply to the fortunes of Tom Ingram and Tom Chilton at stormy Knockhill last season… The colours pay tribute to title sponsor Bristol Street Motors’ centenary. The i30 Ns of Ingram, Chilton and Ronan Pearson also sport allegiance to Excelr8’s new partnership with multiple champion squad Team Dynamics.…

TCR WORLD TOUR Argentinian tin-top star Esteban Guerrieri has returned to the discipline full-time in the TCR World Tour following his one-season sojourn in the World Endurance Championship with Vanwall. The 39-year-old has joined new Honda squad GOAT Racing to race a Civic Type R FL5, representing a return to the Japanese manufacturer. Across six seasons in the World Touring Car Championship and World Touring Car Cup, Guerrieri scored 13 race wins in Hondas and a best championship finish of runner-up in 2019. “It was in Honda cars that I have achieved my biggest successes in touring cars, but there’s an unfinished business and the desire to add a global TCR title burns very strongly inside me!” said Guerrieri of joining the Spanish GOAT squad, which is run by ex-World…

NASCAR It should be no surprise that a veteran driver won last Sunday’s NASCAR Cup race at Bristol Motor Speedway, given it became dominated unexpectedly by tyre wear. Denny Hamlin, who won last fall’s Bristol Night Race, mastered the tyre management to come away with his second consecutive victory at the famed half-mile oval in Tennessee in his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Last weekend’s race was the first Bristol spring Cup event not held on dirt since 2020, and quickly took on a different look. Although Goodyear took the same tyre combination to this race as was used last September, for some reason the falloff laid no rubber on the track, which resulted in an excessive amount of wear. Midway through the 500-lap race, NASCAR allowed Goodyear to provide teams…

There’s a big challenge across the rest of the Formula 1 season facing RB, Haas, Williams, Sauber – and maybe one day Alpine too. They are fighting for whatever Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll might leave available in terms of points, if none of the other frontrunners hit trouble. There is a sense pervading the paddock that the gap between the frontrunners and the midfield has increased since 2023. The season’s stats don’t actually back up that opinion, albeit they come from a very small sample size of the opening two races. Using the supertimes method based on raw pace, the gap after two races between the 2023 frontrunners (Red Bull, Ferrari, Aston and Mercedes) and the other teams was 0.493%. So far in 2024, that has contracted to 0.445%. But…

“To finish on a high with the team would be a dream. We have gone through a whole heap together. It would be the greatest moment to be able to help them get back to the top.” So far, Lewis Hamilton’s dream ending to his hyper-successful, 12-season Mercedes Formula 1 stint is not becoming a reality. In the year’s opening two rounds, he’s trailed team-mate George Russell in qualifying, and they might have been further apart on the grid last time out in Jeddah had Russell not blown his only new tyre run in Q3. In the races, Hamilton’s seventh in Bahrain and ninth in Jeddah mean he’s five places and 10 points adrift of his team-mate in the drivers’ standings. Russell has finished fifth and sixth so far. “It’s…

The seven weeks between the previous Formula E event in Diriyah and last weekend’s Sao Paulo E-Prix was a frustrating and unnecessary gap for drivers, teams and fans of the championship to endure. Yet that break paled in comparison to the wait that finally ended when the chequered flag flew in Brazil and Sam Bird at last returned to the top step of the podium for the first time since his victory in New York in July 2021. Since that win, the Briton’s abilities and commitment to racing had come under severe scrutiny, and his three-year partnership with Jaguar ended last season following lacklustre results. He was offered a lifeline by McLaren for 2024, and the new partnership bore fruit at just the fourth time of asking, with victory in…

CCRC Increased registrations, new headline sponsors and improved facilities are hallmarks of Castle Combe’s 2024 season, opening with its 500th car race meeting on Easter Monday. With their series transitioned to a fully fledged Castle Combe Racing Club championship this year, Hot Hatch competitors have responded strongly with a record 48 subscribers to date. Forty-five have entered the first doubleheader, including 2023 GT runner-up Alan Hamilton, who has switched from his potent Westfield to a Mini Cooper R53. The 11-strong Mini class features newcomers Crofton Woodhatch (Grant Motorsport) and Toby Wilcox, plus Lewis Clark, Ben Pemberton and Max Gray among an expanded 119 Racing squad. Past master Robert Hall returns to Formula Ford 1600 action with a new Swift SC24, aiming to emulate double champions Felix Fisher – gunning for…

CIRCUIT RALLYING Former British GT driver Michael Igoe and Will Atkins clinched the Circuit Rally Championship with a fifth successive win in their Citroen C3 Rally2 on last weekend’s Dukeries Rally at Donington Park. Igoe spent the first two stages chasing down the Ford Fiesta R5 of outgoing champions John Griffiths and Emma Morrison, before ending stage three tied for the lead. But Griffiths overshot and hit a gate on stage four and lost 18 seconds to Igoe, which proved decisive, despite Igoe hitting a tyre stack on the same test. “It hasn’t really sunk in that I have won the title, but it’s been a great season,” said Igoe, who plans to defend his title and is considering a move to longer Tarmac stage rallies. “I’m enjoying rallying as…

Four-hundred-and-twenty-seven. This very impressive-sounding number is the total figure of entries the Classic Sports Car Club had received for its season-opening Donington Park meeting this weekend as Autosport closed for press. It’s a brilliant achievement, and just the sort of good news story we need as a new national racing season begins. Now, we do have to acknowledge that Donington always attracts strong CSCC grids – note the near-500 entries it received in 2020 amid the massive post-COVID lockdown boom – but it’s still impressive, especially at a time when the UK economy is struggling. The CSCC has welcomed a multitude of series into its portfolio for this year, but that alone does not explain the huge entry. Instead, director David Smitheram believes there are several factors. “Because we’ve added…

The withdrawal symptoms were mounting. An Autosport visit to PalmerSport at Bedford Autodrome last year (Autosport, 14 September) had only whetted the appetite the more. And an apparent cure arrived in January. PalmerSport was running a scholarship to win a full-season drive in Ginetta’s entry-level GT Academy series that supports British GT, a prize worth an estimated £100,000. Motorsport is a dream for many, and for one worthy winner that was going to come true. As Ginetta commercial manager Jamie Robinson says: “We wanted to give people a chance of achieving a dream they may not otherwise pursue and become a racing driver for a season and possibly beyond.” He adds that “the event was fully booked in under two days”. Autosport had made the cut, and in preparation there…

“The car I always felt was ‘my’ car, that I could always be quick in, was the first Peugeot 908, the V12. I don’t know why, it just clicked, like an extension of my body. I could be quick on new tyres, old tyres, wet and dry.” Anthony Davidson started 24 Formula 1 races, drove the dominant Carlin-run Dallara F301 in British F3, and was World Endurance champion alongside Sebastien Buemi in Toyota’s TS040 HYBRID in 2014. But the car he picks as his favourite is the sports-prototype that launched his endurance racing career, the Peugeot 908 HDi. Davidson won first time out with the turbodiesel at the 2010 Sebring 12 Hours, but he was smitten long before that. “The first laps I did with it were at Paul Ricard…

FORMULA 1 Max Verstappen has made it quite clear where his allegiances lie. He may well have a contract to provisionally remain at Red Bull until the end of 2028 but, should team advisor Helmut Marko be sent packing – – amid claims that the Austrian is behind leaks to the media regarding the allegations of inappropriate behaviour made by a female employee against team boss Christian Horner – then he’ll be inclined to follow him through the door. To that end, Verstappen’s father Jos says Red Bull will “explode” if Horner stays. The Briton’s future is still far from resolved. Although the independent eight-week investigation called for by Red Bull found no evidence of any wrongdoing, that verdict is now set for appeal. The FIA is also evaluating an…

FORMULA 1 Formula 1 is poised to reject a switch to smaller 16-inch wheelrims for the 2026 rules revamp. A two-inch shrink was intended to contribute to weight-saving measures that the FIA is implementing for the next-generation car, which will have a reduced footprint. But tyre manufacturer Pirelli has opposed the change. The current 18-inch set-up, introduced for 2022, more closely resembles the bigger rims that customers are demanding for their road cars. A new size would also require major changes to the production process, which would have to be completed in time to launch a full test programme with mule F1 cars in 2025. It would also be an extra variable for teams to adjust to, in addition to the forthcoming new chassis and powertrain regulations. “We have to…

WEC/IMSA The partnership between Cadillac and Chip Ganassi Racing at the highest levels of sportscar racing will come to an end on the completion of this year’s World Endurance Championship and IMSA SportsCar Championship campaigns. The split, after four seasons together, was confirmed by Ganassi managing director Mike Hull last week when he said “we are ending this chapter” of a relationship with Cadillac parent company General Motors that has straddled IndyCar, NASCAR and Extreme E over the years. He said that the agreement to race the V-Series.R LMDh is coming to an end in a “very positive way”, adding that he doubted that it would be “the last time we work with General Motors on a racing project”. GM’s statement in response to the comments from Hull stressed the…

5 PAU GRAND PRIX Yes, we know, massive modern F1 cars would struggle to fit around this French street circuit and the racing would probably be terrible, but the Monaco GP still exists… The Pau GP dates back to 1933 and was held as a non-championship F1 race as late as 1963. It was last run for French F4, but we reckon the event deserves something a bit grander – and it would certainly provide a stern test for drivers. 4 RACE OF CHAMPIONS Brands Hatch is another venue that would probably struggle to fit modern F1 cars, but we’d change the rules to make them smaller anyway. First run in 1965, the Race of Champions sometimes included F5000 cars as well as F1 and became a major event at…

Since leaving Formula 1, I’ve been able to devote more energy to my passion for broadening participation in motorsport. The penny is dropping: as a community, we’re recognising that we have to do things that are genuine and impactful. But are we doing enough? Absolutely not. We’re not doing anywhere near enough. I always say that if you’re going to make fundamental change in anything, it has to become part of the fabric of what you’re doing. Like environmental sustainability – you can’t behave recklessly for most of the week and just do some green stuff on a Friday afternoon. It doesn’t work. It has to be part of the fabric, culture and targets of your business. And it’s the same with increasing participation in motorsport. I launched Global Karting…

Louis Deletraz provided the fireworks in a dramatic and memorable finish that put Acura in Victory Lane after the 72nd edition of the Sebring 12 Hours. Cadillac Racing was the dominant force from the start last weekend – both the Action Express and Chip Ganassi Racing-run V-Series.Rs looked like potential winners of the second round of the IMSA SportsCar Championship – but Deletraz, in combination with his Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti co-drivers Colton Herta and Jordan Taylor, denied the General Motors marque in the closing stages of the 333-lap race. A caution with 80 minutes to go put the majority of the leading Grand Touring Prototype class on level terms and proved to be a significant turning point as Sebastien Bourdais, driving the Ganassi-prepared Cadillac, took the lead and…

CSCC A unique Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio “beast” is set to make its race debut at the Classic Sports Car Club’s Donington Park meeting this weekend. The 2.9-litre twin-turbo V6 machine has been converted to race specification by Alfa specialist Bianco Motorsport after the car was bought by Barry McMahon, who has previously competed in an Alfa 156. None of the cars are believed to have raced before, although one was developed for the VLN a few years ago. McMahon’s example has been fitted with hybrid turbos and wide body kit, while extensive work has taken place on its electronics. In its current form, it produces 640bhp and weighs 1500kg. “The general consensus in the industry was it wouldn’t work,” said Bianco’s Paul Plant. “But Barry’s not one to be…

CIVIC CUP TCR UK race winner Alistair Camp will return to the Civic Cup this year, leading Area Motorsport’s development of the FN2 model. Camp, who won the Civic Cup title with Area in 2021, had hoped to graduate full-time to TCR UK after impressing in a Pro Alloys Racing-run Hyundai i30 N last year, including winning at Donington Park. But budget limitations have kept him in the feeder series, albeit with a new challenge in the shape of the FN2. The series has been dominated by the older EP3 model, with the FN2 scoring only one win since Maximum Motorsport took over its promotion in 2020. But the newer model has now been given an extra 10bhp and other regulation tweaks to address its inherent disadvantages. “I didn’t want…

RALLYING Jos Verstappen will make his British rallying debut on next month’s Rallynuts Severn Valley Stages, round two of the British Rally Championship. The father of three-time Formula 1 champion Max, who made over 100 grand prix appearances during his own career, turned to rallying in 2022 and has enjoyed reasonable success, winning three of his past five events. So far the majority of his rallying has been on Belgian stages, and the Rallynuts event on 13 April will be Verstappen’s first outside mainland Europe – and his first ever on gravel. He and co-driver Renaud Jamoul will compete in their Skoda Fabia RS Rally2, meaning they will also be responsible for debuting Skoda’s freshest Rally2 machine on British stages. This year’s Rallynuts is celebrating its 50th anniversary, and as…

SILVERSTONE BRSCC 16-17 MARCH All the talk of pressure facing organising clubs, together with the potential of reduced entry numbers, was soon swept aside as the British Racing & Sports Car Club launched its 2024 season with a combination of flourishing grids and some truly sensational racing on the Silverstone International circuit last weekend. The ever-popular Mazda MX-5s delivered eight fantastic races, and one notable addition to the Supercup line-up in the form of four-time British Touring Car champion Colin Turkington (see News). The Northern Irishman was, however, only there for fun, which put the focus firmly onto last season’s Mk3 frontrunners, Aidan Hills and Patrick Fletcher. These two battled relentlessly, taking a win each, but it was the much-improved Leigh Britten who worked hardest to come from ninth in…

One of the hottest new talents in this year’s GB3 Championship won’t even be contesting the first two race weekends, but he’s a race winner already this season on the IndyCar support bill. That’s because St Petersburg starlet Nikita Johnson is only 15 years old. The age rules in the US are less restrictive – he’s now in his third year on the IndyCar open-wheel ladder, and he took his first victory in an F4 car at the tender age of 12, in the YACademy series. “That seems a long time ago now…” he muses. Johnson is a product of the junior programme of Velocity Racing Development, the Georgia-based team set up by expat East Midlander Dan Mitchell, who moved from Fortec Motorsport and the European scene to the States…

RALLY RAIDS Audi could face a fine of up to €750,000 for bringing an abrupt end to its World Rally-Raid Championship campaign after winning the Dakar Rally with Carlos Sainz. The German manufacturer was due to see out its third and final season in the FIA-sanctioned series as part of its much-touted cross-country programme with the RS Q e-tron hybrid. But just a month after scoring a maiden Dakar win in January, Audi announced that it would be shutting down the project with immediate effect, leaving it out of the remaining four events. Stewards at the recent Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, round two of the World Rally-Raid (W2RC) schedule, noted that Audi had registered as a manufacturer for the season and that it was ‘harming the image’ of the series…

FORMULA E A vote among the principals of the 11 Formula E teams has rejected a plan to allow drivers to pull double duty on the 11-12 May weekend, when the series’ Berlin double-header clashes with the Spa round of the World Endurance Championship. Seven drivers are running dual WEC/FE campaigns this season, and in theory this would have allowed them to contest the Spa 6 Hours on the Saturday and then the Sunday Berlin FE round. An FIA regulation means that a double-header is considered as a sole event, meaning the unanimous agreement of the 11 teams was required for an exemption to be signed off. DS Penske FE pair Stoffel Vandoorne and Jean-Eric Vergne are both committed to Berlin as the series takes priority over their Peugeot WEC…

Melbourne Length 3.280 miles Number of laps 58 UK START TIMES Friday 22 March FP1 0130 FP2 0500 Saturday 23 March FP3 0130 QUALIFYING 0500 Sunday 24 March RACE 0400 CATCH THE RACE LIVE SKY SPORTS F1 BBC RADIO 5 LIVE TV Highlights CHANNEL 4 1230 TYRE ALLOCATION CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS Drivers Constructors MELBOURNE STATS Previous winners 2023 POLE POSITION Max Verstappen 1m16.732s POLE LAP RECORD Max Verstappen 1m16.732s (2023) RACE LAP RECORD Sergio Perez 1m20.235s (2023) Podiums Lewis Hamilton 10 Sebastian Vettel 7 Kimi Raikkonen 6 Fernando Alonso 6 Michael Schumacher 5 Rubens Barrichello 5 Jenson Button 4 David Coulthard 4 Nico Rosberg 4 Ralf Schumacher 3…

We’ve been here before. On 30 March 2023, the front cover of this magazine asked: ‘What next for Mercedes?’ Almost a year earlier, on 7 April 2022, the line was essentially the same, albeit with some added Toto Wolff fury – ‘“Totally unacceptable” – what’s gone wrong at Mercedes’. Arguably, this rather niche trend encompasses 2021 too, when on 15 April that year we were explaining ‘What Mercedes must do to fix the W12’ at the start of the squad’s titanic battle with Red Bull for that year’s world titles. But those 2022 and 2023 features, and now this one, follow the second round of a new Formula 1 season. Mercedes was comprehensively defeated in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix earlier this month, not just by the dominant Red Bull…

Jack Hawksworth converted a GTD Pro class pole into victory in the Sebring 12 Hours, but it wasn’t without drama. The Yorkshireman, sharing the Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 with fellow Brit Ben Barnicoat and IndyCar rising star Kyle Kirkwood, was penalised and sent to the rear of the field for inadvertently striking a crew member during his first pitstop. Although the setback was significant, the trio was able to methodically march forward. And Hawksworth was handed the keys for the final stint to get some redemption, which he did by passing the Risi Competizione Ferrari of Daniel Serra with 20 minutes remaining with a stout inside move into Turn 1. He then held off the Brazilian to win by just 0.121 seconds. The victory was the first for…

MAZDA MX-5 SUPERCUP Four-time British Touring Car champion Colin Turkington made a guest appearance in the Mazda MX-5 Supercup at Silverstone last weekend, and has further club-level outings planned in 2024. The 67-time BTCC racer winner, who turns 42 today (Thursday), was competing in a Paul Sheard-prepared car and managed to come away with a best result of 12th in the third and final race. Turkington, who is expected to race in the BTCC this season with Team BMW once again, told Autosport he was there purely for fun, having been impressed when he saw the championship previously: “We came to watch the Mini Se7ens and Miglias here last year, and we saw these out too, and I just thought, ‘That looks like fun’. “It’s been five months since my…

GINETTA GT ACADEMY James Nicholas has been chosen as the inaugural winner of the PalmerSport Ginetta Shootout, earning himself a funded drive in the Ginetta GT Academy. Nicholas won the prize, estimated to be worth £100,000, after going up against more than 50 other applicants at Bedford Autodrome. Ginetta head of motorsport Mike Simpson and PalmerSport chief instructors Rob Jenkinson and Christian Vann then selected Nicholas following a head-to-head shootout against David Williams. “I’m so unbelievably happy, I’m trying to contain myself a little bit, I’m over the moon,” said Nicholas. “Everyone dreams of winning, but deep down you never think you’re going to. It still feels a bit of a whirlwind.” → P64 NATIONAL FOCUS…

RALLYING The revitalised British Rally Championship kicks off its 2024 season at this weekend’s North West Stages with 2019 European champion Chris Ingram topping a stellar entry of Rally2 cars. A new TV deal with ITV4 and ITVX, reduced entry fees and a reshuffle of the events to avoid any overseas trips looks to have transformed the championship, which has struggled in recent years. Fourteen top-class cars will fight for outright honours, including Ingram, previous title winners Keith Cronin and Osian Pryce, reigning Junior World Rally champion William Creighton and the brightest homegrown talents. “Now the BRC looks arguably stronger than ever, with the new events and the TV deal, I think it’s the best opportunity to take a step back and fight for the British championship,” Ingram explained. “Realistically…

HISTORIC RALLYING Nick Elliott and Dave Price swept to a fine victory on round two of the British Historic Rally Championship when they guided their Fiat 131 through the Welsh forests to win the historic section of Rally North Wales last weekend. Wet and slippery stages in the classic forests of Gartheiniog, Dyfi and Dyfnant lay in wait for the competitors, and it proved to be a tough day with increasing rain in the afternoon making conditions even more challenging. But, through it all, Elliott drove superbly in the Fiat to score an important victory for the car against the best of the Ford Escorts. “I could tell after a little test we did on Friday on the way up that the car was just hands down better than on…

MAZDA MX-5 SUPERCUP Race 1 Aidan Hills Race 2 Patrick Fletcher Race 3 Leigh Britten MAZDA MX-5 CHAMPIONSHIP Races 1, 2 & 3 Thomas Langford MAZDA MX-5 CLUBMAN Races 1 & 2 Paul Bateman MODIFIED FORDS Races 1 & 2 Dave Cockell (Escort Cosworth) FIESTA JUNIOR Race 1 Jenson O’Neill-Going (ST) Race 2 Jacob Hodgkiss (Zetec S) SUPER CLASSIC PRE-99 FORMULA FORD Races 1 & 2 Alex Ames (Van Diemen RF90) SUPERSPORT ENDURANCE CUP Keir McConomy/Bart Horsten (BMW 1M) CLUBSPORT TROPHY James Alford (Audi TT) ZEO PROTOTYPE SERIES Races 1 & 2 Mike Jenvey (Jenvey-Gunn, below) For full results visit: tsl-timing.com…

DOCUMENTARY THE LIONHEART “A storm is coming.” Those are the words repeated by the late Dan Wheldon at the beginning of this film, which sets an ominous tone. The Lionheart blends archival footage of the two-time Indianapolis 500 winner and present-day storytelling that highlights the journey of his wife Susie and sons Oliver and Sebastian. The story begins with Wheldon as a kid claiming countless wins in the British karting ranks, and later venturing to the United States in his early twenties in an effort to reach Indycar racing before claiming the nation’s biggest prize in motorsport, the Indy 500, for the first time in 2005. In the early days of Wheldon’s career, his relationship with Susie developed from strictly a professional one – she was part of the marketing…

Carlos Reutemann was leading the 1980 Spanish Grand Prix at Jarama in the #28 Williams FW07B, harried by the Ligier JS11/15 of Jacques Laffite but putting up a stern defence, when at almost half-distance the pair came to lap Emilio de Villota’s RAM Racing Williams. Reutemann jinked past to the right of the backmarker, who eased leftwards in response. It was at this moment that Laffite decided he would execute his own move to de Villota’s left, thumping into the back of the Spaniard’s car. He then speared onwards and took out the race leader, pitching them both off the track and into the catch-fencing. For classic motorsport DVDs and downloads head to dukevideo.com For more great photographs, visit motorsportimages.com…