Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Today's press conference with Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc, Zhou Guanyu, Fernando Alonso, Esteban Ocon and Nico Hulkenberg.

"Proud and happy" with his new contract at Aston Martin, Fernando Alonso hopes the 2026 regulations will offer new opportunities.

It was a long eight months, but the Stadium Super Trucks are finally back for 2024. For the third year in a row, the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach will open the season as the California street circuit continues its run as the only track left from the inaugural season in 2013.

Matt Brabham enters as the defending winner after sweeping both events in 2023. After spending that year primarily competing in Indy NXT and Trans-Am alongside SST, Brabham is now an IMSA driver.

Myles Cheek hopes to avenge his heartbreak when Brabham passed him for the lead and win in Race #2 with two laps remaining. Settling for second, he still earned his maiden career podium after finishing seventh in the first race as he was getting used to the truck; the weekend was his first in SST since 2017.

Before they focus on the NORRA Mexican 1000 the week after, Robby and Max Gordon will tackle Long Beach. Robby is tied with Brabham for the most wins at Long Beach with five, and the father/son duo swept the 2022 weekend that included a 1–2 finish in Race #1.

Bill Hynes, the longest active driver besides the elder Gordon, returns for his tenth full-time campaign. After finishing tenth in the first Long Beach race in 2023, he was taken out of the second after getting turned by Robert Stout; Stout, a series regular since 2021, is not entered as he prepares for the upcoming Championship Off-Road season.

Claims that the Shanghai track has been resurfaced have proved to be a little wide of the mark, as the tarmac has merely been painted.

Charles Leclerc has admitted that his - soon to depart - teammate is doing a better job this season.

Aleš Loprais and his team have started work on building a Tatra 815 Puma for the Dakar Classic, intended as a tribute to his uncle Karel Loprais. The project began in early April.

Karel Loprais raced the Paris–Dakar Rally from 1986 to 2006, exclusively for Tatra as an employee for the company, with his first race in the Puma 4×4 truck (officially designated as T 815-2 R55-16) taking place in 1998. Already a three-time winner prior but coming off a retirement in the 1997 edition due to an engine failure, he hoped the Puma would be more reliable and his wishes were answered as he scored two stage wins en route to victory in the Truck class. Over the next three years, Loprais added two more wins in 1999 and 2001 while finishing second in 2000 and 2002.

The Puma was eventually put on display in at the Tatra Technical Museum (Technické muzeum Tatra) in Kopřivnice. He continued to race at Dakar through 2006 before retiring. Loprais died in December 2021 at the age of 72.

The younger Loprais also began his career with Tatra, working as his uncle’s navigator in 2006 before taking over as driver. In 2011, he won the Silk Way Rally in Russia and remains the race’s only non-Russian or -Belarusian Truck champion. After bouncing between various manufacturers between 2015 and 2019, including a return to Tatra, he currently races for fellow Czech manufacturer Praga. Aleš finished runner-up in class at the latest Dakar in January.

In March, Tatra Trucks launched Projekt T 162 “Karel”, building a rally raid-spec T 162 truck that was conceived in 1988 but never realised.

Neil Woolridge Motorsport will look to defend their South African Rally-Raid Championship in a new Ford Ranger T1+ sporting a redesigned front end. Reigning champion Gareth Woolridge and Boyd Dreyer will pilot the #200, on the heels of their Dakar Rally début, while brother Lance Woolridge and Kenny Gilbert are in the #234.

Gareth entered the Dakar in January after winning the SARRC. His race was upended by a rollover in Stage #7 that knocked him out of the overall, though he was able to reach the finish; although he finished forty-first overall in the Ultimate class, he placed as high as seventh on the final day. The programme was fielded by NWM in partnership with WRC team M-Sport, and he also had two-time Dakar winner Nani Roma as a team-mate.

The redesigned Ranger, however, does not have M-Sport involvement, though the team still maintains relations with NWM ally Past-Racing in both rally and rally raid. Based on the production model, the 2024 Ranger’s body has been reworked to improve airflow and vehicle cooling. This is particularly emphasised by the new grille that leads into the front cooling package, the latter of which has been shrunk to allow more space in the engine bay for mechanics to work. The wheelarches have also been widened to channel air into the dampers.

Its approach/departure angles are now more fluid for better aerodynamics, which was partly achieved by lowering the hood to help the driver see out the windshield. The differential guards on both ends have been strengthened to better protect the vehicle. Underneath the front is a modular bashplate.

Other elements such as the engine and suspension remain the same. The former is 3.5-litre twin-turbo V6 Ford EcoBoost engine like its predecessor, though the engine control software has been updated. The suspension entails bespoke dampers 76 millimetres in diameter with 350 mm of wheel travel, the latter complying with FIA T1+ regulations.

For the first time, the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) is heading to Europe for the 6 Hours of Imola on 21 April. After an absolutely thrilling season opener at the Qatar 1812km, excitement is building for the first European race on the calendar.

The Track

Credit: Toyota Gazoo Racing

Imola appears on the WEC calendar as a replacement for Monza, as the “Temple of Speed” is undergoing renovations in 2024. This is the first time the championship has headed to the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari and the first 6 Hours of Imola since the 2011 Le Mans Sports Series. The 4.9 kilometre track is the home event for many WEC teams and drivers, all of whom will be wanting to impress.

The legendary track, familiar to racing fans the world over, presents a very different challenge to the Lusail International Circuit which hosted the previous round. The most significant difference is that Imola is much narrower. The tight twisting nature of the track will present complications as the faster Hypercars try to overtake the slower LMGT3 class. Porsche Penske Motorsport driver André Lotterer is already considering how best to compensate for this. “It will definitely be a challenge, it’s not a very big track and it’s narrow too so traffic will be tricky” the German explained, adding “setting up the car correctly will be key.”

The winning #6 Porsche 963 in Qatar. Credit: Porsche AG

LMGT3 driver Charlie Eastwood said, after a recent testing session at Imola, “we found that the delta of lap time between GT3 and Hypercar was significantly smaller than most circuits. The main reason for this is that at Imola in the GT3 cars, you can take a lot of kerbs. There has been a completely new profile of the kerbing around most of the circuit so that the GT3s can get right on top of the kerbs, which the Corvette was handling very well at the test but the Hypercars cannot – they have to drive around them. They are going to struggle to pass the GT cars very easily and likely see a lot of aggression into braking zones.” It should be a thrilling and action packed race.

Hypercar

Lotterer’s team, Porsche Penske Motorsport, were the class of the field in Qatar, with the #6 car comfortably winning the race and the sister #5 car taking pole position and eventually finishing 3rd in the race. As if that weren’t enough, privateer Porsche outfit Hertz Team JOTA secured a brilliant 2nd place, just 1.1 seconds ahead of the #5 factory Porsche. All eyes will be on whether they can maintain that momentum at such a different circuit.

Kimi Antonelli, the potential replacement for Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes next season, has made his F1 testing debut.

Christian Horner insists that everything is on course as Red Bull Powertrains prepares for the debut of its engine in 2026.

McLaren Racing and Logitech G have announced the extension of their partnership. Logitech G, a leading innovator of gaming technologies, is the Official Gaming Wheels & Pedals Partner of the McLaren Formula 1 Team and McLaren Shadow Esports Team.

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The partnership extension, which began in 2017, will see the two brands continue to blur the lines between virtual and real-world racing and create a more accessible racing experience. Logitech supported McLaren Shadow during their Constructors’ and Drivers’ Championship victories in the 2022 F1 Esports Series.

As part of the extension, the Logitech McLaren G Challenge will return for another exciting sim racing season at the end of this year. The Logitech McLaren G Challenge will see individuals continue to compete for unique and money-can’t-buy prizes – including driver meet-and-greets and other exclusive experiences.

Matt Dennington, Co-Chief Commercial Officer, McLaren Racing, said:

Sim racing continues to go from strength to strength, so we’re thrilled to be extending our partnership with Logitech and continue to create a robust experience both for our McLaren Shadow Team and the more than 100,000 competitors who have taken part in the Logitech McLaren G Challenge to date.

With Carlos and Charles, our aim is to get all the potential out of the car and to bring home a solid result, as well as putting our competitors under pressure.

The new format will be tricky for everyone to get their head around but we are all in the same position.

Both drivers have spent time in our simulator preparing, and are ready for the weekend.

Red Bull's design guru, Adrian Newey admits that the 2026 regulations emphasis on power units will present he and his colleagues with a whole raft of challenges.

Performance Director Tom McCullough discusses Fernando's new multi-year deal with the team, the test posed by Shanghai International Circuit, and the first Sprint weekend of the season.

After retiring from the Dakar Rally in January, Hennie de Klerk and his TreasuryONE Motorsport team will be approaching the upcoming South African Rally-Raid Championship like it is a leg on the former.

He and his co-driver Juan Möhr will have a full kit of spare parts and tools onboard their WCT Toyota Hilux, then perform repairs and changes themselves without the help of their team when they are at the service station. The team’s technician Tjaart van der Walt will be present to oversee the stops but not get involved. Under World Rally-Raid Championship rules, crews are not permitted to help their drivers if they are stuck in the Selective Section and face disqualification if it happens, and de Klerk and Möhr will treat the service areas as such.

“As we so painfully learned this year, there’s no tomorrow at the Dakar if you do not finish today,” said de Klerk. “To that end, we will use our local races to develop our strategy to best deal with our future Dakar challenges. That means concentrating on endurance and reliability, rather than just speed.”

2024 marked de Klerk’s third Dakar Rally after being the best-finishing rookie in the 2018 edition in twenty-eighth followed by a thirty-fourth in 2020. He returned to the race after four years in a new Toyota Hilux T1+ designed by WCT Engineering, which is mostly the same as its counterparts built by Toyota Gazoo Racing and Overdrive Racing but less complex so that privateers can afford it. Möhr joined the team after last racing the Dakar in 2016 with Mark Corbett.

The duo fell early due to a time penalty in the Prologue for a navigation error, then broke a prop shaft early in Stage #2 which forced them to complete the leg with rear drive only. They scored their best finish of thirty-first in the Ultimate class in Stage #4, but another driveshaft failure and rollover struck during the second half of the Chrono Stage and ended their race.

The late Ted Toleman is perhaps best known for kickstarting the Formula One careers of those like Ayrton Senna, Rory Byrne, and Pat Symonds via Toleman Motorsport. After selling the team to sponsor Benetton in 1986, Toleman decided to remain involved in racing, albeit in a slightly different discipline from what he was used to.

In 1987, a year after his F1 exit, Toleman and company decided to enter the Paris–Dakar Rally. Although the race had only been active for a decade, it quickly grew into the world’s preeminent rally raid and still holds this reputation today. Toleman’s maiden start came a year after fellow F1 outfit Minardi did a Dakar one-off in a truck, where they retired after seven stages.

“As far as I’m concerned, it’s one of the last great adventures left. I’ve always been one for pitting yourself against the elements. After doing the Atlantic, the desert was a natural,” said Toleman in a team promotional video for the 1989 race titled Heat and Dust. “I think perseverance and patience (are most important) because you have to be patient with one another. It’s a long time to be together under stress. I think those are the important features.”

The programme was revealed at 1 Savile Row in London, the former headquarters of the Royal Geographical Society and current home of menswear tailor Gieves & Hawkes, consisting of Toleman as driver and Barry Lee as navigator of a Range Rover. Lee was a multi-time hot rod national and world champion who also enjoyed success in the British Saloon Car Championship and rallycross. However, their début was cut short when two team members were arrested at the Algerian border for alleged currency irregularities.

For their second attempt in 1988, the duo decided to modify an Austin Metro 6R4, a brand that previously competed in Group B rally much like many Dakar vehicles of the time. Dubbed the TG88 Raider, sported a longer wheelbase and a 3.9-litre V8 engine from a Land Rover that produced 230 horsepower, as opposed to the V6 of the original model. The car proved to be quick, which landed it on the front cover of Autosport‘s 7 January issue. Although the Metro was fast, Toleman’s support truck was not and got stuck in the sand, causing it to take too long to reach the finish and forcing him to retire yet again.

Coachbuilt Whisky and Williams Racing announced a dynamic licensing partnership. Coachbuilt Whisky is a premium blended whisky co-founded by 2009 F1 World Champion and Williams Racing Brand Ambassador Jenson Button.

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This collaboration brings together two innovators in their respective domains, merging Williams Racing’s expertise in motorsport engineering with Coachbuilt’s passion for precision and craftsmanship.

The alliance will produce several limited-edition whiskies that pay homage to Williams Racing’s rich heritage and reflect the team’s current journey to return to the front of the grid. It will also celebrate Williams and Jenson’s long and prosperous relationship, which began in 2000 when the team gave him his breakthrough opportunity in Formula 1.

Beyond the special editions, the licensing partnership will see the core Coachbuilt edition poured at Williams events and in the paddock, in addition to merchandise lines and other activations.

McLaren boss, Andrea Stella fears that Shanghai will be a tough weekend for his team.