Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Yuki Tsunoda says there is room for improvement for Scuderia AlphaTauri this weekend at Spa-Francorchamps after the Japanese racer ended thirteenth fastest in second practice on Friday.

Having ended eighth in the first session that was disrupted by cold temperatures and a red flag, Tsunoda was unable to improve enough to remain inside the top ten in the afternoon, although the weather also did not help there as rain fell across part of the Spa track.

Tsunoda says there are areas where AlphaTauri can focus on to improve overnight, and he hopes he can turn his ‘okay’ Friday into a much better Saturday.

“It’s been an okay day, the conditions weren’t great, but still I think we’ve managed to gather a lot of good data,” said Tsunoda.  “We’ve had some traditional Spa weather here today, with rain in only one section of the track, so it’s been quite tricky, but I like this circuit and I’ve really enjoyed the day.

“After the summer break it was great to just be back out in the car, having fun driving and getting back into the rhythm. In FP2 we made a good step forward, but it wasn’t enough.

Liam Lawson enjoyed his time behind the wheel of Scuderia AlphaTauri’s AT-03 during opening practice for the Belgian Grand Prix on Friday as the team utilised one of its mandatory young driver sessions with the New Zealander.

Lawson was handed the chance to take part in place of regular driver Pierre Gasly, and despite a mixed session that included cold temperatures, rain and a red flag, he kept his composure well, although he ended up nineteenth fastest of the twenty cars on track.

The New Zealander, highly rated within the Red Bull Junior Team, says an opportunity to drive in a Formula 1 car around such an iconic track as Spa-Francorchamps was ‘crazy’, and he admitted the step up in performance compared to his usual ride in FIA Formula 2 was huge.

“I’ve enjoyed getting to drive the car around such an iconic track, it’s been a crazy experience,” said Lawson.  “The car was great to drive, the limit is so much further than I was ready for, it took a bit of time to get used to that, but I think I built up the pace steadily on the Hards and was ready to push on the Softs at the end, so it’s a bit of a shame I didn’t get the opportunity to really go for it.

“I want to say a big thank you to Scuderia AlphaTauri and Red Bull for giving me this opportunity. It’s been really cool spending the weekend with the team, it’s a crazy step up from F2.

Otmar Szafnauer feels Oscar Piastri should have had ‘a bit more integrity’ after the Australian opted not to honour his contract with the BWT Alpine F1 Team in 2023 in favour of a move to the McLaren F1 Team.

Piastri was announced as Fernando Alonso’s replacement at Alpine after the Spaniard opted to move to the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team next season, only for the Australian to deny the move mere hours later.

The whole affair is heading to the Contract Recognition Board (CRB) next week, with both Alpine and McLaren laying claim to a legal contract with the 2021 FIA Formula 2 Champion.

But Szafnauer, the Team Principal at Alpine, says he wished Piastri would honour the contract he signed with them last year and take up his place alongside Esteban Ocon in 2023.

“He’s a promising young driver,” Szafnauer said to Sky Sports F1. “He hasn’t driven in F1 yet. And my wish for Oscar was that he had a bit more integrity.

Max Verstappen dominated the second free practice session of the 2022 Belgian Grand Prix at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium.

The Dutchman was 0.862 seconds faster than Charles Leclerc in second position. Lando Norris finished in third position in the cool and overcast conditions in the session.

The Pirelli tyre choice at this race is the white-striped hard compound tyres (C2), yellow-striped medium compound tyres (C3), and red-striped soft compound tyres (C4), the middle range of compounds in the Pirelli tyre range.

Carlos Sainz who topped the morning session set the early pace. Verstappen was soon on top with a lap time of 1:47.699s. Leclerc then slotted into second position ahead of Sainz.

Sainz and Verstappen exchanged positions at the top of the time charts. The cool conditions made it difficult for the drivers to get heat into the tyres.

Championship leader Max Verstappen and his closest rival in the standings, Charles Leclerc, will both start towards the back of the grid for the Belgian Grand Prix after taking penalties for unscheduled engine component changes.

Oracle Red Bull Racing have opted to change multiple components on Verstappen’s power unit, with a fresh Internal Combustion Engine (ICE), turbocharger, MGU-H, MGU-K, energy store and control electronics.  The team had hinted of impending changes during the summer break and have opted to introduce the new elements in Belgium rather than in his home event at Zandvoort the following week.

Scuderia Ferrari have also opted to change the power unit on Leclerc’s F1-75, meaning the Monegasque driver will also be at the back on Sunday afternoon at Spa-Francorchamps.  Ferrari have had multiple issues with their power units throughout the season, with Leclerc twice retiring from the lead due to his engine failing.

Also set to take penalties for fresh engine components are McLaren F1 Team’s Lando Norris, Alfa Romeo F1 Team’s Valtteri Bottas, BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon and Haas F1 Team’s Mick Schumacher.

Norris and Ocon have both taken fresh ICE’s, turbochargers, control electronics and MGU-Hs, while Ocon also has a new MGU-K and energy store.  Bottas has a fresh ICE, MGU-H and turbocharger, as well as a new gearbox, while Schumacher has a new control electronics and gearbox.

The Alfa Romeo name will split with Sauber Motorsport at the end of the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season, it was announced on Friday.

The Italian marque has been part of Sauber since 2018 and recently committed to an additional year for next season, but that will be the final season of the partnership – the team is currently known as Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN but is likely to revert back to the Sauber F1 Team in 2024.

Since they’ve been a part of the sport, they have seen Charles Leclerc, Marcus Ericsson, Kimi Räikkönen, Antonio Giovinazzi, Robert Kubica, Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu race for them, but the final two may be the last to compete for Alfa Romeo in Formula 1, at least in this stint.

They have yet to take a podium finish in that time, with a fourth place for Räikkönen in the Brazilian Grand Prix of 2019 the best result, although their form in 2022 has been a lot stronger than it had been in the two years prior.

“Alfa Romeo communicates that its partnership with Sauber Motorsport will end within the end of 2023,” read a statement on Friday ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix weekend.

After months of speculation and the recent finalisation of the engine regulations for the 2026 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season, Audi Sport have announced they will join the grid as an engine supplier.

No announcement has been made regarding who the German manufacturer will pair up with, but it will mark the first time in more than a decade that a Formula 1 power unit will be manufactured in Germany, with the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team making their engines in Great Britain.

Formula 1 recently announced their updated engine regulations that will come into play in 2026, and Audi say that the changes revealed were sufficient for them to commit to joining the grid.

“Motorsport is an integral part of Audi’s DNA,” said Markus Duesmann, the Chairman of the Board of Management at Audi AG. “Formula 1 is both a global stage for our brand and a highly challenging development laboratory.

“The combination of high performance and competition is always a driver of innovation and technology transfer in our industry. With the new rules, now is the right time for us to get involved. After all, Formula 1 and Audi both pursue clear sustainability goals.”

Carlos Sainz led the first free practice session of the 2022 Belgian Grand Prix at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium.

Charles Leclerc finished in second position, just 0.069 seconds slower than his team-mate Sainz. Max Verstappen finished in third position at the end of the session.

The 2022 FIA Formula 1 season resumed after the three-week summer break with nine races left in the second–half of the season.

A slew of drivers including Leclerc and Verstappen will be taking engine penalties and will start the race from the back of the grid.

Liam Lawson drove in place of Pierre Gasly for the Scuderia AlphaTauri team. Every team has to run a young driver for atleast two practice sessions this season.

The ARCA Menards Series‘ race at the Milwaukee Mile on 28 August and the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series‘ EuroNASCAR 2 round at Autodrom Most on 3/4 September are shaping up to have historic grids for female drivers. The former has six women entered, which would be tied for the most in series history, while the latter’s provisional entry list currently has five such drivers named.

The six female ARCA drivers are led by rookies and full-time competitors Toni Breidinger and Amber Balcaen, who are respectively fifth and sixth in points. Also entered are Mandy Chick, Steph Moyer, Amber Slagle, and Rita Thomason.It ties the record set at Daytona in 2010 with Jennifer Jo Cobb, Jill George, Milka Duno, Leilani Munter, Alli Owens, and Danica Patrick (Amber Cope would have been the seventh if she qualified but withdrew). Being a companion race with the ARCA Menards Series East, that division also enjoys the new record and surpasses ARCA West’s best of five at Las Vegas in 2021 with Balcarn, Slagle, Bridget Burgess, Mariah Boudrieau, and Jolynn Wilkinson.

Breidinger races for Venturini Motorsports while Balcaen represents Rette Jones Racing. Both have three top tens each, with Balcaen holding the best finish of seventh at Charlotte.

Chick finished eighteenth in her ARCA debut at IRP after being caught in a crash that also collected Balcaen. The 20-year-old, whose father Steve owned a NASCAR Truck Series team in the early 2000s, competed predominantly in late models before her family team purchased cars to enter ARCA.

Moyer is running full-time in the ARCA Menards Series East for Fast Track Racing, where she sits fourth in the standings with a best finish of ninth. The Milwaukee race is a combination event with the national ARCA series, which opened the door for her entry; the Iowa event in June was also the same and therefore the site of Moyer’s 2022 ARCA national début, though she retired with a brake failure. She also ran the ARCA race at Pocono and finished nineteenth.

Having reflected on the first half of the season during summer break, BWT Alpine F1 Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer said that the team is prepared to take on the rest of the season as they continue to work towards solidifying their position of fourth in the constructors’ standings against contending McLaren F1 Team.

“We are all feeling re-energised after the enforced Formula 1 summer shutdown. It’s always a good time to take stock on the season so far, reflect on the positives and assess some of the areas for improvement. 

“Now, we are all feeling ready and motivated for the second part of the season where there is so much to play for in terms of the championship.”

Szafnauer said that the highly-publicized situation at the beginning of the break involving Fernando Alonso’s shock move to Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team and the subsequent question of who will fill his seat will not play a role on-track, where they look to garner the points necessary to maintain their position. At this time, it remains unclear who will fill the seat, as Alpine junior Oscar Piastri denied that he will be driving for the team next year. 

“Clearly the team has been quite prominent in the world media in the days after Hungary and just before the summer break, however, it is absolutely no distraction for us once we hit the race track again.”

BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Fernando Alonso took full advantage of the time off during the summer break, and said that recovery is of utmost importance in what is such a long and fast-paced season of racing– a lesson he learned in his many years of competition. 

“We all miss racing in August but the time off to recharge the batteries is needed. After 20 years of racing at the pinnacle of motorsports, I have learnt that taking some time to recover is very important, especially during such a hectic year.”

“Now that we have more than 20 races in a season, it’s even more important to make sure you maximise your recovery time. But it’s important to keep some exercise routine, as once we get back to racing it’s relentless until December.”

With the Belgian Grand Prix marking the return to racing after the break, Alonso said that he enjoys driving at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps and that the venue allows for great overtaking and battles which has often resulted in “interesting” races in the past.

“I do enjoy racing at Spa. It’s one of the most historic races on the calendar. We usually have interesting races there as the circuit lends itself to lots of overtaking opportunities.”

Vaidotas Žala‘s eighth Dakar Rally will be in perhaps the best equipment of his career to date as he announced Thursday that he will pilot a Prodrive Hunter T1 in the 2023 Rally. He will race under the Teltonika Racing banner like in his previous entries, except Bahrain Raid Xtreme has also come aboard to provide support.

“It’s a massive opportunity for me to drive the Prodrive Hunter in Dakar 2023 as it will be my first ever chance to start the rally with factory-level machinery,” Žala stated. “I am especially looking forward to driving alongside Sébastien Loeb who is an icon for any upcoming rally driver. After my first test in Dubai, I was astonished by the capabilities of the Prodrive Hunter and it put a big smile on my face so I’m sure Dakar 2023 will be the most interesting rally in my career.”

The two-time Lithuanian Rally Champion has competed at Dakar every year since 2016. After driving a SEAT rally car in the first two years, he contested the 2018 and 2019 rallies in a Toyota Hilux. From 2020 to 2022, he piloted a Mini John Cooper Works Rally, winning the opening stage in 2020 to become the first Lithuanian Dakar stage victor.

His 2022 Rally saw him finish eleventh in the Cars category with a best stage position of fifth on the final leg.

BRX has fielded the Prodrive Hunter since 2021. The car was designed by Ian Callum, and a street-legal version was revealed in March.

The excruciatingly long summer break is finally at an end and we can look forward to round eleven of the 2022 FIA Formula 2 championship which returns to the iconic Belgian woodlands of Circuit de Spa–Francorchamps.

With this race weekend being the first of a triple header which will see the grid head to Zandvoort and Monza, respectively, the drivers will need to be laser focused for the next six races they will have to compete over in the next sixteen days.

The Story So Far

Heading into the final four rounds of the season, Felipe Drugovich still sits at the top of the drivers’ standings ahead of long time championship rival Théo Pourchaire.

The two talented youngsters have been battling out since the very start of the season and with the Frenchman winning the Budapest Feature Race last time out, he closes the gap to the Brazilian to just twenty-one points.

It was Ayumu Iwasa who put it on pole at the Hungaroring in round ten, with it being his maiden pole after a string of impressive qualifying performances in the rounds prior.

As the FIA Formula 1 World Championship makes its return from a month-long summer break at this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix, Pierre Gasly has spoken on his excitement to once again be stepping back into his AT03 car

The Scuderia AlphaTauri team struggled to gain any real momentum in the first half of the season, with the team sitting eight in the constructors amassing just twenty-seven points so far.

Gasly himself sits thirteenth in the driver’s championship and will be hoping for a stronger second half of the season kicking off this weekend at the Spa-Francorchamps Circuit. Speaking ahead of this weekend’s action, the Frenchman revealed how he used his summer break to recharge ahead of the final nine races of the season.

“I enjoyed the break, visiting Greece for the very first time for a week with friends and after that, it was more of a family time in France with my parents, all my brothers, nephews and nieces and then a couple of days in Spain. Nothing incredible, but it helped to unwind and be with my family, while also doing some training.

“Above all, I got plenty of rest prior to the final part of the season. After that it was back to work, starting with a trip to the simulator. Everyone has been hard at work since Monday and my phone is definitely much busier than it had been over the past three weeks!”

Kurt Busch is officially out of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs. On Thursday, Busch announced he will withdraw the waiver that guaranteed him a spot in the postseason as his concussion is preventing him from running the first playoff race.

“As much as I wanted and hoped to be able to get back in the #45 car to make a playoff run with our team, it’s still not the right time for me,” said Busch. “In addition to not being cleared to return to racing, I know that I am not ready to be back in the car. I respect the sport of NASCAR, my fellow drivers and the fans too much to take up a playoff spot if I know I can’t compete for a championship this season. The decision was not an easy one, but I know it is the right thing to do. I will continue to take time to heal and strengthen as I prepare to be back in the car and will do all I can to help 23XI (Racing) continue the success we have had this season.”

Busch has not driven a Cup race since his Pocono qualifying crash in July. Ty Gibbs has taken over the #45 Toyota for the remaining six regular season races and will continue to do so for the playoffs. Gibbs has finished sixteenth (Pocono), seventeenth (Indianapolis), tenth (Michigan), thirty-sixth (Richmond), and twenty-sixth (Watkins Glen) in substitute duty.

“My prayers continue to be with Kurt,” Gibbs commented. “It’s tough that he’s going to miss the start of the playoffs, but I’ll do the best job I can filling in for him as long as I’m asked to. I know Kurt will be our biggest supporter. I appreciate Michael (Jordan) and Denny (Hamlin) giving me this opportunity to fill in and hopefully we can continue to do well as we compete for the Cup owner’s championship for 23XI Racing. My thoughts are with Kurt as he recovers, and I know he will continue to do everything in his power to get better.”

A playoff spot had been acquired with Busch’s Kansas victory, though his withdrawal means he will not be in the playoff grid for the first time since the bracket system’s introduction in 2014. It will also be just the third year that he is not in the postseason since its début in 2004.