Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Team Principal and Managing Director of Scuderia Ferrari, Mattia Binotto, admitted that the Italian outfit was unable to match their Friday pace in Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix, as the team lose crucial points to Oracle Red Bull Racing at a race they very much should have won.

Having started on the Medium tyres and fitting another set at their first pitstop, Ferrari’s biggest mistake was not extending Charles Leclerc‘s stint instead of reacting to the Max Verstappen‘s undercut. While Leclerc was able to pass George Russell for the lead in the second stint, the Monégasque was forced onto the Hard tyre in the third stint, which was hard to warm up as a result of the low track temperature. The Soft tyre was unable to make it to the end of the race, so this strategy call was a huge blunder as the Red Bull cars charged through the pack.

Ferrari performed a better strategy with Carlos Sainz Jr., keeping him out longer on his second set of tyres, meaning he could switch to the Soft compound for the last stint. However, the Italian outfit still pitted the Spaniard a little too early, as graining and a later-pitting Lewis Hamilton would out-perform them on an identical strategy. Overall, it was a day to forget for the Scuderia, who will be heading into the summer break with two disappointing races in a row.

“Today’s result is unsatisfactory,” said Binotto after the race. “In general, we did not perform well, with the car unable to reproduce Friday’s pace and in terms of how we managed the strategy and pit stops.

“Analysing every aspect of this race is our top priority over the coming days, in order to prepare as well as possible for the remaining Grands Prix.“

For the first time in team history, Jordan Anderson Racing will field two cars in a NASCAR Xfinity Series race as Myatt Snider‘s #31 Chevrolet Camaro partners up with Jordan Anderson in the #32 who will hope to make Saturday’s race at Michigan International Speedway.

Anderson founded JAR for Camping World Truck Series competition in 2018 before opening an Xfinity programme three years later. Although the owner was supposed to race for 2021 Rookie of the Year honours in the #31, the plans were dropped when qualifying for the team’s début race was rained out, locking them out of the grid for much of the season’s non-qualifying rounds. A rotation of drivers, including Sunday’s Cup Series winner Tyler Reddick, was eventually installed with Anderson running six races himself, scoring a fifth-place finish at Talladega. The #31 had eight different drivers and finished twenty-fifth in the owner’s standings with six top tens.

Snider joined JAR for the 2022 season after previously driving for technical ally Richard Childress Racing. After twenty races, he is nineteenth in points with four top tens and a runner-up finish to current points leader A.J. Allmendinger at Portland.

Longtime JAR partner Bommarito Automotive Group will sponsor both Anderson and Snider’s cars and provide identical liveries.

Anderson posted on social media on Monday, “Going to be seeing double this weekend! Pretty cool opportunity to have the 31 and 32 hit the track Saturday in Michigan with Myatt Snider and myself behind the wheel in matching Bommarito Automotive Group Chevrolets! Grateful to have Sefton Steel, EasyCare, Impact Racing, Capital City Hauling and Towing, Dometic, TaxSlayer, Superior Essex, Louisiana Hot Sauce, Crest Industries Inc., Tailored Media, Lucas Oil, Chevrolet, and so many other amazing partners support to help keep this team growing.”

Andreas Bakkerud succeeded in getting the gold with a win at Nitro Rallycross Strangnas after beating out teammate Robin Larsson and Johan Kristoffersson.

Bakkerud started second on the grid next to Oliver Eriksson getting the better run into turn one taking the lead from there. Robin Larsson would slot into second place after Eriksson suffered an issue retiring him from the race on lap 1. Meanwhile, from behind Johan Kristoffersson bolted to third with a move around the outside surpassing most of the field as he started from the back of the grid. 

From then on the RX Cartel teammates battled times as they each went quicker in different sectors making the occasional rear bumper tap. A good joker strategy from Larsson almost took the lead from Bakkerud but the swede would later make a mistake costing him the time and positioning to make a move. Kristoffersson would keep his position at third to round out the podium.

In the Supercar class, Fraser McConnell took home the event win and Euro NRX Championship win. The Jamaican driver was able to top Yuri Belevsky to win the European leg of the championship. Other drivers like Pat O’Donovan and Per Eklund had issues between mechanical faults or false starts that prevented their weekends from being prosperous. 

Tommi Hallman would win in the NRX NEXT support class after Mattis Jansson lost the lead on the last lap after going just a bit wide and spinning a corner later. Casper Jansson would slot in his place to take second while George Megennis would bring up the rear in third. 

The final race before the summer break was one to put behind for Scuderia Ferrari, as the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday yielded a second consecutive disappointment for the Italian team. Having qualified second and third on the grid, and with their Oracle Red Bull Racing rivals starting in tenth and eleventh; Budapest should have gone Ferrari’s way – but poor strategy cost them a potentially big haul of points.

Charles Leclerc started well on the Medium tyre, following his team-mate around as they chased after George Russell, who took his maiden pole position on Saturday afternoon. The Monégasque was able to jump Carlos Sainz Jr. in the first round of pitstops, overtake Russell on track and take the lead of the race, however, the call to switch to Mediums would turn out to be a mistake.

A charging Verstappen would attempt an undercut, and pit early for his second stop (which was the Medium tyre, having started on the Softs and switched to the Mediums in his first stop). Ferrari would keep Sainz out in the lead, but pit Leclerc for a set of Hard tyres, as the Softs would not make it to the end of the race. A handful of drivers had already struggled to bring the Hard tyres up to temperature with the cooler track conditions, and Leclerc had the same struggle. After being overtaken by Verstappen twice in the race, the number sixteen driver would pit a final time for a set of Soft tyres in the dying laps, and cross the line to finish sixth.

“It’s a shame we didn’t bring home a better result, because the car felt good and we had a strong pace on Medium tyres today. Unfortunately, the Hards just did not work in these conditions,” said the Ferrari driver, who was the fastest car with the Medium tyre attached.

“We now need to see what we could have done better, recharge our batteries over the break and be ready to fight in the second part of the season.“

After being awarded a five-second time penalty in Race One which dumped him from the podium, Nyck de Vries finally stepped-foot on the London E-Prix podium in Race Two, after finishing third.

The Dutchman had finished the first race in third; however, he was given a late penalty due to moving under braking in-front of Nick Cassidy. The Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team driver was more careful whilst defending in Race Two, where after some breathtaking pace and great overtaking moves, he sealed a third-place finish.

It could’ve possibly been even better for De Vries who had the pace for second, this wasn’t possible, though, as he revealed after the race that he had been suffering from some damage late on.

Despite this, the reigning Formula E World Champion was “delighted” with his result.

“I am delighted. I think the team executed a great race, getting all the Attack Modes and major decisions just right, so I am very satisfied with what we accomplished today. Seven or eight laps before the end, something broke on the left front suspension, so I was really worried that I wouldn’t be able to finish the race.

Immediately after an excellent recovery drive at the second race of the London E-Prix, British driver Sam Bird was sent to hospital for precautionary checks following an injury sustained on the first lap.

The Jaguar TCS Racing driver didn’t go to the media pen after the race, and instead went straight to hospital. An X-ray on his left hand showed that the Brit had a displaced midshaft fracture. The Brit somehow persevered the entire race, and managed to rescue eighth-place despite having started towards the bottom end of the grid.

With the season finale in South Korea just under two weeks away, his participation has been thrown into doubt. The first lap saw carnage on the exit of Turn Six and at Turn Sixteen, where drivers piled into each other. Bird’s injury sums up what was a dire home weekend for him, where in Race One he retired on the opening lap following a collision with Edoardo Mortara and Jean-Éric Vergne.

Bird’s team released the following statement Sunday afternoon, to clarify what had happened and what the plan is going forward.

It read: “Shortly after the race, Sam Bird was taken to hospital for precautionary checks on an injury sustained during the first lap in Round Fourteen in London. Following an X-ray he has sustained a displaced midshaft fracture on his left hand. Sam will see a specialist as quickly as possible to determine the best treatment. Sam’s participation in the upcoming Seoul E-Prix on August 13-14 will be assessed in the coming days.”

Volkswagen Dealerteam BAUHAUS have announced their three-strong driver line-up for the 2022 FIA World Rallycross Championship, featuring defending champion Johan Kristoffersson.

The four-time world champion will be partnered by European Rallycross event winner Ole Christian Veiby and rising Swedish teen star Gustav Bergström as the KMS (Kristoffersson Motorsport) team make their entry into the all-new all-electric era of World RX.

Although more familiar to rally fans, being a consistent frontrunner in the supporting WRC2 category of the FIA World Rally Championship, Veiby is no stranger to rallycross. The 26 year old Norwegian driver took victory Barcelona on his way to third place in the 2015 Euro RX championship. While continuing to rally, Veiby is ready to commit to his first full World RX campaign, saying “I think it’s time for a change and it will be interesting to do something new. Rallycross with electric cars just feels right and it’s great to be back with KMS,” the two having first worked together when Veiby was just 16.

Ole Christian Veiby is relishing the challenge of getting back into rallycross

Speaking about his legendary teammate Kristoffersson, Veiby said “In my opinion, he is the world’s best driver and there’s no doubt that his experience is worth its weight in gold. He has incredible knowledge in rallycross and together, we have produced a good package that should put us in strong shape for the season ahead and enable us to fight at the front.”

Stockholm’s Bergström may only have begun competing last year, but is determined to make a name for himself at the pinnacle of rallycross. Team Manager Tommy Kristoffersson is excited about the teen’s future, saying “Gustav started from absolute zero last year, but I could see right away that he had a good feeling for the car – he is a promising talent. We will not put any pressure on his shoulders, because he is the new guy on the block and for him, this season is all about developing, but he is young, full of confidence and eager to learn.”

With Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team getting another double podium, the Hungarian Grand Prix has historically been a good stomping ground for Lewis Hamilton. This season, he had a good opening stint on medium tyres, moving up from seventh position to fifth.

George Russell also had a secure first stint where he fought off the Scuderia Ferrari cars, holding on at the front from pole position before falling back to third. The weather often plays a big part in Hungary but it wasn’t going to be the biggest threat for drivers this weekend. Instead, the issue affecting a lot of drivers was the tyres.

Toto Wolff, the team principal of Mercedes, said, “George had a great qualifying session with pole and drove a solid race. He was in the fight utilising the tyres but ran out of them in the second stint. Lewis’ fight today was unbelievable, Budapest continues to be a success story for him. He came out of nowhere and was quicker than everyone else.

“I think we lost the race with him yesterday with the DRS failing. Otherwise, we would have been able to fight at the front for the victory today. Second and third twice in a row is great but we want to fight for the win.“

Hamilton got to second place and Russell fell back to third. Toto Wolff continued, “We have a result we can work with, given we had a really bad Friday. It’s very frustrating and not easy to pick yourself up and stay motivated, so it’s a learning process.

“Today, we had good pace, but we need to stay humble and look at race weekend after race weekend so we can try to gain more learnings and experiment to put us in a situation where we can actually fight for wins at the end of the season.” 

In the Hungarian Grand Prix, George Russell finished the race in third position after starting from pole position. Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton came back from seventh to finish second, delighting the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team. Hamilton easily went past Russell to take second and try and chase down Max Verstappen.

Carlos Sainz Jr. was putting an immense amount of pressure on Russell whilst also being under pressure from Sergio Pérez himself. There were 1.109 seconds between them and 2.242 seconds between Sainz and Russell.
 
Russell said, “I had a really strong start, and it was a first good stint. We pitted quite early on both stints and tried to keep the tyres out until the end, as well as pushing as fast as possible at the same time”.

“Towards the end on the mediums when the rain started to come down, I struggled and lost temperature. It was challenging to manage the tyres, so there’s lots to look into and see where we could’ve done better“, he continued.

“Amazing job by the team, pole position yesterday and double podium today. We’re making progress and I’m proud of the work everybody has put into it. We will come back to the second half of the season with a reset, refocussed and will try to fight for some victories.” 

“I was struggling at the beginning of the race” – Lewis Hamilton

2022 Hungary Grand Prix, Sunday – Steve Etherington

Hamilton secured the bonus point for the fastest lap, at 1:21.386. By the end of the race, he was 7.834s behind Verstappen and catching, having stormed the pack after qualifying seventh.

Suberashi Auto Photo (AKA Stacy Guiney) shares his views of the last weekend from London’s iconic Royal Docks and ExCeL London exhibition centre as the FIA Formula E World Championship visited the UK capital once again. (Click on the image to see a larger version.)

Credit: Suberashi Auto PhotoCredit: Suberashi Auto PhotoCredit: Suberashi Auto PhotoCredit: Suberashi Auto PhotoCredit: Suberashi Auto PhotoCredit: Suberashi Auto PhotoCredit: Suberashi Auto PhotoCredit: Suberashi Auto PhotoCredit: Suberashi Auto PhotoCredit: Suberashi Auto PhotoCredit: Suberashi Auto PhotoCredit: Suberashi Auto PhotoCredit: Suberashi Auto PhotoCredit: Suberashi Auto PhotoCredit: Suberashi Auto PhotoCredit: Suberashi Auto PhotoCredit: Suberashi Auto PhotoCredit: Suberashi Auto PhotoCredit: Suberashi Auto PhotoCredit: Suberashi Auto PhotoCredit: Suberashi Auto PhotoCredit: Suberashi Auto PhotoCredit: Suberashi Auto PhotoCredit: Suberashi Auto PhotoCredit: Suberashi Auto PhotoCredit: Suberashi Auto Photo

Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team has revealed that two-time World Champion, Fernando Alonso, will be racing for the team, starting from 2023. The Spaniard made a surprise FIA Formula 1 World Championship return at the start of 2021, after announcing a return to Renault (which had just been rebranded to BWT Alpine F1 Team) alongside Esteban Ocon, and has now announced his move in just his second year back.

This news arrives four days after Sebastian Vettel announced he would be retiring from Formula 1 at the end of the 2022 season.

In a statement, Alonso claims he “still has the hunger and ambition to fight to be at the front”, as he announced his surprise move to the British-racing green outfit:

“This Aston Martin team is clearly applying the energy and commitment to win, and it is, therefore, one of the most exciting teams in Formula One today. I have known Lawrence and Lance for many years and it is very obvious that they have the ambition and passion to succeed in Formula One,” says Alonso.

“I have watched as the team has systematically attracted great people with winning pedigrees, and I have become aware of the huge commitment to new facilities and resources at Silverstone. No one in Formula One today is demonstrating a greater vision and absolute commitment to winning, and that makes it a really exciting opportunity for me.

Max Verstappen has taken victory, in the most extraordinary fashion, after charging from tenth on the grid to first in a strategy-intensive Hungarian Grand Prix. The Oracle Red Bull Racing driver had a tricky qualifying session on Saturday, where a power unit issue on his final Qualifying Three lap prevented him from setting a representative time.

After keeping cool and making multiple overtakes on Charles Leclerc for the lead, Verstappen was able to extend his championship lead even further. A quick three-sixty spin was the only mistake Verstappen made all race, in what was a champion’s performance.

Meanwhile, for Sergio Pérez, the race didn’t go quite as smoothly. Having started from eleventh on the grid (after complaining about being held up in Qualifying Two), the Mexican quickly made his way into the top six in the first stint but was unable to make an impact on the race, finishing fifth overall.

Mercedes make it double… Again!

Lewis Hamilton and George Russell were able to replicate their two-three finish from last weekend’s French Grand Prix, with the number forty-four driver charging from seventh to second. Hamilton had a DRS issue at the end of Qualifying Three, ultimately stopping him from challenging for pole position.

The Briton started the race on the Medium tyres, switched to another set of Medium tyres at his first stop, and then stayed out until lap fifty-two of seventy (while the front-runners pitted), before switching to a set of Soft tyres, setting the fastest lap, and charging his way past Carlos Sainz and Russell to his fifth consecutive podium. It was an incredible drive for the seven-time champion.

At the halfway point of the 2022 DTM season, a gap of only ten points covers the top three drivers. With a different polesitter for each race, seven different race winners, and a chaotic round seven at the Norisring which saw 16 cars fail to finish. The series has been unpredictable, to say the least.

Therefore, to try and review the season so far, we have looked at some of the standout DTM drivers at the mid-season mark.

Mirko Bortolotti – First place in the driver’s championship.

Driving for GRT Grasser Racing Team in their first DTM season, Bortolotti and the Austrian outfit hit the ground running, qualifying on pole for race one at Portimão. Arguably, the biggest story of the opening round. The outright pace that the Italian showed in qualifying was proven to be for real. As the GRT driver managed to hold onto a comfortable third place, after suffering a poor getaway at the start.

He followed race one with another third place in race two at the Portuguese circuit, after again impressing in qualifying. Two sixth-place finishes in the next round at the Lausitzring kept him in second place in the championship heading to Imola.

Tyler Reddick‘s name in recent headlines might be dominated by his impending departure from Richard Childress Racing after the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season for 23XI Racing, but until that happens, he’s still going to pursue a championship in the #8. A dominating performance in Sunday’s Verizon 200 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway became a chaotic run to the finish as he had to hold off the likes of road course ace Austin Cindric, COTA winner Ross Chastain, and defending Indy winner A.J. Allmendinger. Despite the pressure, he kept strong to win his second Cup race.

Coupled with his Road America win early in July, Reddick is the seventh driver to have his first two Cup victories come on road courses after Dan Gurney, Ray Elder, Tim Richmond, Juan Pablo Montoya, Marcos Ambrose, and Allmendinger. Allmendinger had been seeking to sweep the weekend after winning the Xfinity Series race on Saturday.

The first two stages were caution free save for the breaks, a stark juxtaposition to the single-car spins, off-track excursions, mechanical issues, Chris Buescher‘s car catching fire on pit road, an Air Force promotional hauler getting stuck in a tunnel exit, and a tent flying onto the track in turn one as Cody Ware drove by.

Things changed drastically in the third segment when Kyle Larson lost his brakes entering turn one and hit the kerb, causing him to go airbourne and slam into Ty Dillon. On a restart, Chase Elliott duelled with Reddick before he spun in the first corner while Reddick’s team-mate Austin Dillon got stuck in the gravel to force overtime.

Reddick and Allmendinger comprised the front row to begin the two-lap dash, and the former received a strong push from Ryan Blaney (who spun two turns later) to pull ahead. With so many cars bunching up in the sharp right turn one, Chastain elected to bypass it completely by driving forwards into the run-off area before re-joining the race behind the leaders, an egregious track cutting violation that resulted in a thirty-second time penalty. Nevertheless, as the penalty was applied upon the race’s conclusion, Chastain continued to race as if he was vying for the win.

Red Bull Racing made an impressive recovery after a tough qualifying, with Max Verstappen taking victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix after starting tenth and Sergio Perez improving to fifth from an eleventh place start. 

Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner was happy with how the team’s final result turned out given their starting positions, and was particularly excited to see Verstappen take home a win against the odds. 

“It was a fantastic race today. Everyone put in a top performance. Max was exceptional, even adding a little spin to his race as if coming back from 10th wasn’t hard enough. 

Horner said that Perez would have been on for a podium as well if not for the Virtual Safety Car that was deployed with just a few laps to go. He added that strategy ended up being key to their success, with a tyre strategy that was competitive in what were uncertain conditions. 

“Equally, Checo had a brilliant race and I believe if it hadn’t been for the VSC he would have podiumed. Strategy played a big part in our victory. We were due to start on the hard tyre but switched things up as a result of the ambient conditions.