Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

The Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team earned their first points of the season at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, with a double-points finish. Sebastian Vettel took eighth, and Lance Stroll rounded out the points positions with a tenth-place result. 

Aston Martin Team Principal Mike Krack, recounted the “faultless” drives of the Aston Martin pilots, who were able to maximise the opportunities the unique conditions offered them. Vettel’s amazing start and early switch to slicks allowed him to secure the impressive result, while Stroll’s opening lap brought him from fifteenth up to the edge of the points.

“Both Sebastian and Lance drove faultlessly in today’s tricky wet-to-dry race. In wet conditions, Sebastian vaulted into ninth on lap one, then comfortably raced inside the top 10 for the whole race. As the track dried, he was one of the very first drivers to roll the dice and switch from Intermediates to the Medium tyre. The team and he judged that stop perfectly and Sebastian then ran smoothly in P7 until the closing laps, when he dropped to eighth.

“Equally, Lance didn’t put a foot wrong this afternoon. He too made a strong start, made up positions on the opening lap, and enjoyed a fantastic, spirited tussle with [Yuki] Tsunoda. After his stop, he settled down in 10th place, withstood race-long pressure from a train of cars behind him and scored his first point of the season.”

Krack said that the team’s performance in Imola boosted morale, as the British outfit will be looking to keep developing in order to move further up the field as the season progresses. With five points on the board, Aston Martin have overtaken Williams Racing for ninth in the Constructors’ Championship.

Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team’s, Sebastian Vettel, finished eighth at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, earning his first points of the season. Benefitting from an eventful opening lap, Vettel was able to move from thirteenth up to ninth soon after lights out. The Four-Time World Champion went on to secure a points finish with a solid drive. 

The German driver said that several factors played into the team’s season-best result in Imola, from the weather conditions to a solid tyre-strategy. 

“The team did really well today and we maximised everything to finish P8. It is an important result for the team because they have worked so hard in a challenging season so far. It is clear that we benefitted from the cooler and damp conditions on Friday and Sunday, but we still needed to capitalise on the opportunities that came our way. We also achieved that through good strategy, making our pit-stop for dry tyres at the right moment.”

With the team still struggling to find pace in their 2022 contender, Vettel said that tyre management was key to their successful result. Having added the first points to the tally, he now shifts his focus to the upcoming Miami Grand Prix.

“We may not have had the pure pace in this race, but we managed the tyres well and we got both cars into the points. It is nice to get off the mark and get points in the bag and now we are looking forward to Miami.”

Scuderia AlphaTauri driver, Yuki Tsunoda, was happy with his seventh-place finish at Sunday’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix – which is tied for his third best finish in the FIA Formula 1 World Championship. The Japanese driver started in twelfth-place after gaining three positions in Saturday’s Sprint Qualifying session, and would work his way up to eighth place in the full-distance race to score six hard-earned points for AlphaTauri – with good overtakes on Magnussen and Vettel along the way.

It has been a good start to the year for Tsunoda, who finds himself leading team-mate, Pierre Gasly, in the the standings by a four-point margin. Tsunoda loved having AlphaTauri team members cheering him on from the grandstands, in what was the team’s home race. Tsunoda would’ve certainly made all of them very happy!

“I’m super happy with today, especially to score points at our home track. There are a lot of people from the factory watching here in the grandstands today, every lap I could see the AlphaTauri flags being waved and it gave me a great boost, so it feels like a big thank you to everyone that works so hard in the team.

“The pace of the car has been really good today, I didn’t expect it to be quite that strong heading into the race, but we’ve made progress through the week and I’m pleased with the performance we showed this afternoon.”

“We were all stuck in a DRS train” – Pierre Gasly

One of the main battles that was showcased during the 2022 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix was the battle between Lewis Hamilton, Pierre Gasly and Alexander Albon for what would become eleventh-place after post-race penalties were applied.

Franz Tost, Team Principal of Scuderia AlphaTauri believes the 2022 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix saw good progress for the team, with the upgrades that were added to the car. Tost believes that with only a few more minor changes, both Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly will start scoring points consistently.

There was happiness and frustration splitting the garage of the Italian-based team over the weekend, with Gasly being unable to score points after taking damage in the Sprint Qualifying session on Saturday, then being stuck in a DRS train behind Alexander Albon for the majority of the race. Tsunoda however, gained three places in the Sprint and a further five in the race to take an impressive seventh-place finish in changing-weather conditions.

AlphaTauri now find themselves seventh in the Constructors’ Championship, just one point ahead of the Haas F1 Team, who have found a lot of performance in the early stages of the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship.

Speaking on the successes and failures of the weekend, Tost firstly congratulated AlphaTauri’s sister team on their one-two result on Sunday.

“It was a very exciting race today. I would like to congratulate Oracle Red Bull Racing for their well-deserved one-two. Max and Checo controlled the pace for the entire race, they did a really fantastic job.

MBM Motorsports will return to a two-car operation for the rest of the 2022 NASCAR Xfinity Series season. On Tuesday, the team announced the part-time #13 will expand to see out the remainder of the year with Timmy Hill, Chad Finchum, and Natalie Decker expected to make starts. Finchum is entered for Saturday’s Dover Motor Speedway event.

After years of fielding multiple entries, MBM downsized to a single-car stable in 2022 with the flagship #66 piloted by J.J. Yeley. Running the full season, he sits twenty-first in points after nine races with three top twenties and a best finish of eleventh at Atlanta.

Meanwhile, the #13 has come back for five races so far with Decker (Talladega), Finchum (Atlanta and Martinsville), and Stan Mullis (Las Vegas and Phoenix). However, the car failed to qualify for each. To give the car some help in qualifying, MBM has purchased owner points from RSS Racing‘s #28.

Others like Takuma Koga and John Jackson have also been expected to be part of the roster, though specific starts were not revealed.

The team posted on Facebook, “MBM Motorsports is excited to announce that the MBM #13 is back for the balance of the 2022 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule! We are also proud to announce that Timmy Hill will be back in the seat for some upcoming events!!! Chad Finchum will be in the 13 this weekend at Dover Motor Speedway in the UNITS Moving & Portable Storage / Garrison Homes Toyota and then Timmy Hill will be behind the wheel at Darlington Raceway, Texas Motor Speedway, and at Charlotte Motor Speedway!! Natalie Decker will also be driving the MBM #13 at Nashville Superspeedway! More info will be coming soon!!”

NASCAR Xfinity Series team JR Motorsports is closely connected to Cup Series operation Hendrick Motorsports, for whom JRM owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. drove while HMS leader Rick Hendrick has a stake in JRM. To further consummate the relationship, JRM will field the #88 Chevrolet Camaro in five Xfinity races for Hendrick drivers William Byron, Chase Elliott, and Kyle Larson.

Elliott will be the first to race as the Cup points leader enters the Darlington Raceway event on 7 May. Byron and Larson have two starts apiece as the former races at Texas Motor Speedway (21 May) and New Hampshire Motor Speedway (16 July), while the latter is in at Watkins Glen International (20 August) and the second Darlington race (3 September). HendrickCars.com, which is run by the Hendrick Automotive Group and sponsors Larson’s #5 Cup car, will appear on the #88 for each date.

“The NASCAR platform has been instrumental in helping us build HendrickCars.com into a national brand, and we look forward to continuing that momentum through this expanded effort,” commented Hendrick Automotive Group president Greg Gach. “We are committed to our racing programmes and supporting our Hendrick Motorsports teammates whenever we can, and we know these additional races will benefit our drivers and teams. We’re also excited to work with Dale Jr. on this opportunity. He’s a terrific partner whose dealerships have created tremendous value for our General Motors customers. It’s a win-win for everyone.”

Byron and Elliott are former Xfinity champions, respectively winning the titles as rookies in 2017 and 2014 for JRM. Since winning four races and the championship in his lone season before moving up to the Cup Series, Byron has not raced in the Xfinity Series since. A five-time Xfinity race winner who won at Darlington in 2014, Elliott last raced in the series at Indianapolis last year as an injury replacement for Michael Annett.

Larson, the reigning Cup champ who has twelve Xfinity victories, made his most recent start in 2018 at Bristol, an event he ultimately won. Unlike his peers, he has never raced for JRM in the Xfinity Series though he finished seventh in a Camping World Truck Series one-off with the organisation in 2015.

Scuderia Ferrari will not be remembering the 2022 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in a hurry, as Charles Leclerc finished sixth after spinning out of third late on and Carlos Sainz Jr retired from the race on the first-lap.

The Tifosi would’ve gone to the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix with high hopes, after Ferrari’s impressive start to the season, unfortunately Imola would turn out to be the team’s worst result of the season so far. Both Leclerc and Sainz were slow off the line, resulting in both losing places. Sainz’ race was quickly over though, after being spun round by Daniel Ricciardo accidently at Turn Two on the first-lap, resulting in the Spaniard’s F1-75 becoming beached in the gravel.

Leclerc managed to recover to third after his own poor start and was involved in a great battle with Sergio Pérez, until the Monegasque driver got too greedy late on at the Variante Alta Chicane. Leclerc took too much kerb after entering the chicane at a much higher speed than usual and as a result span into the barrier, breaking his front-wing. After making a late stop to replace the front-wing, the Championship leader did well to recover from the foot of the points to sixth.

Ferrari Team Principal, Mattia Binotto, was understandably very disappointed with his driver’s results, especially at their home Grand Prix.

“Of course we are disappointed as we wanted a better result than this in front of all our fans. It was a difficult race. Our drivers did not get perfect starts, possibly being on the worse side of the track. Charles’ first pit stop was not the best either, which meant he was back out on track without the gap that might have allowed him to fend off Perez and then he made a mistake trying to overtake him.

It was the worst home Grand Prix possible for Scuderia Ferrari, with Charles Leclerc finishing sixth after spinning out of third late-on, and with Carlos Sainz Jr retiring on the opening lap after colliding with Daniel Ricciardo at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari Circuit.

Leclerc’s race got off to the worst possible start, after dropping to fourth on the opening lap after a poor getaway from the lights. The Monegasque driver was quickly up to third though and right behind Sergio Pérez. Leclerc managed to successfully overcut the Mexican, when changing from Intermediate to Medium tyres but quickly found himself back behind the Mexican who had much better grip.

In front of the team’s home crowd, Leclerc gave it his all to take second off of Pérez, however the Monegasque driver went over the limit. Leclerc span late-on at the Variante Alta chicane, after carrying too much speed and taking far too much kerb. Leclerc’s spin saw him hit the barrier and break his front-wing, resulting in a late unnecessary pit-stop. This dropped Leclerc almost to the foot of the points places, the Championship leader did well though to recover back to sixth.

Leclerc saw his championship lead reduce, after rival Max Verstappen claimed an easy victory. Leclerc knows he should’ve remained in third but is determined to come back stronger following his mistake.

“It was a very tricky race. Third was the best result we could have secured today, as our competitors were very strong. I struggled on the Soft tyres but when I saw an opportunity to overtake Perez for second, I went for it, pushing a bit too much, when I should have stayed put to secure those points. We will analyse all the data and come back stronger.“

The Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN took home an impressive twelve points from the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, all courtesy of Valtteri Bottas who performed brilliantly in both the Sprint race on Saturday and the main race on Sunday, at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari Circuit.

Bottas performed strongly during the race and recovered well following a slow pit-stop, the Finnish driver was so close to finishing fourth after closing George Russell down in the closing stages but had to settle for fifth at Imola.

Guanyu Zhou had an uneventful race, which after crashing out of the Sprint race, may not have been the worst thing that the rookie could’ve experienced as he gained plenty of valuable data. Zhou finished the race in fifteenth place, having started from the pit-lane.

Alfa Romeo Team Principal, Frédéric Vasseur, was very happy with the team’s overall performance but was especially pleased to see the upgrades they brought to the weekend working well.

“It has been a strong weekend from the team and to bring home 12 points between yesterday and today is a deserved reward. We delivered upgrades that worked well, a brilliant job by the team at home, and the crew were incredible both on Friday and Saturday night, with two rebuild jobs they undertook with strong spirit.

Valtteri Bottas signing for Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN, continues to look like the best driver transfer for this season, after the Finnish driver crossed the line in an impressive fifth-place at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. Team-mate Guanyu Zhou finished a disappointing fifteenth at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari Circuit.

Bottas made an electric start and was challenging the top-five by the first corner, he did brilliantly though to avoid an early retirement after Carlos Sainz Jr and Daniel Ricciardo collided directly ahead of him at Tamburello. The nose of Bottas’ C42 was clearly scuffed, however the Finnish driver soldiered on. He was unfortunate however to suffer an incredibly slow pit-stop whilst changing from Intermediate, to Medium tyres.

This dropped Bottas back a few places, although it didn’t take him long to make his way back up to sixth. Sixth became fifth when Charles Leclerc span up ahead late on, it was actually almost fourth for Bottas who closed George Russell down rapidly late-on but to no avail.

Considering his race could’ve ended within the first twenty-seconds, fifth was a stellar job by Bottas who was pleased to see the upgrades the team brought to the weekend working well.

“It was a fun race for me today! It’s always good to get points, we had a strong race in a car that felt really good. I am happy with how everything went, even though we lost a bit of time in the pit-stop, but we bring home ten points today so we’ll take it. I had a bit of a scare at the beginning of the race, when I couldn’t avoid Ricciardo when he tangled with Sainz, but luckily we didn’t have any damage.

The Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team, suffered a very mixed Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, with George Russell salvaging an incredible fourth-place finish, whilst Lewis Hamilton languished in thirteenth.

Russell drove superbly in the changing conditions at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari Circuit to bring home a solid fourth-place, despite starting just outside the top ten. Hamilton on the other hand didn’t recover from a poor Qualifying and Sprint race quite as well, after being stuck in a DRS train behind Pierre Gasly virtually the entire race.

Hamilton failed to make the sort of progress through the field that Russell did early on, leaving him stuck in a queue of cars. The Seven-Time World Champion’s race was also massively hindered after being hit in the pit-lane by Esteban Ocon, after the Frenchman was released unsafely. Incident aside though the story remains perfectly clear at Mercedes, the drivers don’t have a car capable of fighting for the championship.

Team Principal Toto Wolff was full of praise for Russell after the race, whilst acknowledging the team hasn’t produced a car “worthy of a World Champion” like Hamilton.

“What is clear from the entire weekend is that we have work to do to deliver our drivers a quick enough car. We saw with George what our car can do in clear air but it’s still not good enough. We missed out on adjusting George’s front flap at the pit stop due to an issue which meant he had a car that was setup for wet for the majority of the race so a great drive from him to hold on the P4 at the end.

Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team’s, George Russell, continued his streak of top five finishes with a fourth-place result at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. Having started from eleventh place, Russell’s great start in the wet saw him move up to fifth within the race’s opening stages. With Charles Leclerc spinning off the track late in the race, he was promoted to fourth and defended the position against Valtteri Bottas until the checkered flag.

The British driver was pleased with the result, but felt that some luck was involved– likely related to the incidents and retirements that benefitted his position– and that there is still a lot of performance to be found.

“I’m relatively pleased to maximise the points available this weekend. Whether we’re getting the most out of the car is a different story and I do think things have fallen slightly in our favour with these first four races.

“I’m really happy with this P4, but if we want to sustain this position in the championship, we need to find more pace. We’ve got these overall limitations with the car with the bouncing, and we know that we are struggling with the tyre warm up and this is the coldest race weekend we’ve had by far this year.” 

A pattern Russell has noticed since the beginning of the season is the impact on temperature on the performance of Mercedes and their competitors. When it comes to Qualifying, the colder temperatures have hindered Mercedes’ abilities, while other mid-field contenders have fared better. 

Davey Hamilton Jr. will continue to have the radioactive warning symbol of Go Fast Take Chances adorned on his Stadium Super Truck for the rest of the 2022 season. The lifestyle apparel brand was one of his primary sponsors alongside Thin Energy Complete for the opening weekend at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach in early April.

Hamilton posted on social media on Friday, “Happy to announce after a solid weekend at the Long Beach Grand Prix, Go Fast Take Chances decided to extend their partnership with me personally for the remainder of the 2022 season! I am super thankful to continue to represent the lifestyle brand on and off the track!”

The son of former IndyCar driver Davey Hamilton, the younger Hamilton has committed to the full 2022 SST season after making spot starts in 2017 and 2018. Returning to racing after pausing his career for two years to focus on personal matters, he finished eighth in both Long Beach races. After being involved in a spin following contact with Matt Brabham in Race #1, he took advantage of pole-sitter Ryan Arciero going around early in Race #2 to lead much of the first half. Hamilton livestreamed both races from his cockpit on Facebook.

Outside of SST, Hamilton also races in asphalt sprint car racing, winning his father’s King of the Wing championship in 2016 and currently driving in series like the USAC Silver Crown. He has aspirations of competing in the NTT IndyCar Series like his father, and made three Indy Lights starts in 2016 and 2018. Off the track, he runs various businesses and is a mental health advocate.

GFTC sells apparel such as t-shirts and hats intended to celebrate what the company calls a “passion for speed, sports, and irreverence towards mortality”.

Matt Hirschman won the Spring Sizzler at Stafford Motor Speedway on Sunday, which has earned him a chance to compete with the Superstar Racing Experience when the series heads to the Connecticut short track on 2 July.

Hirschman, who joins 2005 winner Tony Hirschman as the only father/son duo to win the modified race, held off NASCAR Cup Series regular and Whelen Modified Tour champion Ryan Preece for the win. The Sizzler, which serves as Stafford’s marquee event, was promoted by the speedway as offering an SRX ride to whomever wins.

The thirty-nine-year old is a Modified Tour veteran, finishing second in the 2008 standings and recording five wins across sixteen years. He also has two starts in what is now the ARCA Menards Series East in 2008. Although he has not climbed the stock car racing ladder beyond both levels, he is content in grassroots modifieds as a multi-time champion of the Tri-Track Open Modified Series. Nevertheless, the SRX entry will give him a larger platform to showcase his abilities in front of a national audience, as was the case for Modified Tour great Doug Coby who won the inaugural SRX race in 2021 at Stafford.

“The win and you’re in thing for the SRX is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I just couldn’t pass up this chance,” Hirschman said.

Other SRX tracks are also getting their local track stars involved through their own methods. Five Flags Speedway (18 June) will have a car for Bubba Pollard, who recorded the best average finish across the PepperJack Kennels Twins on 8/9 April, while the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway‘s (9 July) guest driver will be determined via fan vote.

The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix ended with mixed results for the McLaren F1 Team, as Lando Norris took third-place with an impressive performance from start to finish and Daniel Ricciardo saw his opportunity for points slip away after a first-lap incident with Carlos Sainz Jr. McLaren Team Principal Andreas Seidl, praised the efforts of both drivers for their performances on Sunday. 

“P3 for Lando today comes as the result of hard work and a well-managed strategy. He drove a great race today. After a good start, he worked very hard, looked after his tyres, managed the gap to the cars we were racing and put himself in the best position to take advantage of any opportunity that came his way.

“Unfortunately Daniel had a first lap collision with Carlos [Sainz] which damaged the car and his race was pretty much over, but he was able to provide useful information to the team to maximise our result.”

Seidl said that McLaren’s running in rainy Imola revealed MCL36’s capabilities further. Though optimistic about the team’s potential moving forward, he is aware of the work that still needs to be done to “close the gap”. 

“The performance we saw this weekend on a different track and in a variety of conditions confirms the potential of the MCL36 that we have been unlocking race by race. That said, we remain realistic about the work we have to do to close the gap to the front of the field. Also our pit-crew again delivered good pitstops.”