Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

DTM Series Manager Frederic Elsner believes that the 2022 season so far has exceeded expectations.

Speaking at the halfway stage of the season, Elsner, the director for the event and operations said, “Looking at the development, the way in which things were going this year in terms of quality and quantity of the drivers, teams, and manufacturers, a high level of internationality, it was clear already that it was going to look really good for the upcoming season.

“But expectations were absolutely exceeded in the first half of the season. Everyone is a full-blown professional in his or her own field, be it a driver, engineer, mechanic, that is clear to notice, and this huge respect and the fair interaction have fascinated me”.

This year’s Norisring round did open up the series to renewed criticism, however. Race one on the small 1.4-mile track was littered with incidents, causing 16 cars to retire. As a result, driving standards were a hot topic of discussion following the event.

Elsner had this to say on that particular afternoon, “Saturday at Norisring had its own rules. The morning after, there was a very clear statement by race control in which these issues were addressed. There, it was made really clear how one has to behave at the track and from which perspective race control will be dealing with these issues in future.

After a point-less display for the Haas F1 Team at the Hungarian Grand Prix, team principal Guenther Steiner has spoken out on what he feels was a harsh decision by the FIA to award Kevin Magnussen with the black and orange flag in the early stages of the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Contact at turn 1 with Daniel Ricciardo saw Magnussen’s front wing sustain damage, with the FIA opting to show the Haas driver the black and orange flag, forcing Magnussen into an early pitstop. With Magnussen pitting for the hard compound tyre, the Danish driver was left with it all to do and was only able to bring home his Haas VF-22 in sixteenth place.

Steiner spoke post-race on how the FIA’s decision had hindered any possible progress for Magnussen at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

“It was a difficult race today for us. Kevin with apparent front wing damage which actually in our opinion was a mistake by the FIA to call us out on. The front wing was clearly safe to continue so we lost half a lap and that means our race was over and then obviously to get the tires to work was difficult once we ended up in all the blue flags.”

On the other side of the Haas F1 Team garage, Mick Schumacher also endured a tough day out on track at the Hungaroring. Despite a strong start from the young German driver, a tough spell on the hard tyres saw Schumacher cross the finish line in fourteenth position.

The Hungarian Grand Prix saw a second consecutive point-less finish for the Haas F1 Team. The weekend saw the Haas F1 team debut their long-awaited first upgrade package of the season, but it proved to be a result to forget for the team.

Starting from thirteenth, Kevin Magnussen’s race was undone at turn one as contact with Daniel Ricciardo saw the black and orange flag brought out for the Dane due to the damage sustained on his front wing.

“Our race was compromised massively by having to pit for the black and orange flag. I had slight contact at the start with one of the McLaren’s – I couldn’t avoid it – and it wasn’t that bad, so I was surprised to get the flag.”

Pitting for the hard tyres, Magnussen like the rest of the field who opted for the C2 compound, struggled to find any pace in the tyre. Magnussen would go on to bring his Haas car home for a sixteenth-placed finish.

“Then later we couldn’t really switch the hard tire on, so it was good to get off that and do some laps on the medium compound.”

Magnussen was debuting the new upgrade package for the Haas F1 Team and the 29-year-old leaves Budapest hopeful that the upgrade package will come good in the races ahead.

The Hungarian Grand Prix was certainly one to forget for Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN, with Guanyu Zhou finishing thirteenth, and Valtteri Bottas retiring a handful of laps before the end of the race.

After the race, Zhou explained that a bad start and an attempted one-stop strategy didn’t work out for the Italian/Swiss team, which they also attempted with Bottas.

“Conditions today weren’t a threat per se, they were a bit mixed, especially a little more slippery on the last few laps, but overall okay,” said the Chinese driver. “I think our plan today didn’t really pay off, we struggled on lap one and on the first few laps losing ground to other cars, and as going for one stop didn’t work out, we had to do an extra one which put me on the back of the field. It was quite frustrating, as it compromised my chances.“

The #24 driver then compared the pace of the C42 to the time of the British Grand Prix a month ago.

“Besides this, I think we had a strong pace today, and we deserved a little more, as in terms of performances we seemed to be back to where we were around Silverstone.

Jody Egginton, Technical Director at Scuderia AlphaTauri believes that, despite not getting into the points, the race pace shown in Pierre Gasly‘s race was promising, following his pitlane start on Sunday.

Gasly was set to start the race from nineteenth on the grid after getting a lap time deleted, but instead used the opportunity to tactically add some extra Power Unit components to his car, dropping him back just one place. The Frenchman would start the race at the Hungaroring from the pit-lane, then recover to twelfth place in the race. Meanwhile, Yuki Tsunoda started the race from sixteenth after also being knocked out of Qualifying One; but after suffering with balance and grip (as well as a mid-race spin), the Japanese driver placed nineteenth overall in the race.

Regardless of the result, Egginton believes there are takeaways from the weekend:

“We had mixed fortunes as a team today. Pierre drove a very strong race, from a pitlane start, making good use of the soft and medium compounds to come home 12th. Unfortunately, Yuki had a far more difficult race, struggling with grip and balance in every stint and generally not being happy with his car.

“Although no issue was evident from the telemetry, we need to conduct an investigation to get to the bottom of this.”

Having started the Hungarian Grand Prix from the pitlane, Pierre Gasly did a good job to recover to twelfth place in what was a chaotic race on strategy. In a year where Scuderia AlphaTauri have been struggling, recovering to a position near the points is certainly a good result.

“I must say I’m happy with today. Starting from the pitlane is never easy and we managed to recover to twelfth position. There were some changes made to the set-up of the car for the pitlane start, which showed a bit more pace and allowed us to make some good moves,” the Frenchman explained.

“The most important thing is that we use the upcoming three weeks to extract more from our package and finish inside the points consistently.

“I know the team and what we are capable of achieving, and with these new cars being difficult, we need time to understand how to get the best out of it,” the number ten driver concluded.

“It didn’t feel like I had much of a race,” says Tsunoda after mid-race spin

Yuki Tsunoda started the race around the Hungaroring, Budapest from sixteenth place, but suffered a spin during the race that dropped him down to the back of the pack. The Japanese driver claims that it was “so difficult to keep [the car] on the track”, despite running the Soft tyre for the majority of the race. The cool track conditions did, however, make it tricky to get temperature into the tyres; which may explain the reasoning behind Tsunoda’s lack of pace.

Front Row Motorsports has decided against appealing the 100-point penalty imposed upon the #34 driven by Michael McDowell, the team announced Tuesday.

After finishing sixth at Pocono on Sunday two weeks ago, the #34 car was found to have modified a part supplied from a Next Gen car vendor. Such components cannot be tampered with, and offenders would receive an L2 penalty that includes docking 100 points, ten playoff points, and fining the crew chief $100,000 and suspending them for four races. Extreme violations can result in being barred from the playoffs altogether.

Brad Keselowski from fellow Ford team RFK Racing was the first to suffer an L2 penalty after Atlanta in March.

With FRM dropping the appeal, crew chief Blake Harris‘ four-race ban begins Sunday at Michigan International Speedway, and he will not erturn until the regular season finale at Daytona International Speedway. Chris Yerges, who serves as FRM’s lead engineer and IT support, will take over as interim crew chief.

“After further assessing penalties levied against its #34 NASCAR Cup Series team, Front Row Motorsports has notified NASCAR that it will drop its appeal and accept the penalty,” reads a team statement. “The team has made internal changes in its build practices to ensure the issues leading to the penalties will not happen again in the future.

Aksel Lund Svindal is well known for his skiing exploits, having won two gold medals in the Winter Olympics and five FIS Alpine World Ski Championships. Since retiring from the sport, he turned his eyes towards auto racing, and on 13/14 August will showcase his driving ability in his home country as he enters the FIA RX2e Championship round in Hell, Norway. It will be his maiden foray into rallycross.

“I have big respect for rallycross drivers because its a sport that is just action-packed,” said Svindal. “There is so much happening, and when you go out in the car for the first time, it’s certainly a handful but it handles really well. As Norwegians, we are familiar with the acceleration of electric cars, and both the acceleration and handling of the RX2e car on such rough surfaces is very impressive.

“Even if I’m only an amateur and this is just for fun, to go to Hell and see everything up close and join the action is something I’m really looking forward to. It’s no secret that I’m a big advocate of sustainability and innovation, and with the increasing electrification of motorsport and the incredible performance that will bring, I’m super excited to see what the future has in store.”

The Hell round, held at Lånkebanen, is the second of the 2022 RX2e season. To prepare for the start, he test drove an RX2e car at Circuit de Calafat in Catalonia with Klara Andersson and the unrelated Nils Andersson as mentors.

Although he escalated his driving career following his exit from skiing in 2018, Svindal already possessed prior competitive motorsport experience when he competed in the Audi Sport TT Cup‘s 2015 Red Bull Ring round. Among his opponents in the event were fellow skiers Felix Neureuther and Marcel Hirscher, while Svindal’s #96 was also piloted by ski veterans Jon Olsson and Sven Hannawald during the season.

It was a mixed weekend fo Nissan E.DAMS‘ Maximilian Günther, who finished in the points at one of the two races at the London E-Prix.

Günther qualified for the Quarter-Final section of the qualifying duels across both Saturday and Sunday; however, the twenty-five year-old made it no further.

He finished eighth in Race One, but could’ve finished slightly higher had it not been for energy problems late on. In Race Two the German driver finished outside the points, after being hit into a wall and forced into the pits for a nose change.

Had this not happened, then the Nissan driver would’ve most likely have finished in the top ten once again, but had to settle for points in just Saturday’s race.

Despite the unfortunate events that took place in Race Two for Günther, the German was “extremely happy” with his London E-Prix performance.

Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team’s Sebastian Vettel made it into the points with a tenth place finish at the Hungarian Grand Prix, as team-mate Lance Stroll fell just short in eleventh after a late-race team order to switch the drivers in pursuit of a ninth place finish for the team. 

Principal Mike Krack said that he was pleased with the team’s efforts in Hungary, having calculated their strategy well for the conditions and ending up with a point to add to the tally. 

“This afternoon was anything but straightforward: we managed our tyre life throughout the entire race, judged the strategy very well, and managed both drivers to obtain a good result for the team. 

“Lance drove a strong race – he managed his tyres well, pulled off some great overtaking moves when it really mattered, and did a great job to close on [Valtteri] Bottas and move into the points. 

Krack shared the reasoning behind switching the drivers to move Vettel ahead, as he said that Vettel had better pace on his tyres compared to Stroll, so they made the order in an effort to try and increase their chance of overtaking Esteban Ocon for ninth place. 

Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team’s Sebastian Vettel earned a point at the Hungarian Grand Prix, going from eighteenth up to tenth after a solid race and the potential for a greater return. 

Vettel said that ninth place was in his sights near the end of the race after switching places with team-mate Lance Stroll, but ultimately wasn’t able to catch Esteban Ocon for the position with the Virtual Safety Car hindering his prospects. He ended up just over a tenth behind Ocon, narrowly missing an additional point.  

“We had to fight hard for a point today and we came close to a second point when I was chasing down Esteban [Ocon] in the final laps. The team switched cars because I had a better opportunity to catch Esteban, but obviously the Virtual Safety Car hurt us and we ran out of time. I was very close on the final lap, but I needed just one more corner to make a move.”

Vettel enjoyed the race overall, having had good pace at the Hungaroring. He did, however, struggle with his second set of tyres, which were used mediums. 

Looking ahead to the rest of the season, Vettel said that improving the team’s qualifying needs to be a priority after summer break.

For the first time since serving a suspension to begin the 2015 NASCAR Cup Series season, Kurt Busch will skip three straight races. Due to the concussion-like symptoms sustained in his Pocono qualifying crash, he has not been medically cleared to return to action.

Ty Gibbs remains the substitute driver of the #45 Toyota Camry for 23XI Racing. The Xfinity Series regular finished sixteenth in his Cup début at Pocono and seventeenth last Sunday at Indianapolis. He placed thirteenth in his maiden Xfinity start at Michigan in 2021 and won that year’s ARCA Menards Series race there.

“While I am continuing to make improvements every day and can’t wait to get back in the #45 Monster Energy Toyota Camry TRD, I have yet to be cleared to return to competition and will not be participating in the NASCAR Cup Series race this weekend at Michigan International Speedway,” Busch posted on Wednesday. “I know Ty will continue to do a great job representing 23XI and the #45 Monster Energy team in Michigan.

“I am working hard to get back to 100% and it’s my hope to be back in the car at Richmond Raceway. Thanks to everyone for the continued support and I look forward to being back on track soon.”

Due to the missed races, Busch dropped from fourteenth in the standings to eighteenth, though a waiver and his Kansas victory in May assure him a playoff spot.

After years of trying, Elfyn Evans finally made it to the top step of the podium at last years Rally Finland, for 2022 the Welshman is looking to break out of the shadow of his teammate Kalle Rovenperä, who has taken five out of seven victories this season.

Evans heads in to the weekend sitting in third place in the drivers’ championship with 79 points, just 13 points behind Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville, but 96 points behind his teammate Rovenperä.

2022 hasn’t been a bad year for Evans, he has taken home three second-place finishes and shown impressive pace, unfortunately his TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team teammate has been unstoppable in the new generation of WRC cars. For Finland Evans is hoping to build on the momentum of his second place finish in Estonia.

“Finland is definitely one of my favourite rallies on the calendar, if not my favourite, and I’m really looking forward to it,” said Evans.

“There’s not many places where you have the same sensation driving a car as you do in Finland, so it’s always a highlight and to win there last year was something very special.

It was a London E-Prix to forget for Jaguar TCS Racing, especially with Mitch Evans‘ Drivers’ Championship hopes effectively going up in flames.

Evans recovered from fourteenth to fourth at the ExCeL Centre, before a technical issue with just a few minutes remaining saw the New Zealander retire from the race. It resulted in championship leader Stoffel Vandoorne inheriting fourth, and a thirty-six point lead in the standings.

On the other side of the garage, Sam Bird managed to rescue some points for the team, who remain fourth in Constructors’ Championship.

Team Principal James Barclay labelled Evans’ retirement as “cruel”, but insists the team will “fight until the very end.

“That was an unfortunate and cruel end to the race for Mitch and the team. He had shown phenomenal pace and race craft to fight all the way up to fourth and on the brink of a podium finish. Unfortunately, we had to retire the car with a technical issue and it’s a real shame that we couldn’t capitalise on the great position we had got ourselves into. Sam put in another fantastic race performance today to secure points.

Mitch Evans was on the verge of closing the gap to Stoffel Vandoorne in the Drivers’ Championship, until the New Zealander suffered heartbreak at the London E-Prix.

The Jaguar TCS Racing driver had worked his way up from fourteenth-place to fourth, after overtaking at a circuit where it was supposedly impossible to do so. Whilst Evans wasn’t set to close the gap by much as championship leader Stoffel Vandoorne was in fifth, it would’ve been something beneficial to take into the season finale.

Instead, Evans saw the gap increase to thirty-six points, after his car shut down with just two minutes remaining. Fans watched on as Evans’ car crawled to a halt, as Vandoorne inherited fourth-place and a healthy championship lead.

Evans was understandably distraught after the race, where he struggled to find the words to explain his Sunday afternoon.

“It’s hard to put this one into words. It was a huge race after a difficult qualifying and we were able to put ourselves P4 after starting P14. It was a faultless race, really aggressive with the overtaking and a perfect strategy from the team with my ATTACK MODES. We were set to score a lot of points but we had a technical issue with a few laps to go, which is heartbreaking for everyone in the team. Stoffel (Vandoorne) now has quite a large points advantage but we’re not giving up.”