Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

FIA Formula 3 arrives at Spa-Francorchamps this weekend, and the championship leaders are tied at the top, with the French duo of Isack Hadjar and Victor Martins both entering the weekend with 104 points. After both drivers failed to score podiums at the last outing in Budapest, they will be eager to get back to winning ways and gain an outright lead at the top of the standings.

Hadjar is the only driver within the Hitech GP Formula 3 team to score a podium this season, and the 17 year old also has the most wins on the F3 grid in 2022 with three. However, his title rival Martins has the most F3 feature race wins in 2022, standing on the top step of the podium at the Sakhir and Barcelona feature races.

However, another driver looking to grasp the lead of the Championship, is Prema driver Arthur Leclerc. Currently sitting on 95 points, only 9 off the championship leaders, the Monagasque is looking to replicate his Silverstone feature race win this weekend, to firmly assert himself as a title contender.

Leclerc’s Prema teammates Oliver Bearman and Jak Crawford are also not far behind, as they both sit on 80 points heading into the seventh F3 race weekend of the season. Crawford, who races under the American flag, has taken one win this season, crossing the line first in a chaotic sprint race at the Red Bull ring. However the winless Brit Bearman has taken four podiums compared to Crawfords three, including three feature race podiums, which have bagged him extremely key championship points, keeping him on the tails of his teammates and still within reach of the F3 title.

Another man battling for a place on the podium in Belgium is MP Motorsport’s Alexander Smolyar. The 21 year old is looking to carry his momentum from round 6 in Budapest where he qualified on pole and took his first win of the 2022 F3 season in the feature race. Smolyar has faced a frustrating season, currently sitting seventh in the championship standings, after taking only 11 points from the first 2 race weekends, alongside being barred from competing at Silverstone due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Despite all this, his points tally of 63 heading into the weekend, leaves plenty still for Smolyar to fight for.

Charles Leclerc says coming back to Spa-Francorchamps brings him mixed emotions, with the venue the site of his maiden FIA Formula 1 World Championship race victory there in 2019, the same weekend where his friend Anthoine Hubert was killed in a crash in the supporting FIA Formula 2 race.

The Scuderia Ferrari driver was in dominant form that day, claiming his first win ahead of Lewis Hamilton on a weekend tinged with tragedy, and Leclerc dedicated his victory to Hubert that day.

Now three years later, Leclerc still has memories of that weekend – both good and bad – but he is eager to turn around his fortunes this weekend in a bid to regain some kind of momentum as he battles Max Verstappen for the Drivers’ Championship in 2022.

And the twenty-four-year-old believes Ferrari have the pace and potential to do well at every venue, so is not yet giving up the battle for the title.

“I’ve got great memories from here, because you never forget the place where you got your first win,” said Leclerc, who sits eighty points behind Verstappen heading to Spa-Francorchamps.  “But there’s also a very strange feeling, shaken by the tragedy of what happened to Anthoine (Hubert).

Andreas Seidl says the McLaren F1 Team will do everything they can to take the fight to the BWT Alpine F1 Team across the remainder of the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season as the two outfits battle for fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship.

Just four points separate the teams heading into this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix, with Alpine holding the small advantage, but everyone at McLaren has been looking at ways to maximise the potential of its MCL36 to ensure they do everything they can to beat their rivals.

Seidl, the Team Principal at McLaren, says they will put the news of Daniel Ricciardo’s impending departure from the team at the end of the season behind them and put their full focus into battling it out for the big points with both the Australian and his team-mate Lando Norris across the final nine races.

“The team are feeling rested and ready to tackle the second half of the season head on,” said Seidl.  “Spa is an exciting challenge as there are a multitude of ways to play it from a strategy and engineering perspective. It also holds some nice overtaking opportunities for the drivers to take advantage of and the track isn’t like many others on the calendar.   

“I know the team are excited to get back out there and kick start the triple header. Whilst the intense three weeks in a row has its challenges, it also provides a good opportunity to quickly gain momentum and take the fight to the Alpines, hopefully scoring some points with both cars.

Daniel Ricciardo is looking to put the news of his impending departure from the McLaren F1 Team behind him and focus on the racing as the FIA Formula 1 World Championship returns after its summer break this weekend in Belgium.

The Australian will leave McLaren at the end of the 2022 season despite having a contract for 2023, with his countryman Oscar Piastri expected to replace him once his contract dispute with the BWT Alpine F1 Team is sorted out.

Ricciardo, a former winner of the Belgian Grand Prix back when he was racing for Red Bull Racing, is excited to return to Spa-Francorchamps, a circuit that he finds thrilling, and he is looking to push across the remaining nine races of the year to leave McLaren on a high.

“I’m looking forward to heading back to Belgium,” said Ricciardo.  “The track at Spa is an exciting one and you always get a thrill going through the fast corners, particularly through Eau Rouge into Raidillon.

“Mixed with the long straights and iconic features, we can really push the cars. There’s also always a good atmosphere so it’s a nice track to return to after a few weeks off.  

Frédéric Vasseur says that despite a tough month of July for Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN, the spirits and motivation remain high within the Hinwil-based team, and they are all eager to regain the kind of form they had prior to the British Grand Prix.

Alfa Romeo failed to score points in any of the four races since both Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu finished seventh and eighth in the Canadian Grand Prix, with pointless weekends coming in the British, Austrian, French and Hungarian Grand Prix just prior to the summer break.

Heading into the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, Vasseur, the Team Principal at Alfa Romeo, says they have every intention of returning to the top ten sooner rather than later, somewhere the Frenchman believes they deserve to be after a strong start to the year saw them score points in seven of the opening nine races.

“The summer break was a much-needed pause after a busy first part of the season, and now we’re back on track in Belgium refreshed and motivated, ready to take on the triple-header and the remainder of the season,” said Vasseur.

“Nine races in thirteen weeks will be a challenge for everyone in the team, but we are keen to finish the job we started.

Valtteri Bottas hopes to return to the points this weekend for the first time since June as the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season resumes after its summer break with the Belgian Grand Prix.

Not since the Finn finished seventh in the Canadian Grand Prix has he scored points, and since then Bottas has also failed to finish both the British and Hungarian Grand Prix.

The Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN driver sits ninth in the Drivers’ Championship standings despite his pointless run, and he still has belief that he can score points on a regular basis across the final nine events of the season, starting this weekend at Spa-Francorchamps.

“I got to spend some quality time off, catching up with friends and family during the summer break and doing lots of sports, but now it’s time to go back to racing: I am looking forward to it, and I feel ready and motivated for the second half of the season,” said Bottas.

“I quite enjoy racing in Spa: it’s a legendary track that produced impressive races in the past, and I have also been on the podium three times there.

Dave Robson says that despite teams and drivers knowing the Spa-Francorchamps circuit very well, it will be interesting to see how the new cars can handle the circuit this weekend.

The Head of Vehicle Performance at Williams Racing says visiting and racing at Spa-Francorchamps is one of the highlights of the whole FIA Formula 1 World Championship season, and it is a track that offers many challenges to everyone, including his drivers Alexander Albon and Nicholas Latifi.

“Racing at Spa is one of the highlights of the season and we are very happy to be back,” said Robson. “The lap is long and offers almost every possible challenge for an F1 car and driver.

“The significant elevation changes and the variable weather add to the mix. Everyone knows the circuit well, but it will be interesting to see how this new generation of Formula 1 car deals with the high-speed corners at Eau Rouge, Pouhon and Blanchimont.” 

Pirelli are bringing the same three compounds to Spa-Francorchamps this weekend as they did to the Hungaroring just prior to the summer break, but Robson says they are likely to behave completely different to how they did in Hungary, and it is important for Williams to get the best out of them.

Alexander Albon is excited to return to the legendary Spa-Francorchamps this weekend after the summer break, with the Thai driver eager to continue the development of the upgraded FW44.

Having missed the event last year after being relegated to test driver by the Red Bull Racing team, Albon returns to one of his favourite venues on the FIA Formula 1 World Championship calendar this weekend aiming for a return to the points for the first time since the Miami Grand Prix.

The Williams Racing driver says Spa-Francorchamps can often throw some surprises with the weather, such as in 2021, and everyone needs to stay on their toes to react should the weather change.

“It’s great to be back racing after a needed break,” said Albon.  “Spa is one of my personal favourite tracks of the year, it’s great for racing and fun over one lap.

“It can also always throw surprises with the weather, as we saw last year!”

Max Verstappen is pumped up and ready for the second half of the Formula 1 season, which gets underway this weekend with the legendary Belgian Grand Prix.

This weekend’s race at Spa-Francorchamps kicks-off a European triple-header, the only triple-header this season actually. The reigning World Champion is taking an eighty point lead over Charles Leclerc into the second half of the year, with the Oracle Red Bull Racing driver hoping to build on that at his “favourite track”

The circuit has undergone a number of changes, which has seen a number of run-off areas replaced with “old school” gravel traps.

Verstappen is “feeling ready” for the weekend, with the Dutch driver having the “itch” to get going again.

“I’m feeling ready to race again after a good break. I definitely got the itch to get back to it. It will be a busy triple header but it will be okay to manage as we’ve all had a rest. The upgrades to the track have made it a little more old school with the gravel traps which I think is a good idea. It’s my favourite track so I’m looking forward to racing there this weekend. It looks like there might be rain around which will make it more tricky, but luckily as a Team we like a challenge.”

When the initial entry list for the NASCAR Xfinity Series‘ race at Daytona International Speedway was posted on Monday, Natalie Decker was tabbed as the driver of the #5 Ford Mustang for B.J. McLeod Motorsports. Two days later, however, the team announced Patrick Emerling has come aboard to pilot the car.

As Decker revealed later on Wednesday, the driver change came due to her sponsor Diesel Beverages not having been approved by NASCAR in time for the #5 to be wrapped in the branding. Diesel sells drinks made from terpene, an aromatic compound that can be found in cannabis plants, though the company stresses cannabinoids like THC and CBD are not present in their products. While drug sponsors have increased as NASCAR grows more accepting in recent years (notably with Cup Series driver Tyler Reddick being supported by hemp product company 3CHI), prospective sponsors must still undergo the approval process. Such steps are different for makers of cannabis and other related drug products due to federal laws surrounding them, which might evoke comparisons to the ban on tobacco sponsorship, and their legalisation is a fiercely debated topic in Congress.

“A lot of you have already seen that I’m on the entry list for Daytona racing in the Xfinity series,” began a statement posted by Decker. “I wanted to put this post out so there is no confusion, I will not be racing Daytona Because my sponsor is not cleared yet to be on a car in NASCAR.

“The product is having to go through testing and this is a standard protocol for any hemp/CBD company wanting to be apart of any NASCAR race. We had this deal come together very last minute and the testing takes a few days so with that being said we wouldn’t have gotten the results back in time for NASCAR to ok the paint scheme in time for the race. The product has gone through testing very similar because it’s sold on Amazon. I don’t want there to be any confusion to it not passing the test. NASCAR just has their own protocol and testing facility that they have to use in order to clear it.

“I’m really thankful and excited to have this opportunity with Diesel beverages and hopefully soon you will see me at a track near you with this paint scheme.”

It has been five years since Jeff Gordon last ran a motor race, and seven years since ending his illustrious NASCAR Cup Series career. On 2–4 September, he will once again return to the cockpit of a race car in a competitive setting as he enters the Porsche Carrera Cup North America round at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He will drive the #24 in the Invitational class, with leadership from his old NASCAR crew chief Ray Evernham.

The four-time Cup Series champion and 2019 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee won five times at Indianapolis during his twenty-five years in the division. After retiring from NASCAR in 2015 to transition into broadcasting, his lone racing action came at the 2017 Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona where he won the overall for Wayne Taylor Racing. He is one of four drivers to win both the Daytona 500 and Rolex 24 alongside Mario Andretti, A.J. Foyt, and Jamie McMurray.

Currently, he serves as Vice Chairman for Hendrick Motorsports, whom he also co-owns. A longtime fan favourite who helped propel NASCAR into the mainstream, he has often been brought up by fans as a driver whom they wish to see competing again; indeed, in 2018, he expressed interest in competing in the Camping World Truck Series at Martinsville (where he won nine times) if the chance ever arose.

“I’m looking forward to getting back in a race car and competing against a talented field of teams and drivers,” Gordon stated. “It’s always special when I get a chance to compete at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Ray and I have always talked about running another race together, and we felt like Indy was the perfect place. It’ll be a fun way to spend the holiday weekend and make some new memories.”

While his Indianapolis wins came on the oval layout, he drove a Williams FW24 on the infield road course in 2003 as part of a ride swap with then-Formula One driver and eventual NASCAR regular Juan Pablo Montoya.

Ahead of round eleven of the 2022 FIA Formula 2 championship at Spa–Francorchamps, Charouz Racing System have announced their new look driver line-up with Tatiana Calderón jumping into the vacant #23 car.

The announcement comes after the Cem Bölükbasi’s contract with the Czech team was terminated with mutual agreement during the summer break with no further explanation.

Team owner, Antonin Charouz spoke of the latest news, “I can confirm that Cem is no longer a member of our team, during the break we mutually agreed on terminating his contract and we wish him all the best for his future career.“

“On the other hand, we’re very happy to welcome Tatiana. We have been following her for a long time, she’s a very competitive driver and her experience will surely be really valuable for the team.“

The upcoming race weekend will be the Colombian racing driver’s first taste of Formula 2 racing since she last competed in the 2019 season with BWT Arden alongside the late Anthoine Hubert.

Team Penske has locked down their trio of NASCAR Cup Series drivers for the forseeable future. On Wednesday, the team announced Joey Logano has signed a “long-term contract extension” to remain the driver of the #22 Ford Mustang. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, which is routine for Penske.

Logano joined Penske in 2013, winning twenty-seven races including the 2015 Daytona 500 and the 2018 championship. He has made the playoffs every year save for 2017 since the introduction of the elimination format in 2014. Entering the twenty-sixth race of the 2022 season, he is fourth in points with two wins (Darlington and Gateway), twelve top tens, and a pole; he also won the Busch Light Clash at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum at the start of the year.

“Over the last ten years, Joey has become such an important part of Team Penske and we know he will continue to be a leader and a winner with the #22 Ford team well into the future,” said team owner Roger Penske. “Joey is a great champion of our sport and we are proud of how he continues to produce for our team and represent all of our partners, including Shell, Pennzoil and Ford. He also brings veteran leadership to our programme, serving as a great mentor and teammate to both Ryan (Blaney) and Austin (Cindric). With all he has achieved in his career, he still has a lot left to accomplish with Team Penske.”

The news comes a week after Blaney signed his own multi-year extension to stay in the #12. The #2 car’s driver Cindric will likely not be going anywhere either as the son of team president Tim Cindric, though he has earned his spot on the grid as the reigning Daytona 500 winner and a virtual lock for Rookie of the Year honours.

“Since taking over the #22 car at Team Penske, I’ve had the opportunity to accomplish so many of my dreams both on and off the track,” Logano commented. “For the last ten years, Roger has provided me the resources to be competitive, a team that stands behind me and leadership that is second to none. I’m excited to be continuing our relationship together so we can keep focusing on winning races, more championships and doing what we do for many years to come.”

ABT Sportsline have announced an exciting driver line-up for their returning campaign in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, with Robin Frijns and Nico Mueller hoping to take the team to great things.

The duo both know ABT incredibly well, having raced as team-mates in DTM with the top side. Mueller raced with ABT in the DTM as recently in 2021 and does have Formula E experience. The Swiss driver drove for Dragon/Penske Autosport in Seasons Six and Seven, whereas Frijns has spent a number of years in the series.

Frijns joins ABT after leaving Envision Racing, the Dutchman has previously raced for Andretti in the all-electric series, which he’s claimed two victories in.

The Dutch driver is expecting a “great atmosphere” in the team, as he prepares himself for Gen3.

“I know the ABT team and Nico from the DTM, where we had a great atmosphere in the team and were very successful,” said the three-time DTM race winner. “That’s exactly how we want to continue in Formula E.”

The Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team ended the first half of the season with two consecutive double podium finishes, with Lewis Hamilton alone having claimed five podiums consecutively.

Mercedes have come a long way since the start of the season, where they were well off the pace of both Scuderia Ferrari and Oracle Red Bull Racing; however, they are on the verge of being on the same pace as their frontrunning rivals.

Both titles are certainly out of reach, but second place in the Constructors’ Championship is a real possibility should the Silver Arrows continue on their recent surge. The side are still yet to claim a race victory in 2022, something they’ve achieved every season since 2012.

Team Principal Toto Wolff is hoping his side can continue to build their momentum this weekend at the Belgian Grand Prix, where Mercedes-AMG will be celebrating their fifty-fifth anniversary.

“We headed into the break off the back of a strong run of races and our biggest race weekend points score so far this year, in Hungary. While we’re still not quite in the fight for victories, we’re getting closer, so we need to keep the momentum going and the pressure on.
 
“The Shutdown is an important time for the team to take some time off, recharge and spend time with their families, whose support throughout the year is invaluable. There are few opportunities to do so during the season and the development race is relentless, so the break has been well deserved for everyone in the team.
 
“We’re set for an intense second half of the season, with nine more opportunities to find improvements, make progress and hopefully challenge Red Bull and Ferrari for wins.
 
“Spa-Francorchamps needs no introduction. A classic track with an old-school feel, the scene of many iconic moments in F1 history and an incredible challenge for both the car and drivers. We’re excited to be back there, hopefully we can put on an awesome show this year for all the fans in Belgium, and we’ll also be celebrating 55 years of Mercedes-AMG too, with some fun activities.”