Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Dani Pedrosa has officially traded in two wheels for four. On Tuesday, FFF Racing Team announced the longtime MotoGP rider will make his car racing début in 2022 as he enters Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe for the organisation. FIA World Endurance Championship LMP2 regular Antonin Borga will serve as his team-mate.

“We are very happy that Dani has decided to start his new career on four wheels with our team and with Lamborghini,” said FFF manager Giorgio Ferro. “His professional and competitive approach will surely allow him to face this new challenge in the best possible way, supported by the expert Antonin and assisted by Vitantonio Liuzzi‘s advice as coach. It will be great to share, together with our partners, this new chapter of his sporting life. We welcome Dani and Antonin in the Orange1 FFF Racing family, sure that we will live together an amazing season.”

A longtime fan favourite on the circuit with Honda, Pedrosa retired from MotoGP after the 2018 season. From 2006 to 2018, he won thirty-one races, notched 112 podiums, and finished runner-up in the championship thrice in 2007, 2010, and 2012. Before graduating to MotoGP, he won three straight championships in the 125cc and 250cc classes, the latter seeing two such titles.

Although he would not race in MotoGP over in the three years following his retirement, he remained involved as a test rider for KTM. He returned to the sport in 2021 at the Styrian Grand Prix as a wild-card entry for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, finishing tenth despite being involved in a fiery wreck with Lorenzo Savadori.

Pedrosa and Borga recently tested with FFF at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. The former is not the only MotoGP veteran to recently move to sports car racing, let alone in GT, as Valentino Rossi is competing in the GT World Challenge Europe for W Racing Team.

Bubba Wallace will return to the team with whom he began his NASCAR Xfinity Series career. On Tuesday, 23XI Racing announced he will drive the #18 Toyota GR Supra of Joe Gibbs Racing at Circuit of the Americas on 26 March and Indianapolis Motor Speedway on 30 July. Both road course starts are intended to give him more track time ahead of his primary competition in the Cup Series races the next day. Dr Pepper, a sponsor of 23XI, will join him at JGR.

During his years in Toyota’s driver development programme, Wallace made his Xfinity début in 2012 with JGR, scoring top tens in two tries at Iowa. He did not race in 2013 as he focused on the Camping World Truck Series before making two more starts at Talladega and Daytona, with another top ten at the latter. He departed Toyota for Ford in 2015 and raced full-time in the Xfinity Series between 2015 and early 2017 with what is now RFK Racing.

He permanently moved up to the Cup Series in 2018. Wallace would not return to Xfinity until the 2021 Michigan race for Hattori Racing Enterprises, where he placed tenth. In eighty-six career Xfinity starts, he has six top fives, thirty-six top tens, and two poles.

“I’m looking forward to partnering back up with Joe Gibbs Racing in the Xfinity Series after making my first career start in NASCAR with them about ten years ago,” said Wallace. “The #18 Toyota GR Supra team is always strong and I’m excited to be competing with them at COTA and Indianapolis. Thanks to the team at 23XI and Toyota for helping to make this happen and thanks to Dr Pepper for coming on board for the race at COTA.”

Now in his second Cup season with 23XI, Wallace sits eighteenth in points after five races with a runner-up finish in the Daytona 500. He was in race win contention for much of Sunday’s Atlanta event before last-lap incidents resulted in a thirteenth-place run.

Anyone for bread?

Brad Perez is a beloved figure on social media and in the garage, working as both a crewman and driving sports cars while being a fan favourite online. Now, he will get a shot in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series as he enters Saturday’s XPEL 225 at Circuit of the Americas. He will drive the #43 Chevrolet Silverado RST for Reaume Brothers Racing.

“I’m very grateful to have this opportunity to make my first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series start,” said Perez. “I’ve been a fan of this series for decades and have been lucky enough to work with several teams in recent years, but to have the chance to race a NASCAR Camping World Series truck is a dream come true.”

Off the track, Perez works as a tyre specialist for NASCAR teams like Rackley WAR as well as various odd jobs to fund his career, whether it be a shift manager at a frozen yoghurt shop or even wheeling patients at a hospital. On the track, he primarily drives a Mazda MX-5 Miata in Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) Spec Miata events.

In 2021, Perez began dabbling in stock cars when he was tabbed as a road course ringer for the ARCA Menards Series race at Watkins Glen. Piloting the #60 Josh Williams Motorsports entry owned by Xfinity Series driver Josh Williams and sponsored by Rackley Roofing run by Rackley WAR’s co-owner, he retired with a brake failure and was classified twenty-fourth.

As the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series heads to Austin, Texas for the XPEL 225 at Circuit of the Americas, AM Racing will have a pair of hometown drivers in its ranks. Joining the full-time #22 Chevrolet Silverado RST driven by Austin native Austin Wayne Self will be a newly formed #37 piloted by fellow Austinite Logan Bearden. The #37 will run a limited schedule in 2022 with multiple drivers including Bearden, who becomes a full-time employee of the team.

“I’ve been friends with Austin for a long time and now to have the opportunity to be his teammate at our hometown track is really a great and unique opportunity,” said Bearden. “AM Racing has been steadily enhancing their programme over the past year and now to have the chance to be part of helping them expand to a second programme is incredibly humbling.

“With COTA being a hometown race, it certainly puts the pressure on, but I know that the AM Racing team is bringing me a very competitive truck and I look forward to having a successful NASCAR Camping World Truck Series début on Saturday.”

Bearden is a super late model racer who primarily competes in the SRL Southwest Tour Series. He tried to make his Truck début at COTA in 2021 for Niece Motorsports but missed the show. While his late model experience is mainly on oval short tracks, he was not unfamiliar with road racing or COTA prior to his 2021 attempt.

AM Racing has fielded the #22 for Self, whose father Tim owns the team, since 2016. He has enjoyed a strong start to the 2022 season with top-ten finishes in two of three races and is currently seventh in points.

For the past two seasons, the Haas F1 Team have been circling around the back of the pack in Formula 1, with last year seeing them end without a point for the first time in their history.

All focus in 2021 was on developing the 2022 car, and Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin were often left fighting over who would finish last.  However, the plan to put all the development into the VF-22 rather than the VF-21 has already begun to pay off in the opening round of this season.

Following Mazepin’s departure from the team, Kevin Magnussen had been tasked at driving the VF-22 alongside Schumacher, with the Dane returning to Formula 1 after a year away racing sportscars. And what a return it was!

Magnussen qualified inside the top ten for the Bahrain Grand Prix, the first time since 2019 that Haas had achieved that feat, and he followed that up with a strong race performance.  He was running seventh going into the final few laps and was then promoted to an excellent fifth after both the Oracle Red Bull Racing drivers were forced into retirement with mechanical issues.

Schumacher finished agonisingly just outside the points in eleventh but was running for much of the day with damage caused by contact on lap one from BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon, but both Haas cars had a lot more pace than many were expecting them to have going into the weekend.

Two weeks ago, Kevin Magnussen was planning for a second season racing in sportscars, but a last-minute call-up to the Haas F1 Team after Nikita Mazepin was released from his contract saw him return to the grid – and now he has a fifth-place finish in his first race back!

The Dane was one of the stars of the weekend at the Bahrain International Circuit and ensured Haas scored their first points since Romain Grosjean scored a ninth-place finish in the 2020 Eifel Grand Prix, while Magnussen scored his first points since that years’ Hungarian Grand Prix.

Magnussen admitted it has been a crazy start to his second spell with Haas as he showed that the team has developed a strong car in the VF-22, and it was pleasing to be able to be best of the rest behind the leading three teams all weekend. 

However, he did admit to having some luck to move up from seventh to fifth in the final few laps after the late race retirements of both Oracle Red Bull Racing drivers.

“The craziness just continues,” said Magnussen. “We had a really good race and the car was good all the way through.

Christian Horner admitted the result of the Bahrain Grand Prix was disappointing for Oracle Red Bull Racing after the team saw both Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez retire in the final few laps whilst on course for big points.

Verstappen was embroiled in a near-race long battle for the lead with eventual race winner Charles Leclerc, but a fuel problem forced him to retire with just three laps remaining, leaving him pointless in his first race as defending World Champion.

Pérez dropped a couple of positions at the start but was able to regain fourth after repassing both Kevin Magnussen and Lewis Hamilton, and the Mexican was keeping Carlos Sainz Jr. honest in the battle for the final spot on the podium.  It looked as though he would inherit third thanks to his team-mate’s retirement, but he too was forced out with a technical issue, his engine cutting out as he went around turn one on the final lap, pitching him into a spin.

Horner, the Team Principal at Red Bull, says the team will look deeply into the issues that cost the team a potential thirty points in the Constructors’ Championship and allowed Scuderia Ferrari a one-two finish at the Bahrain International Circuit.

“Obviously we are hugely disappointed to lose the chance of podium finishes today, but congratulations to Ferrari on their one, two finish and a return to the front,” said Horner. 

Come the end of the 2022 season, the Oracle Red Bull Racing team will perhaps look back at the Bahrain Grand Prix with pain after both Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez retired in the closing laps whilst on course for top four finishes.

Verstappen was running a strong second and was fighting with eventual race winner Charles Leclerc for much of the day, but his RB18 developed a number of problems including issues with his brakes and steering, before a fuel problem ended his race with just three laps to go.

The reigning World Champion was naturally disappointed with the result at the Bahrain International Circuit, but he knows there are plenty of races to go across the season to recover the eighteen points he lost.

“We were feeling quite competitive throughout the weekend so the result today was very unfortunate for us,” said Verstappen.  “The problems started initially with the brakes, they were overheating so I had to lift off and as a result I lost pace and had to let Charles go.

“After that, there were still a few issues with car balance and after my final pit stop my steering wheel was locked. That made it very difficult to drive so defending from Carlos at the re-start wasn’t easy.

Gran Turismo has been a part of the gaming and automotive consciousness for 25 years. From the first title that was released on the original Playstation, through quirky releases such as Tokyo Geneva, all the way to GT Sport; Gran Turismo has been one of the defining racing games of the 21st century. 4 years on from GT Sport, Polyphony Digital have released their first full fat numbered outing on Playstation 5 to a lot of hype. Can GT7 execute a perfect race or will it mess up a crucial pit-stop that costs them win?

First lets talk about the graphics of the game. When you first load the game, you can choose whether to use ‘Performance’ mode or ‘Ray Tracing’ mode. The performance mode gives you a buttery smooth 60fps to experience the game through whilst ray tracing will mean you see drops in intense situations like rain or some pack racing but the imagery is beautiful. The performance mode is no slouch though, driving through the hills of Trial Mountain while the sun is setting looks absolutely gorgeous to the point I forgot to brake at the end of the back straight because I was admiring the view.

The cars are very well modeled but the approach by the team has been slightly different. Instead of increasing the amount of polygons that are used to make each car by a momentous amount over GT Sport, they increased the resolution and details that are on the car. Zoom in on a car’s rear tail lamps and you can see the imperfections in the glass as well as small fixings that hold it together. The best compromise I found to get the best version of this game looks wise, was to use performance mode as a default then switch to ray tracing if I wanted to view replays or utilise the fantastic Scapes mode.

Onto how the game actually handles. I have been playing this game for 20+ hours with a pad as my primary input, and I have to say that the Dual Sense controller has left me staggered. The haptic feedback system that the controller has, allows the user to feel each imperfection in the road to a level of detail I have never experienced with a controller. The braking trigger is stiffened to give the sense of hydraulic braking although I did end up turning this off due to long play times meaning I got cramp in my left hand. If you are not able to experience this game with a wheel like me, then this makes that feeling of missing out a lot less.

The actual physics of the cars though is a contentious point. For me some cars such as the Ford Mustang GT350 can break traction suddenly without giving the player a chance to catch the slide. I have mainly found this in the higher powered rear drive road cars where as the machines running 4 wheel drive are a lot easier and more composed around a corner. Experiencing front wheel drive is exactly like you’d expect, the car understeers and you can feel the tyres scrubbing across the surface of the track.

ART Grand Prix’s Théo Pourchaire was victorious in the first Feature Race of the 2022 FIA Formula 2 season at the Bahrain International Circuit.

The Frenchman led Carlin’s Liam Lawson who took his second podium of the weekend with Hitech Grand Prix’s Jüri Vips completing the podium.

The Estonian driver looked to be unbeatable after taking the lead at turn one and stretching out a comfortable lead on the rest of the grid. However, when it came to the pit-stops, a mistake from the pit crew saw him tumble down the order.

Pole-sitter Jack Doohan struggled when the five lights went out, dropping down to third place after suffering from a touch of wheel-spin. He looked to benefit from Vips’ pit-stop mishap but on leaving the pits himself, the Australian made contact with Pourchaire which ended with wing damage followed by another trip to the pits.

Campos Racing’s Ralph Boschung had another lightning fast start, jumping up to second place before the Safety Car was called out due to Frederick Vesti stopping on track at turn one.

Josef Newgarden led just three laps in Sunday’s NTT IndyCar Series XPEL 375 at Texas Motor Speedway while Team Penske colleague Scott McLaughlin was the star of the show, but only one of them donned the victory cowboy hat when it was all over. A daring last-corner pass by Newgarden on McLaughlin’s outside as they approached the finish clinched Newgarden’s second victory at Texas.

The win was a strong rebound for Newgarden, who finished an abysmal sixteenth in the St. Petersburg season opener after his pit strategy blew up in his face while McLaughlin stormed off to victory. The 2019 Texas winner and 2020 pole sitter started Sunday’s race in seventh while Felix Rosenqvist began the day in first.

However, despite running in the top five to start, Rosenqvist’s second career pole failed to result in success as McLaughlin dominated the early stages while the Swede retired after 158 laps with a mechanical issue. It was a difficult Sunday for Arrow McLaren SP as Rosenqvist’s partner Pato O’Ward fell off the pace following the first pit cycle before finishing fifteenth; McLaren’s Formula One arm also struggled in Bahrain as both of its drivers had an especially poor non-points showing.

Misfortunes also plagued Andretti Autosport almost as soon as the race began. Alexander Rossi was black-flagged for jumping the start before suffering an electrical failure and finishing last for his third consecutive retirement at Texas. Mechanical gremlins also claimed Romain Grosjean while Devlin DeFrancesco was knocked out on lap 129 after making an aggressive move on Hélio Castroneves and Graham Rahal that also eliminated them; DeFrancesco was also responsible for an overtake attempt on Takuma Sato that sent the Japanese driver into the wall. By the end of the day, nine drivers had retired, the most at Texas since thirteen failed to finish in 2017.

At the front, McLaughlin continued to put on a show as he led 186 of 248 laps. Newgarden found himself overwhelmed by the leaders but remained in contention as lapped traffic helped keep the margin close. Newgarden eventually caught McLaughlin before making his move on the final lap, finding a run on the outside line as they went through turns three and four which enabled Newgarden to pull ahead and win by .067 seconds.

After decades of being an intermediate track, Atlanta Motor Speedway is now an oddity on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule: it is still an intermediate circuit length-wise at 1.5 miles, but its greatly elevated 28-degree banking—the result of an offseason reconfiguration project—has transformed it into a superspeedway. William Byron, whose first career Cup win came at a superspeedway (Daytona in 2020), is the first premier series winner on the new layout after holding off a late scramble by the field.

A rainout placed Phoenix winner Chase Briscoe on the pole while Harrison Burton was sent to the rear for two failed pre-race inspections.

Stages #1 and 2

Briscoe and Kyle Busch led the early laps before Noah Gragson crashed to bring out the first caution on lap 24. Ross Chastain became the leader on the ensuing restart and continued to lead through the lap 45 competition caution before being responsible for one himself when his right-rear tyre went down and sent him into the wall on lap 94.

The first stage ended under another yellow flag when a larger wreck occurred on lap 100, triggered by Austin Dillon getting clipped by Busch on the tri-oval and collecting Briscoe and Ty Dillon; both Dillon brothers retired from a Cup race for the first time since the 2017 Bristol Night Race. Byron was the leader when the crash happened and therefore received the stage win, with Denny Hamlin, Daniel Suárez, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Erik Jones, Kurt Busch, Alex Bowman, Kyle Larson, Tyler Reddick, and Austin Cindric behind him.

The second stage commenced with Christopher Bell leading Cindric, though Kevin Harvick passed him for first on lap 122. Owing to the more superspeedway nature of the new course, the lead traded hands multiple times as Martin Truex Jr., Joey Logano, Kurt Busch, Justin Haley, Stenhouse, and Byron worked their way to the front with drafting help.

It was a season-opener full of magic for Scuderia Ferrari, after Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr secured a famous 1-2 at the Bahrain Grand Prix, Ferrari’s first 1-2 since the 2019 Singapore Grand Prix!

Ferrari are a serious title contender this season, after an unbelievable performance at the Bahrain International Circuit where the F1-75 proved it could handle it with the very best on the grid. Leclerc who started on pole, dominated virtually the entire race, apart from having a brilliant battle with Max Verstappen after each drivers opening pit-stop.

Verstappen went for the undercut and almost made it work, had it not been for a brilliant defensive and attacking masterclass by the Ferrari driver. Other than that it was a comfortable third career victory for Leclerc. The Monegasque driver didn’t even have to worry about Verstappen when the race’s late Safety Car peeled away, after the Oracle Red Bull Racing driver suffered multiple sudden race-ending reliability issues. The Safety Car was brought out after Pierre Gasly came to a halt.

This in itself allowed Leclerc an easy drive to victory and allowed Sainz Jr, who ran almost the entire race in third, an easy route up to second place. Leclerc’s victory took Ferrari’s tally up to 239, with Sainz Jr’s second place making it 85, 1-2 finishes for the famous team.

Ferrari Team Principal, Mattia Binotto, was incredibly emotional after the race, Binotto went up onto the podium himself to collect the Constructors’ Trophy.

Charles Leclerc took Scuderia Ferrari back to where they belong, on the top step of the podium, after winning the season opening Bahrain Grand Prix with team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr making it a Ferrari 1-2 at the Bahrain International Circuit.

Leclerc has cemented his place as a serious championship contender, after a dominant display under the lights in Bahrain, the Monegasque driver controlled the entire race and when needed to battled Max Verstappen superbly. Leclerc made an excellent start from pole and was instantly in control of the race, this all changed though after the first round of stops, where Verstappen who went for the undercut was right behind the Ferrari driver.

The pair battled brilliantly for several laps, something which we will certainly be seeing a lot more of this season. Leclerc held on beautifully though and got back into complete control of the race, opening up a reasonable gap in the process. This gap disintegrated however when a late Safety Car was brought out due to a fiery Scuderia AlphaTauri. Pierre Gasly grinded to a halt on the exit of Turn 3, with his AT03 quickly going up in flames.

Leclerc would’ve been concerned about having Verstappen right on his gearbox all over again, however he had no reason to fear, the World Champion was forced into retirement just as Leclerc was about to restart the race. The Dutchman suffered multiple reliability issues at the exact same time, ending his hopes of victory.

It meant Leclerc was able to comfortably countdown the remaining laps to claim his third career victory, and his first perfect weekend, after claiming pole position, victory and the fastest lap.

Despite struggling for pace all weekend at the season opening Bahrain Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton managed to capitalise on Oracle Red Bull Racing’s woes and salvage an unexpected third place. Team-mate George Russell finished right behind in fourth at the Bahrain International Circuit.

Hamilton who started fifth, made an excellent start and was quickly in fourth ahead of Sergio Pérez, it wasn’t long though until the Mexican was back past and driving off into the distance. Hamilton’s race quickly became a lonely one, after using the hard compound for his second stint, both Hamilton and Russell struggled with tyre degradation.

Just when it was beginning to look like a fifth place finish for Hamilton, Pierre Gasly’s Scuderia AlphaTauri went up in flames, bringing out a late Safety Car. This kicked-off a plethora of late drama, with Max Verstappen retiring straight from the Safety Car restart with a reliability issue, before Pérez spun on the final lap again down to a fault with the car.

It all meant that despite being well off the leading pace, Hamilton clinched yet another podium and the first for the W13.

Hamilton couldn’t believe he was on the podium with the Scuderia Ferrari duo; Charles Leclerc won the race ahead of Carlos Sainz Jr, but believes that soon enough he will be back fighting for victories.