Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Alfa Romeo F1 Team Orlen enters this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix looking to rebound after a tough showing around the Spa-Francorchamps Circuit last weekend.

Valtteri Bottas’ race came to an impromptu end after attempting to avoid a skirmish with Nicholas Latifi, the Finn found himself beached in the gravel at Les Combes.

Last time out in Zandvoort, Bottas was able to secure a trip to the podium after finishing third behind Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton.

After such a promising start to the season with his new team, Bottas has now faced back-to-back retirements in Belgium and Hungary and has also been unable to secure a points finish since the Canadian Grand Prix.

Bottas enters this weekend’s Grand Prix optimistic that his point-less streak will come to it’s long-awaited end this weekend in the Netherlands.

“A new race week gives us the opportunity to recover straight away from an unfortunate weekend in Spa. I enjoyed racing in Zandvoort last year, where I also finished on the podium. It was disappointing to end last weekend’s race after only two laps, as the pace we went on showing with Zhou was good and I was confident we could have done well: with that pace as our starting point, we have the opportunity to build a strong performance for the weekend ahead, coming back with some points. The fans here are of course very passionate, so we will make sure to put up a good show for them.”

Zhou Guanyu: “our pace on track was promising, so hopefully we can keep up with it in Zandvoort”

With just two points scoring finishes to his name so far in his rookie season, Zhou Guanyu isn’t letting his confidence fade just yet.

Recapping on a tough weekend for the Haas F1 Team, Guenther Steiner has stated that despite being disappointed with today’s result at the Belgian Grand Prix, it came as no surprise to the Team Principal.

Starting from the back of the grid after new engine components were taken on his VF22, Mick Schumacher found himself in fourteenth place by the time the safety car had been brought out on the second lap of the race.

However, the lap after the safety car restart Schumacher found himself back in eighteenth place after the VF22 struggled with its top speed compared to the rest of the grid.

After undertaking a two-stop strategy, Schumacher would come home for a seventeenth-place finish around the Spa-Francorchamps Circuit.

For Kevin Magnussen, starting twelfth on the grid, the Dane was able to occupy a place inside the points by the third lap of the race but as the race wore on Magnussen would gradually fall down the order.

Undertaking the same two-stop strategy as Mick Schumacher, Magnussen would come home a place ahead of his teammate in sixteenth-place.

Reflecting on a tough weekend of action at the Spa-Francorchamps Circuit, Steiner was keen to already look ahead at what promises to be a stronger weekend for the team in Zandvoort.

“I’m quite disappointed with the result today but it was almost expected. On a high-speed track where we need low drag, our car is just not good enough this year.

Team Principal Andreas Seidl has ensured McLaren F1 Team fans that they will not give up in the fight with the BWT Alpine F1 Team for fourth in the Constructors’ standings, even after a massively disappointing result at the Belgian Grand Prix. Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo finished twelfth and fifteenth respectively, leaving Seidl hoping for a much better weekend at Zandvoort.

McLaren face a big challenge being twenty points behind Alpine, but Seidl hopes the exciting and quick circuit will suit McLaren.

“Zandvoort is an incredibly quick circuit and has had some memorable moments over the years. With F1 trialing DRS through the final banked corner for FP1, it should be interesting to see how the new iteration of cars perform and what impact it has on our ability to overtake, especially as the cars can run side by side there. The undulation and swooping sections are also a good feature of the circuit and provide a nice challenge for the drivers.”

Seidl spoke about the disappointment of last weekend and how the team as a collective will look to bounce back this weekend.

“We’ve spent the last few days analyzing the past weekend and ensuring we learn as much as possible from it. The result in Spa was not what we hoped but we can take these learnings and use them to maximize our package. We need to keep our full focus on making every small gain and pushing the car to get as much as we possibly can out of it. Let’s keep our heads down and get back to it.” 

The Dutch Grand Prix returns this weekend for the second consecutive season on the FIA Formula 1 World Championship calendar. McLaren F1 Team’s Daniel Ricciardo will be hoping for a better race this time out, after he and his team-mate finished outside of the points in the Belgian Grand Prix.

Ricciardo is excited for Zandvoort and he is looking forward to both the atmosphere and the quick and exciting circuit.

“I’m looking forward to Zandvoort. It’s an awesome circuit and has such a fun, almost festival-like atmosphere which is great for your mood going into the weekend. It’s more of an old-school circuit with interesting features like Tarzan and the ability to overtake there, so I’m excited to get on track and see how different it is from last year in the new cars.”

The Australian is also looking to have the best possible end to his rather underwhelming period with McLaren, and help the team beat rivals BWT Alpine F1 Team.

“I’ve spent the last couple of days in Amsterdam resetting, eating stroopwafels, and looking at how we can improve for the coming weekend. Last weekend was not what we wanted it to be, but we’ve bounced back before so we can definitely do the same this time around. We’ve got some good learnings from Spa which we can use for this weekend so hopefully we come out a bit better and can properly battle with the Alpines.”

Molly Taylor is eager for another shot at the Dakar Rally after becoming the first Australian woman to compete in it this past year. On Wednesday, she announced she will return to the event for 2023, once again driving a Can-Am Maverick SSV for Can-Am Factory South Racing with Dale Moscatt as co-driver. Prior to Dakar, she will also compete in the Rallye du Maroc in October for the first time.

“I’m so excited to be heading back into the desert and taking on Dakar again as well as Rallye Du Maroc as part of my ongoing partnership with the Can-Am Factory South Racing team,” Taylor stated.

The 2016 Australian Rally Champion first made the jump to rally raid in 2021 at Baja Aragón with Can-Am, where she finished fifth in the T4 (SSV) class, followed by a ninth at the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge. Both starts, as well as a three-race stint in the World Rally Championship, were side adventures to her main and successful pursuit of the inaugural Extreme E Championship.

Less than a month after securing the 2021 XE title with Rosberg X Racing, she made her Dakar début by placing fourteenth in the SSV category with a best stage finish of sixth in the ninth leg.

RXR did not retain Taylor for the 2022 XE season, but she returned to Saudi Arabia—where the Dakar Rally takes place—for the season opener on a one-race deal with JBXE and was classified ninth. While not competing for a major championship, she has spent the year carrying out ambassadorial duties for Subaru Australia and supporting Can-Am Factory South Racing at events like the Vegas to Reno.

Haas F1 Team Principal Guenther Steiner reflected on the return of the Dutch Grand Prix last year, and commended the work done to modernise the historic track and bring the event back as a mainstay on the Formula One calendar.

“I think it was the best example of an old school venue with a new interpretation. I think the organising committee there, the promoter, did a fantastic job reviving an old track so we can go back while making it ready for the modern era of Formula 1. Hats off to them as everybody’s really looking forward to going back to Zandvoort.”

When asked about the drivers’ feedback on the upgraded car after the Belgian Grand Prix, Steiner said that Spa didn’t bring out the best in VF-22. He added, however, that data collected on-track parallels the information gathered from the wind tunnel, which is promising. 

“It’s difficult to say their feelings on this because it’s a back-to-back and really on that circuit, we didn’t shine. The good thing is we see the data on the car is matching the data in the wind tunnel and at this stage, that’s the most important thing.”

Looking ahead to the rest of the season, Steiner outlined what he expects to be the team’s stronger tracks and weaker ones– Steiner defined this weekend’s race in Zandvoort as one with great potential for results. On the other hand, the following weekend in Monza doesn’t inspire much confidence in Steiner.

ROKiT F4 British Championship certified by FIA has announced that they will be running a dedicated new driver test session at Snetterton later this year for drivers looking to enter the series in 2023.

On 27-28 October drivers will get chance to sample the Tatuus-Abarth-Pirelli package around the Norfolk circuit’s 2.96-mile “300” layout.

Hugh Chambers, Chief Executive Officer of Motorsport UK said, “We’re very pleased to unveil plans for our first official New Driver Test for 2023 at the end of October.

“One of Motorsport UK’s key objectives, as the organisers of ROKiT British F4, is to create meaningful pathways through the sport for drivers.

“Now, with this initiative, that process can begin even sooner, providing drivers a headstart on winter testing, an opportunity to network within the paddock and immerse themselves at an earlier stage in all that the championship has to offer.

Jeremy Clements‘ win at Daytona International Speedway last Friday has been reduced to a trophy with an asterisk. On Tuesday, NASCAR announced his #51 Jeremy Clements Racing team has received an L2-level penalty for an intake manifold violation; while he remains the official winner, he cannot use the victory to qualify for the Xfinity Series playoffs.

Although Clements’ car passed post-race inspection, it was taken to the Research & Development Center for further analysis which led to the infraction’s discovery. Specifically, it broke Sections 14.6.12 K and U of the NASCAR rulebook, with the former clause saying “[t]he intake manifold must conform to NASCAR templates, gauges, scales, fixtures, and any and all other measuring devices” while the latter explains, “The floor of the intake manifold plenum must conform to the NASCAR Inspection Intake Manifold Plenum Plug Gauge. The Inspection Intake Manifold Plenum Plug Gauge must fit into the intake manifold opening and contact the floor of the intake manifold plenum. The depth of the intake manifold plenum must be 4.000 (+0.000, -0.005) inches.”

Also known as an inlet manifold, the intake manifold is located atop the engine and allows it to evenly supply air to every cylinder, which is aided by a carburetor (the Cup Series utilises throttle-body fuel injection). The plenum chamber is located atop and centre of the manifold, and this component must adhere to a tight dimensional guideline.

Clements had initially secured a playoff spot after surving an arduous Wawa 250 on Friday to score his first win since 2017 and a popular triumph for a small team. However, the penalty means he will have to win again or hope for a major miracle if he wishes to qualify for the playoffs with three races remaining. After being sixteenth in points and 133 below the cutline with 403 (Ryan Sieg is twelfth with 536), the L2 penalty also comes with seventy-five points being deducted which drops him to nineteenth with 328 points. Even if Clements makes the postseason, he loses the ten playoff points that the win provided.

Crew chief Mark Setzer has also been fined $60,000.

Ralph Boschung returned to the FIA Formula 2 series for the first time since round six in Baku after being forced to sit out the last three race weekends following his diagnosis with facet syndrome.

The Campos Racing driver showed impressive pace on his return, topping the times in the Friday practice session, before qualifying in tenth place for the Sprint race, and securing pole for the semi-reversed Feature race grid.

Saturday saw him battle at the front during the 18-lap Sprint race, finishing the day in third place. Sunday was a tougher race, despite starting from pole position, the Swiss driver was battling not only on track, but with neck pain throughout the feature race, eventually finishing in fourteenth place.

Talking after the race Boschung described his excitement to get back out on track, “I’m delighted to return to racing again at Spa, after a long time away from the track. We started strongly on Friday by going fastest in Free Practice despite the tricky conditions, and I was happy to claim 10th and the Sprint Race pole in qualifying.

“We had good speed on Saturday, and I had battle hard both on track and with my injury to stay in contention for the podium. Sunday was also a tough day, we had the pace for points but we got caught by the drivers on the alternate strategy.

Ahead of this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix, Pirelli have announced that they will be bringing their three hardest compounds of tyre to the FIA Formula 1 World Championship action this weekend at the Zandvoort circuit.

Pirelli’s Motorsport Director Mario Isola has stated that the tyre manufacture has taken the decision to select the three hardest compounds due to the unique challenge that the banking around the Zandvoort circuit provides on the Pirelli tyres.

This will mark just the fourth time this season that Pirelli will bring the hardest compounds of tyres to a Grand Prix this season, with the other occasions coming in Bahrain, Spain and Great Britain.

Isola is hopeful that a combination of the new tyres and car packages will provide further overtaking opportunities in the Netherlands after last season’s Dutch Grand Prix saw just twenty-four overtakes.

“Zandvoort proved to be a spectacular addition to the calendar last year, and the most challenging parts for tyres are the banked Turns 3 and 14, which are taken at high speed and place sustained combined forces on the car: downforce as well as lateral demands.

After taking victory in Saturday’s FIA Formula 3 sprint race in Spa-Francorchamps, Oliver Bearman followed it up with an impressive third place finish in Sunday’s feature race.

The Brit would have been excused for not being on top form, given he had never previously raced at the legendary Belgium circuit. However, this is not how the weekend panned out, as the Prema driver left Spa with his best result of the year, leaving him second in the standings, only trailing championship leader Isack Hadjar by one point. 

In contrast to Friday’s qualifying session, Sunday’s feature race conditions were dry throughout. Bearman started eighth, but quickly moved up to sixth in the opening laps, before the safety car was deployed twice. When the race resumed on lap ten, Bearman battled hard with fellow Brit Jonny Edgar, who he eventually passed with three laps remaining in the race.

Bearman secured  third place, making a last minute move on Oliver Goethe going into Les Combes, moving him up to fourth on track, and within five seconds of third place Caio Collet, who was demoted to sixth place after facing a penalty for dangerously re-entering the track.

Bearman commented on his weekend in Spa and his excitement for the penultimate round of the 2022 FIA F3 season this weekend:

Christian Mansell experienced an exhilarating weekend in his second and final FIA Formula 3 outing with Charouz Racing System this season as his two race contract came to an end after the Spa-Francorchamps feature race.

The Australian started the weekend strongly in Spa, the circuit that played host to his win in the GB3 championship last season, as he placed eighteenth in free practice, the highest position of all three Charouz cars, less than a second slower fourth place Josep Maria Martí.

However, in a qualifying session plagued by changing conditions, Mansell could only place twenty fifth in qualifying. Despite a disappointing session, the seventeen year old would start the race with joint championship leaders entering the weekend, Victor Martins and Isack Hadjar, ahead of him, such was the nature of the qualifying session in Spa.

With the grid being met with dry conditions on Saturday for the sprint race, Mansell got off to an excellent start, launching off the line to make up several places, and end the first lap in an impressive eighteenth place.

Nevertheless, the Australian would run out of luck, as through Les Combes, Rafael Villagomez understeered into the side of Mansell’s car, putting him into the barrier and out of the race, inside the opening two laps.

The Trident Motorsport team were ecstatic with their exceptional Spa-Francorchamps FIA Formula 3 feature race result, as Zane Maloney took the race win and Roman Staněk came home to take second place, after starting from second and fifth respectively. On top of this Jonny Edgar crossed the line in fifth place, rounding off a fifty four point feature race haul for his team.

Giacomo Ricci, Trident’s team manager expressed his joy after the feature race saying, “We are extremely delighted with today’s result, a one-two finish achieved by Trident Motorsport with Maloney and Staněk on the most complete and challenging track of the season.

“It is certainly a day to remember for the team and for our drivers, with Edgar taking fifth at the end of an extremely close race for the Red Bull Junior driver.

“The points secured in Belgium allow Maloney and Staněk to improve their standing positions, with the Czech driver now having the lead in his sights. Trident Motorsport, on the other hand, moved to second in the team standings. 

“Today’s result should not take our concentration away ahead of the next round of the season next week in Zandvoort, which will be even more pivotal on the outcome of this season.” 

With the Dutch Grand Prix returning for its second season back on the calendar, Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen will be driving the track for the first time in an F1 car this weekend. The Danish driver said that he has previous experience at the track, however, having driven there in his junior career.

“I drove around Zandvoort in Formula 3 and also before that in Formula Renault 2.0 and I’ve always loved the track. It’s changed a bit since I last drove there but from what I saw on TV, it still has the same sort of character and is still as exciting.”

Magnussen looks forward to racing around the historic track, and when asked how VF-22 is expected to perform at the high-downforce, high-speed venue, he said that he isn’t quite sure whether or not it will suit the car. 

“Specifically for the VF-22, I don’t really know, but driving a Formula 1 car around there is going to be awesome. It’s one of those places from back in the seventies and eighties so you really will get a bit of nostalgia driving around there in a Formula 1 car. It’s going to be significant so I’m excited and looking forward to it.

Zandvoort is known for its banked corners, an element Magnussen is excited about, considering how these turns can impact on the racing there. 

Oliver Goethe enjoyed his second weekend in the FIA Formula 3 Championship at the legendary Spa-Francorchamps, although the Danish-German driver heads back to his usual EuroFormula Open ride after experiencing both highs and lows in Belgium.

Racing again for Campos Racing in place of the injured Hunter Yeany, Goethe qualified an excellent fourth for Sunday’s Feature Race in Belgium, which put him ninth on the grid for Saturday’s Sprint.

“What a weekend, and what an experience!” expressed Goethe.  “It’s quite hard to summarize everything that happened.

“Qualifying was great fun. Campos gave me an amazing car and somehow, I nailed the last-minute shootout and grabbed P4 for Sunday’s race. Even I was surprised that I finished ahead of all the main title contenders in my second ever Qualy.”

He was inside the top ten when an overtake by Trident’s Zane Maloney went wrong which resulted in the monster of all crashes at Blanchimont, with both drivers hitting the barriers hard.  The damage to the car was so bad that the mechanics had a sleepless night at the track repairing the car before the Feature race.