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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.

Following the Belgian Grand Prix, Pirelli’s Motorsport Director, Mario Isola has reflected on what he has described as a ‘great race’ around the Spa-Francorchamps circuit.

Today’s race saw all three tyre compounds used, with the majority of the grid opting for a mix of the hard and medium tyre compounds to execute their race strategy.

Max Verstappen and Oracle Red Bull Racing’s aggressive strategy of starting on the soft compound tyre allowed the championship leader to gain six places on the opening lap.

Isola noted that the high levels of tyre degradation experienced by the grid today was down to the high temperatures experienced across the Spa circuit.

“We saw a great race, with the hard being used by the majority of drivers. We will analyse all the data at our disposal but to hear on the radio that it was two-tenths of a second faster than expected was a fantastic achievement for us.

“Even though we knew that today’s conditions would be warmer than they were on Friday and Saturday, it was interesting to see the variety of strategies used, given the weather, track evolution, and a higher degree of degradation than expected. There were no problems with graining and the degradation was essentially thermal.

The Spa-Francorchamps Circuit has seen a number of modifications since the last time Formula One visited and Isola remarked that the tyre manufacturers experience at the recent Spa 24 Hours helped them forecast which tyre compounds to bring to Belgium this weekend.

Tatiana Calderón returned to FIA Formula 2 for the first time since 2019, joining the Charouz Racing System team in Spa-Francorchamps.

The Colombian driver had been competing in the NTT IndyCar Series, but her season was cut short, leaving her without a drive. In the week leading up to the Belgian Grand Prix Calderón announced that she would be rejoining the grid for the four remaining rounds of the 2022 F2 season.

Friday saw the action kick off and Calderón completed a trouble free practice, despite a number of red flags throughout the session. While the session was shortened, she managed to adjust to the 18-inch wheels, with this weekend being the first time she had driven the car with the new wheels.

Qualifying saw her struggle on soft compound tyres at the start of the session along with having to abort a fast lap. The result saw her line up on the grid in twenty-first for both races.

With Jehan Daravala unable to take the start of the sprint race, Calderón gained a position before the lights had gone out. Off of the line she battled with Juri Vips and Amaury Cordeel, this would set the tone for the race as Cordeel fought back. Calderón crossed the line in twentieth place before being promoted to nineteenth after Lirim Zendeli picked up a five-second time penalty.

Felipe Drugovich admits finding a seat on the FIA Formula 1 World Championship grid in 2023 is unlikely to materialise, but the Brazilian is looking to become a reserve driver somewhere next year.

The current FIA Formula 2 Championship leader does not currently have ties with a Formula 1 team, unlike many of his rivals in the series, including closest rivals Théo Pourchaire and Logan Sargeant, who are involved in the Sauber Junior Team and Williams Academy respectively.

Drugovich currently holds a forty-three point advantage over Pourchaire with just three rounds of the season remaining, and his focus does remain on clinching the title this year, but he does still have aspirations in becoming Brazil’s next Formula 1 driver.

“I see my future… I mean, somehow I’m going to be able to drive something next year,” Drugovich is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com.  “I still don’t know what it is, what I’m going to drive next year I don’t know.

“It might happen like Nyck [de Vries], I think getting to F1 nowadays is very very difficult and it’s looking like the opportunities for a main seat in F1 next year are obviously very limited.

Mick Schumacher is set to end his stint with the Ferrari Driver Academy at the end of 2022, with speculation rife that he will be leaving his ride with the Haas F1 Team after this year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Schumacher joined the Ferrari Driver Academy (FDA) back in 2019 after the German won the FIA Formula 3 European Championship, and they oversaw his move into FIA Formula 2, a championship he went on to win in 2020.

He then subsequently joined Haas for the 2021 season, although his rookie campaign saw him fighting at the back of the pack against then team-mate Nikita Mazepin as the team put all their development focus into the 2022 car.

He has suffered some high speed and high-profile crashes during the 2022 season as he attempted to find the pace to match his new team-mate Kevin Magnussen, most noticeably during Qualifying for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix and during the Monaco Grand Prix.

Schumacher finally scored his maiden points in the FIA Formula 1 World Championship when he finished eighth in the British Grand Prix, with the German almost taking seventh as he battled Oracle Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen to the line.

The Belgian Grand Prix will remain on the FIA Formula 1 World Championship calendar for at least one more season, although its place beyond 2023 remains uncertain.

The 2022 event could have been the last with the contract with the Spa-Francorchamps circuit expiring, and it saw Max Verstappen dominate despite having started fourteenth on the grid.  

Spa’s presence on the calendar was made even more perilous with Formula 1 adding new venues across the globe, such as Las Vegas and Qatar, whilst also looking to return to South Africa for the first time since 1993 and the possible fist Chinese Grand Prix since before COVID-19 hit.

However, 2023 will now definitely see Formula 1 return to Belgium, whilst 2024 and beyond could see it go on a rotational cycle with another track.  Previous calendar concepts have not included Spa, and there are no guarantees that it would host the first race after the summer break as it has done in recent years.

“Formula 1 can confirm that the Belgian Grand Prix will be on the 2023 calendar following an agreement to extend our partnership together,” said a statement on Sunday.  “Further details on the 2023 calendar will be announced in due course.”

After a poor weekend for the Haas F1 team, Kevin Magnussen has stated that the team were not surprised by the VF22’s lack of performance at the Belgian Grand Prix.

Starting in twelfth, Magnussen made a strong start as the Dane found himself occupying a place inside the points within the first three laps.

However, a lack of top speed around the Spa-Francorchamps Circuit, soon saw the Haas driver tumbling down the order.

Coming out in eighteenth place after his second and final pit-stop, Magnussen was only able to gain two places before the chequered flag for an eventual sixteenth-place finish.

Speaking after the race, Magnussen was already looking to put a tough Belgian Grand Prix behind him and the team.

“I think we had an idea that this wasn’t going to be such a strong weekend. This type of track isn’t really our track so we tried what we could, but we didn’t really have the pace today. All in all, it hasn’t been the best of weekends, but we’ve got more running, collected more data and that will be useful going forward. I’m looking forward to the next race.”

Mick Schumacher: “It was frustrating not having any top speed compared to the cars around us”

Starting on the back row of the grid after a penalty for new engine components, Mick Schumacher was left with it all to do at Spa and, like his teammate, struggled to get any real performance out of his VF22.

Schumacher had gained five places from his original starting position by the time the safety-car had come out but the VF22’s lack of top speed soon saw Schumacher plummet down the order after the safety-car restart.

The German driver found himself in as high as thirteenth-place shortly before pitting for the first time in the race. Struggling to gain any real momentum in the race during his second stint, Schumacher would come home for a seventeenth-place finish.

Despite the poor showing for the Haas F1 team, Schumacher remained hopeful that the team’s struggles this weekend were track dependent and that the Zandvoort circuit would suit the VF22 just like the Hungaroring did before the summer break.

“It was tough, especially after the safety car restart to see those cars driving by. It was frustrating not having any top speed compared to the cars around us. On the other hand, it’s great to be here and great to be driving in front of so many people, some German!

Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN went close to scoring points as Zhou Guanyu finished fourteenth, within seconds of tenth place, at the Belgian Grand Prix. Birthday boy, Valtteri Bottas, saw his race come to an early end as he was collected by a spinning Nicholas Latifi and spun into the gravel in the opening laps.

Both Alfa Romeo drivers took grid penalties coming into the race with Zhou starting in nineteenth place and Bottas starting in fourteenth. Despite this, there was a strong belief from the team that they could score points, especially with a mixed-up grid.

However, this sadly did not go to plan as Bottas’ race ended early when he was beached in the gravel trying to avoid a collision with Latifi. Zhou did the best he could to try and score points for the team but just lacked that first sector pace compared to Williams Racing which saw him finish in fourteenth place.

Alfa Romeo’s team principal Frédéric Vasseur, spoke positively after the race about the team’s performance despite the unfortunate circumstances. He admitted that the penalties would make for a complicated weekend but believes the pace of the car deserved a better result.

“The team did a good job, given the circumstances: unfortunately, that was not enough for a point today. We knew that, taking power unit and gearbox penalties with both cars, we’d have a complicated weekend, but we can take heart from the pace we showed.”

Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN had an unfortunate day at Spa-Francorchamps, with Valtteri Bottas’ race coming to an early end after trying to avoid a spinning Nicholas Latifi which subsequently left the fin beached in the gravel. Zhou Guanyu ended up finishing in fourteenth place after starting in nineteenth place.

Both drivers came into the race on Sunday taking grid penalties meaning that Zhou would start in nineteenth place and his team-mate Bottas would start in fourteenth. There was confidence going into the race that Alfa Romeo could pick up points, however, this was short-lived as Bottas ended up stuck in the gravel in an attempt to avoid a spinning Latifi on the second lap which in turn ended the birthday boy’s race.

Bottas spoke after the race about the opportunity of scoring points, especially with a mixed-up grid but it wasn’t to be in the end. He now has all of his focus set on next weekend’s race at Zandvoort.

“We had pace today and, with such a mixed-up grid, there could have been opportunities to get a good result, so it’s disappointing to finish my race so early. It was a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time: I saw Latifi spin towards the left, and all I could do was take evasive action to avoid a collision.”

“Unfortunately, I spun on the grass and ended up stuck in the gravel: I tried to go forward and back, but couldn’t move. It’s not the birthday present I wanted, but hopefully I can still have some fun tonight, before we turn our focus on next week.”

McLaren F1 Team had a difficult race weekend at Spa-Francorchamps for the Belgium Grand Prix as both Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo finished outside of the points, which keeps them fifth in the constructors behind a more consistent BWT Alpine F1 Team.

Norris started the race in seventeenth place due to taking a grid penalty alongside six other drivers and would have a tough day ahead if he was going to make it inside the top 10 at the end of the forty-four-lap race.

Both Norris and Ricciardo got away cleanly, picking up positions on the opening lap. However, there was a safety car deployed on lap two as Valtteri Bottas was in the gravel trap, and Lewis Hamilton had stopped at turn sixteen after a coming together with Fernando Alonso. This moved Ricciardo up to sixth and Norris up to twelfth.

Norris pitted on lap thirteen and changed to the hard compound tyre, emerging in seventeenth place. He was able to get up to thirteenth two places behind his team-mate due to other cars making pit stops. Norris then pitted again on lap twenty-nine for fresh mediums after being overtaken by both the Alpines.

Both McLaren’s were unable to make it back into point-scoring positions for the remainder of the race leaving Norris in twelfth place and Ricciardo in fifteenth.

McLaren F1 Team suffered another difficult race weekend as both drivers Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo were unable to score any points at the Belgium Grand Prix.

Norris started the race in seventeenth place after taking a grid penalty, with Ricciardo starting in a promising seventh position. The race began with both drivers gaining positions after a safety car was deployed on lap two for Valtteri Bottas’ beached car.

After the restart, both drivers were able to find themselves in point positions for a good proportion of the race. However, due to McLaren struggling for pace and being stuck in a constant DRS train, both Alpines were able to overtake them which lead to the team pitting both drivers for a second time and when re-entering onto the track, left them further down the field. Norris finished in twelfth place with Ricciardo finishing in fifteenth place.

McLaren’s team principal Andreas Seidl spoke after the race admitting that the team struggled due to the warmer conditions which contributed to the overall final positions of both drivers.

“It’s been a tough Sunday for us here in Spa. Warmer conditions today contributed to a lack of pace which, in the end, resulted in us going backwards during the race. Lando finished P12 and Daniel P15, and it wasn’t possible for them to score a better result.“

Pierre Gasly’s ninth place finish at the Belgian Grand Prix finally snapped Scuderia AlphaTauri’s points drought, which had dated back to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in early June.

A late change to Yuki Tsunoda’s power unit forced the Japanese driver to start his race from the pit-lane and he was soon joined by his teammate, as Gasly’s electrical system on his ATO3 car failed on the grid, denying the Frenchmen of the chance to start the race from eighth position.

On the electrical system fault, Team Principal Franz Tost stated the team would need to examine what exactly went wrong on Gasly’s electrical system to prevent the issue ever happening again.

“Pierre drove a great race. Whilst on the starting grid, in his P8 spot, the electrical system stopped working so we had to bring his car back to the garage, where we were then able to start the PU to be able to begin the race from the pitlane. We must go away and investigate why it worked again once we returned to the garage.”

With the drama of the pre-race electrical system failure behind him, Gasly got to work on what turned out to be an impressive one hundredth race in his Formula One career for the twenty-six-year-old driver. An aggressive strategy which included pitting early onto the hard tyres, before a twenty-two-lap stint on the mediums to end the race saw Gasly rewarded with a ninth-place finish.  

Tost was keen to heap the praise onto Gasly after such an impressive drive from the pit-lane to the points.

“Of course, it was then a difficult race for Pierre, but he drove very well. He struggled with a lack of grip at the beginning of the race but during his later stint on the Mediums, he did a great job, and managed to make up multiple positions.”

Yuki Tsunoda was unable to match his teammates impressive drive around the Spa-Francorchamps Circuit. A combination of an alternate strategy and a period stuck in a DRS train, saw Tsunoda unable to secure a points finish.

Despite his thirteenth-place finish, Tost was also keen to praise Tsunoda for what he called ‘a really strong race’ from the young Japanese driver.

“Yuki also started from the pitlane today with a different strategy, with him starting on the hard tyres, he was able to do an extended stint on these, not coming in until lap 18 for the new tyre. I must say, Yuki also drove a really strong race and showed a good performance. He got stuck for some time behind Zhou but was able to overtake him on the last lap and finished in thirteenth.”

The Andalucía Rally was initially going to be a five-leg affair whose selective sections span 1,302 kilometres. However, the revised supplementary regulations published on 22 August, well after the race had been postponed to October, revealed it will be a stage shorter with less ground to cover at 1,212 km.

The dropped leg was originally one of the middle segments and is merged into the first, changing its distance from 248 to 481 km, the longest of the four intact; the opening leg will still feature a qualiying stage. Stage #2 is shortened from 264 to 258 km, while the next’s 387 drops to 334. The final stage remains the shortest at 139 km versus the original 142.

In total, there will be five selective sections after previously boasting six, while the twelve road sections drop to eight. From start to finish including the liaison areas, the rally will stretch 2,111 kilometres.

In conjunction with the changes, the race will begin on 19 October and end four days later on 23 October. Originally, it was scheduled to commence on the 18th with the same concluding date.

The Spanish rally serves as the final round of the 2022 World Rally-Raid Championship. It was originally the fourth leg on the calendar scheduled for 6–12 June before Rally Kazakhstan in April was cancelled due to the Russo-Ukrainian War and summer wildfires forced Andalucía to be moved. The new date shifts it to after the Rallye du Maroc, which in turn had its slot moved forward by five days.

After mainly focusing on working at Niece Motorsports, Dawson Cram will finally get a chance to race in 2022 as he enters this Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race in the #35 for Emerling-Gase Motorsports; it will be his second career start in the series. He will also race at Kansas Speedway on 10 September. Both starts come with backing from BE WATER.

“We are thrilled to have Greene Concepts’ BE WATER artesian spring bottled water brand along with its Happy Mellow brand on our racecars during the upcoming 2022 Xfinity Series,” Cram stated in a press release. “As an athlete performing races at speeds near 200 mph, 300 miles in distance, and temperatures exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit, proper hydration is extremely important which BE WATER offers while Happy Mellow provides relaxation and minerals afterward. I believe wholeheartedly in the BE WATER brand’s focus on courage, strength, goodness, generosity, and patience along with Happy Mellow’s attention on health and wellness support.”

Cram raced for multiple smaller organisations in the Camping World Truck Series from 2017 to 2020 before establishing a family team. Cram Racing Enterprises contested a part-time slate in late 2020 and 2021, with Cram running thirteen races during the latter year and notching a best finish of seventeenth on the Daytona Road Course. In thirty career Truck starts, he has seven top twenties with a highest run of fourteenth at Michigan in 2020. The team went dormant in 2022 as he focused on working as a mechanic for Niece, and he has also been employed by Xfinity teams like JD Motorsports.

In 2021, he ran the Xfinity race at New Hampshire for Mike Harmon Racing and finished thirty-fifth.

“I am very excited to be making my second start in the NASCAR XFINITY Series with a great team and a great brand,” Cram continued. “It feels like the right timing with the right group of people and I couldn’t be happier to be going back to Darlington for my fourth start in NASCAR.”

Williams Racing increased their total in the Constructors’ Championship to four points, after Alex Albon put on a majestic defensive display to finish in tenth-place at the Belgian Grand Prix.

After starting an incredible sixth, the Thai driver lost some places early on; however, he quickly made his way back into a comfortable position thanks to his rocket ship of a FW44. Williams were ridiculously fast down the straights, which massively benefitted Albon late on, after leading a five car DRS train for the final points place. No one could find a way past the Thai driver, who claimed a deserved points finish at Spa-Francorchamps.

On the other side of the garage, it was disappointment once again for Nicholas Latifi. The Canadian driver finished last of the running drivers after spinning on the second lap. Latifi dropped a wheel into the gravel on the exit of Les Combes whilst continuing to accelerate, causing him to spin across the circuit. Whist spinning he clipped Valtteri Bottas, who span into the gravel himself and was forced to retire from the race on his birthday, after becoming beached.

This ruined Latifi’s race, which left him in Albon’s shadow once again.

Williams’ Head of Vehicle Performance, Dave Robson, discussed both of the drivers races, where he praised Albon for “delivering another hard-earned point”.