Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

For the first time in its history, the Race of Champions took place on a snow/ice track. Also for the first time, a father/son duo won the Nations Cup.

Saturday’s battle of the nationalities in Sweden saw the triumph of a fellow Nordic team as Team Norway‘s Petter Solberg and his son Oliver Solberg took victory in the Nations Cup. The two defeated Team USA‘s Jimmie Johnson and Colton Herta in the final. Petter beat Johnson after the latter’s Polaris RZR PRO XP suffered mechanical trouble, followed by Oliver triumphing over Herta; although Johnson was able to get a win against Oliver, the older Solberg finished the deal by beating Herta for the 3–1 series win. The win is Petter’s second in the Nations Cup after claiming the 2014 Cup for Team Nordic alongside Tom Kristensen, while Oliver wins in his maiden ROC.

“I got my motivation when I saw Sébastien Loeb winning the Monte Carlo Rally last month and I thought, ‘It can’t be so difficult,'” commented Petter. “I was so ready for this race, and to do it together with Oliver is a big dream.

“The Race of Champions has been so special for many years. It’s so much fun to be with all these guys: everyone has had so much success in their careers yet they are so friendly. Oliver has been flying around like a yo-yo all week because he’s been so excited. When you are 20, that’s how it is.”

Team USA, which featured an all-IndyCar lineup, kicked off the Nations Cup by edging out another IndyCar driver in Hélio Castroneves and his Latin American team-mate Benito Guerra Jr.; the teams split the series 2–2, but USA had the faster overall time. Johnson, a seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion with off-road experience in his early career, and Herta then took down fan favourite Team Germany‘s Formula One duo Sebastian Vettel and Mick Schumacher in the same fashion in the quarter-final. Germany had advanced after staving off a challenge from Team eROC All Stars‘ Lucas Blakeley and Jarno Opmeer, the former beating Vettel in a stunning upset but it was not enough to pull off the victory as they fell 3–1.

Lewis Hamilton has returned to social media for the first time since the controversial Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, where what would’ve been an Eighth Driver’s Title was taken from him in dramatic fashion.

There had been a growing fear that the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team driver would not be returning for 2022, however this rumour appears to be completely false. Mercedes still haven’t officially announced if Hamilton will be returning, it’s safe to say though that the Seven-Time World Champion will be on the grid for the upcoming season based on his post.

The rumour of Hamilton not returning for 2022 was caused by the highly-debated season finale, with an F1 Commission meeting set to take place on the 14th February to discuss the events that took place at the Yas Marina Circuit, and more specifically the decisions made by Race Director Michael Masi.

Hamilton’s return to social media, featuring a photo of himself at the Grand Canyon, comes fifty-six days after his last post which was posted after Qualifying in Abu Dhabi. His social media return has already sent shockwaves across the globe, with all eyes now set on what will be an unmissable season-opener at Bahrain.

The previously named Aston Martin Cognizant F1 Team, have announced a brand-new partnership with global integrated energy and chemicals company Aramco, in what is a strategic long-term deal between the pair.

Aramco who were the United States Grand Prix official sponsor, as well as a key sponsor for Formula One, have partnered with Aston Martin to drive the development of highly efficient internal combustion engines, high-performance sustainable fuels, advanced lubricants and the deployment of non-metallic materials in vehicles. 

The deal between the two also gives Aramco official team sponsorship rights, a licensing agreement, as well as exclusive branding and endorsement rights for Aramco fuels and lubricants. The team will also now be known as the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team. The pair’s partnership will also include research and development into fuel-efficient engine technologies for road vehicles, and the development of more efficient hybrid engines in motorsport.

Chairman of the team Lawrence Stroll, is very pleased to be welcoming the Saudi Arabian oil giants onboard.

“We are in the sport to win so I am delighted to welcome an incredible partner of the stature of Aramco, who I have learnt from this process has a tremendous amount of intellectual property and technical capability, which I know will greatly assist our team to achieve our goals of winning Formula One world championships.

Rosberg X Racing aims to defend the Extreme E Championship in 2022, and the German team hopes to do so with a pair of Swedish drivers. On Friday, RXR announced Johan Kristoffersson will return to the team for the upcoming season, and will be paired with Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky.

Åhlin-Kottulinsky moves over from JBXE, where she was team-mates with owner Jenson Button and Kevin Hansen. The entry finished third in the team championship with four podiums and a pair of runner-up placements. Prior to the 2021 season, she assisted tyre supplier Continental Tire in testing the CrossContact for Extreme E cars.

She is the only woman to win races in the TCR Scandinavia Touring Car Championship, and she finished second in the championship in 2021. To end the 2021 season, Åhlin-Kottulinsky ran and won the Nitro Rallycross SxS (Side by Side) race at the Florida International Rally & Motorsports Park.

“I am incredibly honoured and excited to join RXR and support the team in defending their Championship title,” said Åhlin-Kottulinsky. “To have the chance to work with the winning team from Season 1 is truly a great opportunity, and I can’t wait to get started. I’m really looking forward to working and learning from Nico (Rosberg, team owner) and Johan, two world champions and drivers that I have huge respect for and admire for their incredible record behind the wheel.”

Two spots ahead of JBXE, RXR’s Kristoffersson and Molly Taylor scored three victories en route to the inaugural series championship. Kristoffersson’s 2021 also saw him win the World Rallycross Championship for a record fourth time.

For the 2022 Extreme E Championship, ABT CUPRA XE is bringing together a duo of Dakar Rally greats. In addition to retaining 2001 champion Jutta Kleinschmidt, the team added four-time winner Nasser Al-Attiyah who will make his series début.

Al-Attiyah is less than a month removed from winning his fourth Dakar, which put him in a tie with Ari Vatanen for the second most Car wins. Alongside his previous victories in 2001, 2015, and 2019, the Qatari is the only Middle Eastern driver with more than one win in the legendary rally raid. Beyond Dakar, he is a sixteen-time Middle East Rally Champion, four-time FIA Cross Country Rally World Champion, and has also won titles in WRC-2 and the Production World Rally Championships.

He replaces Mattias Ekström, who ran the full inaugural Extreme E season as ABT CUPRA’s male driver. Ekström competed against Al-Attiyah in the Cars category at Dakar, finishing ninth overall.

“I’m already a bit excited and believe that this will be a great experience for me,” said Al-Attiyah. “Extreme E is an exciting series with the ambition to contribute to a better future.

“I am proud to be a part of the team now. Expectations are high. With the experience of ABT CUPRA XE and Jutta by my side, we are determined to race for victories. I can’t wait to sit in the car and have fun.”

The M-Sport Ford World Rally Team continues its work to nurture new rally talents. Now they have revealed former Hyundai’s 2C Competition driver and 2019 WRC2 Champion Pierre-Louis Loubet will contest selected rounds in FIA World Rally Championship this year.

The Frenchman will drive seven round in the Ford Puma Rally1, starting in Croatia before taking on more rounds with Portugal, Sardinia, Estonia, Greece, Spain and probably Finland or a to be confirmed round.

“To be part of the team this year is so amazing. The team showed its performance on Monte-Carlo, the Puma looks like a beast, it’s really great,” Loubet said.

“When you are a driver, you want to be in the best car, you want the best possible way to show your potential which is what I need for this season. It’s a crucial season for me and, I know with M-Sport, I will have everything I need to do well.”

For M-Sport, this means a chance for more data and test days with another driver in the team. Taking part in full-season campaigns in the factory team are Craig Breen, Adrien Fourmaux and Gus Greensmith meanwhile current championship leader Sébastien Loeb, Lorenzo Bertelli and Loubet will be doing selected events.

New fan and replica team apparel is on the way from McLaren Racing and partner Castore. Announced today, the collection will mirror pieces from their all-new official team apparel, and is set to be released on mclarenstore.com on Friday 11 February. The range will be expanded throughout the 2022 season with additional items. 

Castore is a premium sportswear brand based in Liverpool, England that focuses on innovation and the optimisation of athletic performance. The brand has collaborated with several athletes and sporting organisations, and is partnering with McLaren ahead of the 2022 season.  

Castore Co-Founder Tom Beahon said of the partnership, “With an ethos of ‘Better Never Stops’, Castore was created to push the boundaries of technical sportswear and do what it takes to push athletes and teams forward. This ambition is clearly echoed by our partner McLaren Racing. F1 is the perfect place for Castore to showcase our beliefs and we are thrilled to be taking these bold next steps in automotive alongside a brand and partner that shares our demand for excellence and unwavering commitment to innovation.”

The collection will include driver fanwear shirts for both Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo, featuring corresponding LN4 and DR3 tags and team logo, as well as a fanwear hoody. The replica pieces will reflect the kits Norris and Ricciardo will wear during the upcoming season. 

McLaren Racing’s Director of Licensing, ecommerce & esports Lindsey Eckhouse said of the collection, “We’re delighted to be working with Castore to launch our new fanwear and replica team kit for the 2022 F1 season. Castore have truly embraced McLaren’s appreciation of bold and brave design, creating a range that we believe our fans are going to love.”

Winning races is a sure-fire way to get a good ride, and Christian Eckes proved that on Thursday when ThorSport Racing announced he will drive the #98 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro full-time in the 2022 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. AHI Facility Services will sponsor his truck for the season opener at Daytona International Speedway on 18 February.

After running the full 2020 Truck season for Kyle Busch Motorsports, Eckes was relegated to part-time duty in ThorSport’s #98 which he shared with Grant Enfinger. Running ten races, he broke through at Las Vegas’ Victoria’s Voice Foundation 200 where he scored his maiden series win. As Enfinger moves to GMS Racing for 2022, the #98 became open for Eckes’ taking.

“I am extremely excited to be back with ThorSport Racing and ready to kick the year off at Daytona with AHI Facility Services on the #98 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro,” said Eckes. “This is an amazing opportunity and I’m more than ready to show that I belong.”

Eckes began racing in the Trucks in 2018 on a part-time basis for KBM. At the time, he was mainly competing in the ARCA Menards Series, winning the 2019 championship for Venturini Motorsports.

His ThorSport team-mates include reigning champion Ben Rhodes and three-time champ Matt Crafton. The team has also fieded a fourth truck, the #13, that has not revealed a 2022 driver; Johnny Sauter drove the truck in 2021 but moves to G2G Racing for 2022.

Williams Racing have announced the exciting signing of 2021 GB3 Champion Zak O’Sullivan, who will not only be joining the team’s prestigious Driver Academy but will also be making the step up to the FIA Formula 3 Championship with Carlin for the upcoming season.

There is absolutely no doubt that Williams have signed a future star, O’Sullivan completely dominated GB3 in 2021, claiming seven victories and fourteen podiums on his way to taking the championship, an incredible 164 points ahead of his closest challenger. O’Sullivan who is only sixteen-years-old, has made it to the final four of the Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award, it’s easy to see why! The winner of the award which aims to find the best British junior drivers, will be announced this Sunday.

As part of the Williams Academy, O’Sullivan will spend plenty of time with the team both at the factory in Oxfordshire, where he will conduct simulator work, and also trackside with the team. Whilst at the factory O’Sullivan will also provide feedback towards developing the team’s Formula One car. Alongside this O’Sullivan will receive plenty of support across a range of areas, to help the young driver propel into stardom.

O’Sullivan feels incredibly grateful to have been chosen for such an illustrious position, where he is now very much looking forward to the future.

“I’m honoured to have been selected as a Williams Racing Academy Driver. This is an incredible opportunity and I can’t thank Jost, Sven and the whole team enough for their faith in me. Williams Racing is one of the most successful and respected teams in Formula One and have nurtured some of the greatest talents in the sport.

The Uralkali Haas F1 Team officially launched a brand-new era of Formula One into life, after unveiling the livery of their VF-22 for the upcoming season. The car itself isn’t believed to be the finished product, that will be seen for the first-time at the upcoming pre-season test at Barcelona.

The images released from the livery launch show just how drastically different the cars are for the 2022 season, after a haul of technical regulation changes. The images clearly show a much simpler front-wing but a dramatically shaped rear-wing. This season will also see brand-new 18-inch rims and low profile tyres from Pirelli, which are designed to reduce overheating, hopefully allowing drivers to push harder for significantly longer.

The livery itself is practically identical to the one Haas ran in 2021, with some very minor tweaks. The Haas and Uralkali logos are still the main features on the car, including the white, blue and red coloured stripe!

Haas are in desperate need of a good season after their shocking 2021 season, which they completely sacrificed in order to put as much time towards the 2022 car as possible. Should Haas continue to be at the back this season, then questions will surely begin to be asked. Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin will both be hopeful that this season will see them featuring consistently in the midfield.

Haas Team Principal Guenther Steiner is very excited to see what the VF-22 is capable of, with all expectations being that the team will return to the midfield this year.

For the first time since 2017, Kaz Grala will make substantial NASCAR Camping World Truck Series starts. On Thursday, Young’s Motorsports announced Grala will share the #02 Chevrolet Silverado RST with Jesse Little. Little will run twelve races while Grala has eleven.

The 2022 season will begin with Little running the season opener at Daytona International Speedway on 18 February. From there, he will race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Martinsville Speedway, Darlington Raceway, both Kansas Speedway races, Texas Motor Speedway, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Nashville Superspeedway, Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, Kansas Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway, and Phoenix Raceway.

Grala’s schedule kicks off at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on 4 March. He will then be in the #02 at Circuit of the Americas, Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt, World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, Sonoma Raceway, Knoxville Raceway, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Pocono Raceway, Richmond Raceway, Talladega Superspeedway, and Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Notably, Grala will be running every road course race and both dirt rounds. While he has no NASCAR dirt starts, he has proven himself to be a capable road racer: he finished seventh in his Cup Series début on the Daytona Road Course in 2020 as a substitute driver, while his best Xfinity Series finish is fourth at Road America that year. All three of his Truck starts in 2021, in Young’s #02, were as a road ringer while regular driver Kris Wright was running the Xfinity road courses. He finished runner-up to Todd Gilliland at COTA.

With Wright moving to Niece Motorsports for 2022, Young’s added Little and Grala to take his spot. Little moves to Young’s after spending the past two seasons in the Xfinity Series.

J.J. Yeley is back at the Daytona 500. On Thursday, MBM Motorsports announced Yeley will drive the #55 Ford Mustang with sponsorship from HEX.com and AXA Holdings.

MBM does not possess a charter, meaning he will have to record a fast qualifying time or race his way in through the Duel. If Yeley makes the race, it will be his seventh career 500 and first since 2015. His best finish in the Great American Race is tenth in 2013 for Tommy Baldwin Racing. Yeley’s last 500 attempt came in 2020 for Rick Ware Racing, where he missed the show.

He will be part of a two-car effort for MBM alongside the #66 for Timmy Hill. It is MBM’s third time fielding two cars in the 500. While the team has used #66 with Hill in all three tries, the second car has varied in numbers and drivers: the 2020 500 saw Chad Finchum miss the race in the #49, while Garrett Smithley did so in the #13 in 2021.

MBM has made two 500s. The first in 2018 came with Mark Thompson in the #66 where he finished twenty-second in his final NASCAR start; at the age of 66, he was the oldest driver to race a 500. Hill finished twenty-seventh in the other successful 500 qualification in 2020.

“We’re extremely excited to partner with MBM Motorsports, HEX.com and J.J. Yeley, all while bringing a new sponsor to the sport that’s cutting edge in the cryptocurrency space,” commented Malco Enterprises (owner of HEX) CEO Josh Maloney. “We look forward to working together to take on a very competitive field at Daytona.”

Derek Griffith will make the jump to the NASCAR Xfinity Series for “multiple races” in 2022. Sam Hunt Racing announced Wednesday that Griffith will drive the #26 Toyota GR Supra on a part-time basis beginning with the Martinsville Speedway race on 8 April.

A Toyota programme driver, Griffith made his Camping World Truck Series début in 2021 at Gateway, driving for Kyle Busch Motorsports. He finished twenty-sixth.

Much of his career has been spent in super late models, enjoying success in the Pro All Stars Series (PASS) and World Series of Asphalt with championships in both. Since 2020, he has also sporadically competed in the ARCA Menards Series and its Eastern division. In ten ARCA starts, he has top tens in all but two, while he won the pole and finished second in his maiden ARCA East start.

“It’s a dream come true for me. I thought after running in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series last year that it would be the peak of my career, but to get together with Sam Hunt Racing, it’s going to help elevate me to new levels,” Griffith stated. “It’s just perfect timing for me. I’ve been working hard to try and get something together since the end of 2021 and keep the ball rolling. I had the opportunity to race a lot last year, but it’s hard to get into a rhythm with just one or two races at a higher level.

“Sam Hunt Racing wanted me to race for them just as much as I wanted to race for them. Everything fell right into place for us. I’ve heard some great things about Sam and his team—everything seems in line for them to be successful. Sam is really excited about having me on board to try and build a future.”

Van Amersfoort Racing have announced the signing of Argentinian driver Franco Colapinto to race with them for the 2022 season in their debut in FIA Formula 3, he will be racing alongside Rafael Villagómez and Reece Ushijima. Signing the dotted line off the back of a busy season, where he divided his time between single-seater and racing in the LMP2 category.

Colapinto finished sixth last season in the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine, there were appearances for the Argentinian in the World Endurance Championship and both the European and Asian Le Mans Series.

The 18-year-old made has already got some experience in the Formula 3 car making his debut in the machinery at the post-season test in Valencia where he was no slouch setting the fastest time on the second day.

Colapinto had a great time in his first outing in the machinery he will be driving this season, being more powerful than the FRECA car he had been used to driving all year but perhaps surprisingly handles similar to the LMP2 car he had been driving in the endurance categories of the sport.

“I really enjoyed my first time in the F3 car, it is obviously way more powerful than the FRECA car, but at the same time has surprisingly similar driving characteristics to the LMP2 car; fast and loads of downforce.”

The new Porsche LMDh Prototype has hit the track for the first time as the German marque returns to the premiere tier of sports car racing in 2023, running the car in both FIA WEC World Endurance Championship and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

With the race debut at the 2023 24 Hours of Daytona a year away, the manufacturer started testing the twin-turbo V8 unite that complements the standard hybrid elements in a private test. The engine will run on renewable fuels, meaning a significant reduction in CO2 emissions compared to previous engines; During the race the hybrid drive will output around 500kW (680 PS).

“We were spoiled for choice with the engine for our LMDh prototype, because the product range offers several promising baseline units,” explained Thomas Laudenbach, Vice President Porsche Motorsport. “We decided on the V8-biturbo, which we feel offers the best combination of performance characteristics, weight and costs. The kick-off to the active test programme was an important step for the project.”

Urs Kuratle, Overall Project Manager LMDh at Porsche Motorsport added, “The rollout of the LMDh racing car was also the first track outing for Porsche Penske Motorsport. The squad worked well together right from the start. This shows a high level of professionalism in all areas.

“After all, the operational requirements for the safe running of a hybrid vehicle are very high. In the next outings we will focus on going deeper into the required processes and procedures. During these first test days at Weissach, the V8-biturbo impressed us in every respect. We’re convinced that we’ve chosen precisely the right unit.”