Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda’s Pierre Gasly goes into the British Grand Prix having shown strong pace throughout the season so far, he will be hoping to keep his form going at a circuit he loves.

This weekend’s grand prix isn’t like any other, with the first trial run of the brand new weekend format, featuring a Saturday sprint race. Normal qualifying will take place on Friday evening and will decide the grid for a 100km sprint race on Saturday. The results of the sprint race will determine the grid for Sunday’s race.

The new format brings a new challenge to the majority of drivers on the grid who haven’t experienced a sprint race since their junior category days. Gasly has been working hard with his team to prepare for the sprint race, at a circuit which he rates as one of his favourites.

“We’ve worked a lot with the engineers, and I’ve been in the simulator, looking at all the possible scenarios for the new format with the Sprint Qualifying race. It should be good fun. We’ve also got new tyres from Pirelli. It’s been done mainly for safety and from what I experienced, trying them in Austria, I think they will feel pretty similar.
 
“I love Silverstone, it’s one of my favourite tracks, especially the run through Maggots and Becketts, which is one of the most exciting sequences of the season. Although overtaking is meant to be difficult at Silverstone, it is possible and I managed some good passes last year, having some enjoyable fights including passing Seb (Vettel) round the outside at the right hander before the chicane.
 
“I enjoyed racing in front of the fans in Austria and for Silverstone they’re announcing a full capacity crowd, the atmosphere should be great and I’m looking forward to it.”

“I am feeling fairly confident” – Yuki Tsunoda

After a difficult triple-header filled with errors, rookie Yuki Tsunoda goes into the British Grand Prix with previous success at the Silverstone Circuit in Formula 2 last season.

Sebastian Vettel says he is looking forward to racing at Silverstone once more this weekend, with the German aiming to return to the points for the first time since the French Grand Prix.

Neither race at the Red Bull Ring brought the Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team driver a top ten finish, with his Austrian Grand Prix two weeks ago culminating in a final lap crash with his former Scuderia Ferrari team-mate Kimi Räikkönen.

Despite this, he sits tenth in the Drivers’ Championship heading into the British Grand Prix, and Vettel believes there will be plenty of opportunities for proper racing in what will be Aston Martin’s first time racing at their home venue since the team was rebranded during the off season.

“I’m looking forward to racing at Silverstone again,” said Vettel, who has won twice at Silverstone in 2009 and 2018.  “There’s a lot of high-speed sections at this circuit with good places for overtaking, so I think there will be opportunities for some proper racing.

“It’s an important weekend for the team as well, so I’m looking forward to getting started.”

After the highs of the Puebla E-Prix, Edoardo Mortara’s New York City E-Prix was one to forget for the Swiss racer, with the pre-race championship leader ending both races outside the points.

The ROKiT Venturi Racing driver took a win and a third place in Mexico three weeks ago to come to New York on top of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship standings.

But Saturday’s opening race was compromised in Qualifying as he was unable to use his full 250kW mode for his one flying lap, leaving him at the back of the field.  Despite feeling he had a strong car beneath him, he was only able to climb from twenty-third on the grid to fourteenth.

“We were able to show some really good pace in FP2 but an issue in qualifying compromised my race today,” said Mortara on Saturday.  “When I started my push lap, I wasn’t able to go into the 250kW mode so I did my group run with a 50kW power disadvantage to my competitors.

“Starting from P23, the only way was forward but we were able to do an intelligent race and I gained nine positions to finish P14.”

Alexander Sims scored a sixth-place finish in race two of the New York City E-Prix on Sunday, but the Mahindra Racing driver admits the race pace at the Brooklyn Street Circuit appeared to abandon them.

Sims was forced to retire from Saturday’s opening race after contact from behind caused a puncture, but he recovered on Sunday to score points, coming out first of a close battle between himself and Dragon/Penske Autosport’s Sérgio Sette Câmara to run seventh and then passing the damaged car of Mitch Evans on the final lap to take sixth.

Mahindra have often shown to have better race pace than it shows in Qualifying, but Sims feels it was not as strong as they had hoped it would be on Sunday, which left them scratching their heads to why they finished over sixteen seconds off race winner Sam Bird.

“Yesterday was frustrating with the puncture,” said Sims.  “I think I got hit by [Norman] Nato, but it was a bit of a racing incident, which was unfortunate as we were clawing positions back after struggling with pace at the start.

“Today was a solid race and I’m pleased with it – we had a lot of clean air so we just did our own thing and brought the car home.

Both the Tag Heuer Porsche Formula E Team drivers finished inside the top five in race two of the New York City E-Prix on Sunday, but both felt an even better result was possible around the Brooklyn Street Circuit.

Pascal Wehrlein started and finished fourth while André Lotterer ended up fifth after starting sixth. But the German pairing both felt this was below what they were hoping for.

DS Techeetah’s António Félix da Costa managed to jump both drivers when using his attack modes, and when Mitch Evans clipped the wall whilst running second and fell down the order, it was the Portuguese racer who was in prime position to take the final spot on the podium.

And Wehrlein says they will look into what went wrong in New York and come back stronger in the London E-Prix in two weeks time.

“We earned important points for the team,” said Wehrlein.  “Still, we always want the maximum and more would definitely have been possible today.

RAM Racing climbed to joint-top of the standings after a second-place finish in the third round of the Intelligent Money British GT Championship, having started from pole position at Donington Park.

The #6 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo was on the pace from the offset in Leicestershire, finishing FP1 and FP2 second and fourth respectively, giving Yelmer Buurman and Ian Loggie plenty of confidence going into qualifying on Saturday afternoon.

That confidence wasn’t unfounded, either, as the Pro-Am pair prevailed in the combined qualifying session by half a tenth from the WPI Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo of Phil Keen and Michael Igoe.

Their nearest challenger wouldn’t even see the second corner of the two-hour race, though, as it was spun by the Team Parker Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RSR of Nick Jones at Redgate, before being collected by Leo Machitski‘s Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini, putting both out of the race.

Though the Mercedes sat sixth in the warm-up session on Sunday morning, it had pace when it mattered, surviving a chaotic opening stint truncated by several safety car periods as over half of the GT4 entrants retired with damage or mechanical issues.

Fortec Motorsport had arguably their best weekend of the 2021 BRDC British Formula 3 Championship so far at Donington Park (10/11 July).

The team has been running two cars since the first round at Brands Hatch, with exciting British prospect Ollie Bearman drawing acclaim at the head of the ADAC F4 and Italian F4 Championships.

The 16-year-old took two second-place finishes in Race 1 and 2 in Kent, but will not be in the British F3 title conversation as he focuses his efforts on F4 action in Europe.

That seems an inspired decision to date, with Bearman holding a 41-point lead over reigning F4 British Championship champion Luke Browning in ADAC F4, and a 66-point advantage over Tim Tramnitz, who also contests both series’ this season.

His steller opening British F3 weekend, though, means he still sits 13th in the standings despite missing six of the nine races run so far.

Josh Berry: NASCAR’s super sub.

With Michael Annett out of commission due to a stress fracture in his right femur, JR Motorsports has tasked Berry with driving the #1 car for Saturday’s Xfinity Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Annett had missed last Saturday’s Atlanta race and the previous night’s Camping World Truck Series event at Knoxville for the same reasons, forcing Austin Dillon and Chris Windom to respectively take over. Dillon finished eleventh in the #1 at Atlanta, while Windom placed fifteenth in the Knoxville event.

According to Fox Sports’ Bob Pockrass via the team, Annett had gotten hurt while exercising and it “had been nagging him for a few weeks”, yet he continued to race with it before it proved too much. While the severity was not given, the timing suggests he was racing with the injury when he scored his first top-five finish of the season at Road America.

JRM successfully received a medical waiver for Annett to qualify for the playoffs upon his return. He is currently tenth in points with a 54-point gap over twelfth-placed Myatt Snider who sits above the cut-off line. As NASCAR will have a two-week break following New Hampshire due to NBC’s coverage of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, the team expects the pause to give Annett enough time to recover for the next race at Watkins Glen on 7 August.

Berry, who ran twelve races in JRM’s #8 during the first half of the 2021 season with a win at Martinsville in April, will be a substitute driver for the third time this year. In March, he filled in for Truck driver Kris Wright at Atlanta after Wright was sidelined by a positive COVID-19 test. Two months later, he made his Cup Series début at Dover in Justin Haley‘s place while Haley was out for COVID protocols. He was also a replacement driver for Truck team Rackley WAR in June after Timothy Peters was released.

This weekend’s British Grand Prix will mark the start of potentially a brand new era for the Formula 1 weekend format, with the first ever sprint race set to take place at Silverstone this weekend, putting lots of pressure on Pirelli to perform.

A 100km sprint race will take place on Saturday to determine the grid for Sunday’s traditional race, with the usual qualifying taking place on Friday evening to set-up the grid for the sprint race. An exciting prospect for the thousands who will be in attendance this weekend. For the sprint race the teams can choice to start on any tyre whereas for qualifying only the soft C3 compound can be used.

As usual Pirelli have chosen the three hardest compounds to be used this weekend, the C1, C2 and C3 tyres will be in operation. The hardest tyres have to be used at Silverstone with the high speed corners such as Maggots and Becketts, putting a huge amount of force into the tyres. Pirelli will not be hoping for a repeat of last year’s British Grand Prix, where several drivers including race winner Lewis Hamilton suffered dramatic tyre failures during the closing stages of the race.

This weekend will also see a new construction of rear tyre which were tested during free practice at the Austrian Grand Prix. The new tyres weigh the same as the old ones but are at the same time more robust, the tyres incorporate a lot of the features which will be seen on the new eighteen inch wheels next season.

With so much going on this weekend, Pirelli Head of F1 and Car Racing Mario Isola is extremely excited to the new weekend format at what is one of the most challenging circuits for the tyre manufacturer.

The Uralkali Haas F1 Team go into this weekends British Grand Prix with the hotly anticipated prospect of racing on Saturday and Sunday, a brand new challenge for the entire field, not just for Haas rookies Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin.

This weekend will see the first trial of a brand new weekend format, with qualifying taking place on Friday evening to set the grid for a 100km sprint race on Saturday afternoon. The finishing order of the sprint race will then make up the grid for the main race on Sunday.

Guenther Steiner, Team Principal of the Uralkali Haas F1 Team is looking forward to the experiment and is expecting both of his drivers to race hard in both races, despite this season being all about learning.

“I am looking forward to it because it’s something new and something new always gives opportunity and hopefully we can be a part of that. I think the success will be if the fans like it. At the moment I think it’s a good format but if there’s something we can enhance, and the fans embrace it, that would be good and then I would say let’s do more of it.

“I think for sure the drivers will race hard because in qualifying everyone races hard and this is like a sprint race which defines the qualifying positions. On Sunday, when points are at stake, you want to be in the best position to start the race as you can.

After a week away, both Uralkali Haas F1 Team drivers Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin are looking forward to this weekends British Grand Prix and the brand new sprint race!

Mick Schumacher goes into this weekends British Grand Prix having had a weekend off after the first triple-header of the season, one which showed that Schumacher is making significant strides in the right direction. The German rookie is feeling very positive after the triple-header.

“Mentally and physically I feel great. I was really happy about the triple-header – it’s been great getting to spend so much time with the team. We’ve played football, gone cycling and had a BBQ together. We’ve been getting to do all the things which I would usually be able to do if we hadn’t had COVID. With the pandemic, it’s very restricted how I can get to England, so I’ve got to spend the time I would usually do, here, and that’s been great for us.“

The Silverstone Circuit is one which Schumacher knows well having won at the circuit in the past. Schumacher won at Silverstone in 2018 whilst racing in European Formula 3, he also came second in the Formula 2 sprint race at the circuit last year, narrowly beaten by fellow Formula 1 rookie Yuki Tsunoda. It’s a track he has always enjoyed especially with the incredible atmosphere.

“Silverstone in general is a very interesting track. There’s lots of high-speed places but also it’s a very technical track with the last chicane, so racing is very difficult. We have long corners which makes it difficult to follow, but I’ve always enjoyed going to Silverstone. The fans are great but also the track and the history of it is amazing, so I’m really looking forward to it.”

Kurt and Kyle Busch are among the top sibling duos in NASCAR Cup Series history, and the racing deities decided in favour of the elder Kurt in Sunday’s Quaker State 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.  The two battled each other throughout the final stage, but Kurt, with some help from Chip Ganassi Racing team-mate Ross Chastain, was able to get it done and complete the Busch 1–2 finish.

Sunday’s race, the last on the current Atlanta configuration before it is redesigned ahead of the 2022 season, was dominated by the brothers as they led a combined 235 of 260 laps, with Kurt responsible for 144. Georgia native and pole-sitter Chase Elliott was the only non-Busch to lead double-digit laps as he had thirteen to begin the day.

Kyle began the Busch run when he took the lead from Elliott on lap 14 and went on to win the first stage ahead of Kurt, Alex Bowman, Kyle Larson, Joey Logano, William Byron, Martin Truex Jr. (who started at the back after failing pre-race inspection twice), and Kevin Harvick. The lone incident of the stage came on lap 32 when Cody Ware got loose in turn two while running four-abreast with Anthony Alfredo, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Daniel Suárez; Stenhouse and Suárez then made contact and spun into the inside wall on the backstretch, with Alfredo squeezing by to escape damage.

The older Busch dominated the second stage, only briefly surrendering the lead to Aric Almirola; as Almirola led, reports of rain hit the track but did not result in a red flag. Ironically, one would occur anyway at the end of the stage when the aging track surface, which had not been replaced since 1997 and was only changing in 2022 with the reconfiguration, broke off on the frontstretch and a delay was needed to fill it back in. After an approximately twenty-minute pause that incidentally coincided with the full duration of the Euro 2020 Final’s penalty kick shootout, the segment ended under yellow as Kurt took the stage win ahead of Kyle, Bowman, Larson, Denny Hamlin, Tyler Reddick, Ryan Blaney, Brad Keselowski, Austin Dillon, and Truex.

Stenhouse became the race’s lone retirement when he exited with a suspension failure shortly after the final stage began. Kurt and Kyle traded the lead throughout the segment before the two’s duel encountered lapped traffic; one of these cars was Kurt’s team-mate Chastain, who committed to the high line on lap 236 and blocked Kyle’s progress on Kurt. Kyle was miffed at Chastain’s action, saying in a post-race interview that it “shows you what kind of driver he is.”

António Félix da Costa was delighted to end up with a podium in race two of the New York City E-Prix on Saturday, with the Portuguese driver inhering third place late on after Mitch Evans clipped the wall and broke his left-rear suspension.

The DS Techeetah driver had earlier found his way passed both of the Tag Heuer Porsche Formula E Team drivers to run fourth, with both Pascal Wehrlein and André Lotterer left fighting behind him in the closing laps.

And when Evans had his mishap, Félix da Costa took full advantage to take his first podium finish since he won the Monaco E-Prix back in May.

“Podium in America! It’s so good to wrap up this weekend with a good result, coming from seventh and climbing through the field to finish on the podium and to be back to second in the standings,” said Félix da Costa.

“The fight will go on until the end. Yesterday evening, we worked very hard with the engineers and the mechanics to improve the car, what an amazing team we have!”

Nick Cassidy secured his second podium finish in three races in Sunday’s second race of the New York City E-Prix, with the New Zealander now firmly involved in the battle for the 2020-21 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship title.

Three-weeks ago, the Envision Virgin Racing driver made a breakthrough as he claimed second place in race two of the Puebla E-Prix, but arguably, his performance around the Brooklyn Street Circuit was even more impressive, with the New Zealander the only driver to be able to keep up with the two Jaguar Racing cars up front of Sam Bird and Mitch Evans.

And when Evans made a mistake late in the race and damaged his left-rear suspension, Cassidy was in prime position to move up from third to second and equal his best result of the season and to move up to fifth in the Drivers’ Championship standings.

“I felt much stronger in the race today, but it wasn’t easy to maintain speed in the right places and overtake the Jaguars,” said Cassidy.

“I am pleased with how I have adapted to Formula E and to the car – I think I have made that transition quite quickly, but there are another 23 world class drivers here so it’s not easy!

Sam Bird became only the second driver to take multiple victories in the 2020-21 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship season, with the Briton jumping from thirteenth in the standings to the top after winning race two of the New York City E-Prix on Sunday.

The Jaguar Racing driver started from pole position on Sunday and led all thirty-seven laps around the Brooklyn Street Circuit to become a two-time winner this season, and an eleven-time winner in Formula E.

A day before, Bird recovered from a practice crash and a car rebuild to scrape into the points in ninth, but everything came right for him on Sunday as he moved to the very top of the Drivers’ Championship heading into his home E-Prix in London in two weeks time.

“What a day today! That’s 29 points out of a possibly 30 so I couldn’t be happier,” said Bird, who only missed out on a maximum thirty points thanks to António Félix da Costa claiming the bonus point for fastest lap.  “I’m so delighted and proud of my team right now.

“After yesterday, this is everything we needed and it feels so good. Thank you to everyone at Jaguar Racing and I can’t wait for London.”