Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon discussed the disappointment of suffering a second consecutive double-retirement at the Hungarian Grand Prix, with him and team-mate Pierre Gasly getting caught up in a first lap incident which resulted in significant damage to both cars. 

With it being an essentially unavoidable incident, Ocon said that all the team can do is put the outcome of Hungary behind them and set their sights on the second half of the double-header, the Belgian Grand Prix. 

“It was very frustrating for the entire team to have a double retirement on Sunday, especially in such circumstances so early into the race. There wasn’t much Pierre or I could do and we have no choice but to move on and focus on this weekend where we hope to bounce back quickly.”

Ocon looks forward to taking on Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps and said that he is not suffering any lingering effects from the crash. He hopes to “maximise” the added scoring opportunities offered by the Sprint format, as the team will be hoping to recover from two weekends of points lost.

“Despite the significant impact of the crash on Sunday, I am feeling OK physically and very motivated to race in Belgium. Given this weekend’s Sprint format, we have the chance to take points on both Saturday and Sunday, so we will be doing all we can to maximise our opportunities.”

Andrea Stella says the recent form from the McLaren F1 Team has been encouraging, but they know they will continue their development push if they are to stay in contention for podium finishes and perhaps even fight for race wins.

Lando Norris has finished second in both the British and Hungarian Grand Prix thanks to the updates brought to the MCL60 ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix, while Oscar Piastri has also seen a good upturn of speed as he took fourth and fifth in the same two events.

Stella, the Team Principal at McLaren, says the data the team acquired from the race weekend at the Hungaroring will help them iron out their weaknesses from their upgraded MCL60, but it is important the team do not stop its developments if they want to improve on their position in the Constructors’ Championship.

“Another strong weekend from both drivers in Hungary and a further data point to help us analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the car,” said Stella.  “It’s good to be in this position and the team have worked hard to get us here.

“However, while we can be more optimistic about the rest of our season, we know the other teams won’t stand still. Our plans and ambitions remain the same, we continue to push forward with the development of the MCL60 this year, and ultimately aim to be in a position to achieve race wins in the near future.”

Lando Norris will head to Spa-Francorchamps on the back of a pair of podium finishes at Silverstone and the Hungaroring, and the British racer is aiming to make it a hat trick this weekend.

The McLaren F1 Team driver has benefitted from updates to his MCL60 that were first introduced in the Austrian Grand Prix by finishing second in both the British and Hungarian Grand Prix, the first time in his career that he has taken top three finishes in consecutive races.

Norris says McLaren belong fighting for podiums, but he knows there is still work to do to ensure they continue their form into the rest of the season, and he hopes the hard work and good results continue in Belgium.

“Back-to-back podiums!” said Norris.  “It feels good to be back where we belong, but we still have more work to do to keep it consistent for the rest of the season.

“I’m looking forward to racing in Spa. It’s one of my favourite tracks and it should be a good circuit for us. Of course, it can be challenging depending on the conditions, but we will do our best to finish the first half of the season in a strong position.”

Stanton Barrett is back in the NASCAR Xfinity Series as he hopes to make his first start since 2019 when he enters Saturday’s Road America event. He will drive the #35 Toyota GR Supra for Emerling-Gase Motorsports.

“Looking forward to racing at my favorite road course and with a quality team behind me,” said Barrett. “This is an important race for my companies and as well for the team to gain valuable points.”

Barrett has competed in NASCAR since the 1990s, making starts in all three national divisions with over 200 at the Xfinity level. His last race was at Watkins Glen in 2019 where he finished twenty-third for MBM Motorsports after a two-year absence. He joined Mike Harmon’s team (now known as CHK Racing) for the 2022 Watkins Glen event but failed to qualify.

In five Xfinity starts at Road America, his best finish is seventeenth at the inaugural race in 2010.

Between his last two Xfinity races run (2016 at Road America and the aforementioned 2019 Watkins Glen), he did a pair of Cup Series races for Rick Ware Racing but retired from both. The two starts were his first at NASCAR’s top level in a decade, and he did another Cup one-off on the Daytona Road Course in 2020.

The Ford Ranger T1+ of M-Sport and Neil Woolridge Motorsport made its long-awaited competition début in last weekend’s Baja España Aragón with Nani Roma and Gareth Woolridge as drivers. While not the smoothest outing, both trucks successfully reached the finish with Roma finishing sixth overall and Woolridge in eleventh.

Roma was running his first rally since the 2022 Dakar Rally, spending the rest of the year battling and defeating bladder cancer before joining M-Sport. After finishing eighth in the Prologue, he placed fifth and fourth in the two main stages to set a total time of 6:30:34. The five-time Aragón car victor was twelve minutes off winner Nasser Al-Attiyah.

In his first FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Bajas start, Woolridge arrived in Spain with a cold that impacted his performance early on as he finished the Prologue in seventeenth. His performance improved over the next two legs in fifteenth and ninth, though the latter ended on a rather sour note when his Ranger suffered a tyre puncture approximately twenty-eight kilometres from the finish.

While Woolridge’s time of 6:38:29 was just seven seconds short of making the top ten, he described the race as a “great learning experience for us and happy with the result considering the conditions we faced.”

The team’s next start will be the Rallye du Maroc on 12–18 October before heading to the 2024 Dakar Rally. Roma is a two-time Dakar winner. Woolridge, whose family runs NWM, leads the South African Rally-Raid Championship and won the TGR 1000 Desert Race in June.

As cool as ATVs are, they just do not draw the same interest as their two-wheeled counterpart. This was evidenced during the latest World Rally-Raid Championship round in Sonora when even the lowest-level Rally3 bikes had more riders than the two who duked it out in Quad.

In response, the FIM and Amaury Sport Organisation have seemingly shifted to a playbook of quality over quantity for the 2024 Dakar Rally. If one wants to be accepted in the class, they must have either run a Dakar Rally in the past five years or registered to take part in the 2023 or 2024 W2RC. By contrast, bike riders can build their 2024 résumés to submit for ASO/FIM approval using races from 2022.

Even if a quad racer has not run a W2RC round prior to the ASO beginning the Dakar rider selection process on 20 July, they can still become eligible by entering either of the final two races. The Desafío Ruta 40 begins on 27 August and runs through 1 September while the Rallye du Maroc wraps up the season on 13–18 October.

Although the class has seen different victors across the first three rounds, Laisvydas Kancius is the only rider to have run every race; he is also the lone race winner to have declared for W2RC points as Alexandre Giroud (Dakar Rally) and Abdulaziz Ahli (Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge) are one-off entries. Kancius leads the points with 69 while Pablo Copetti sits second with 38, having only run the Dakar Rally but intends to return for Argentina. Rodolfo Guillioli is the only other W2RC quad competitor with multiple starts in 2023 after racing in Abu Dhabi and Sonora.

“Unfortunately, it has to be acknowledged what the organisers also notice: compared to motorcycles, the interest of quad manufacturers in this class is not as high,” Kancius commented. “For the upcoming Dakar 2024, only quad class riders who have started at least once in the last five years or have registered to participate in the 2023 or 2024 World Championships. Those who are planning to compete in Dakar in 2024 can still meet the requirement by participating in this year’s World Cup and competing in Argentina or Morocco.

The Lancia Stratos is a legendary rally car that made a significant impact on the world of motorsport during the 1970s. Here are some key features and highlights of this iconic racing machine:

1. Rally Dominance: The Lancia Stratos was specifically designed for rally racing and quickly became one of the most successful rally cars of its era.

2. Striking Design: The Stratos had a distinctive and aerodynamic wedge-shaped body, which was a radical departure from the traditional boxy designs of other rally cars at the time.

3. Mid-Engine Layout: The Stratos featured a mid-engine layout, with its powerful V6 engine positioned just behind the driver and in front of the rear axle, enhancing its balance and handling.

4. Ferrari V6 Engine: The Stratos was powered by a 2.4-liter V6 engine sourced from Ferrari, tuned for rally racing, and capable of producing impressive power output.

Mario Isola felt the new Alternative Tyre Allocation (ATA) that Pirelli Motorsport introduced during the Hungarian Grand Prix appeared to work well, but another test of the system will take place at the beginning of September during the Italian Grand Prix weekend.

Drivers were only allocated eleven sets of tyres during the weekend at the Hungaroring opposed to the usual thirteen sets, and they were locked into using the hard compound tyre during Q1 in Saturday’s Qualifying session, the medium in Q2 and the soft in Q3.  It presented drivers with different challenges throughout the weekend, and it saw a more mixed up grid than usually seen.

Isola, the Motorsport Director at Pirelli, felt the sole tyre manufacturer of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship also opted for the right mix of compounds for the weekend in Hungary, with the soft, medium and hard all playing their part in Sunday’s race.

“It was a very interesting weekend which saw a trial of a new tyre allocation format, as well as evaluating bringing a trio of compounds one step softer than in the past,” said Isola.  

“As for the ATA, first and foremost, it should be pointed out that it will be trialled again at Monza this coming September, on a track with completely different characteristics to this one and the data will be analysed very carefully.

Esteban Ocon admitted it was a frustrating end to the weekend at the Hungaroring for the BWT Alpine F1 Team, with both he and team-mate Pierre Gasly being forced to retire with damage following a first corner clash.

Zhou Guanyu managed to out-brake himself going into turn one on Sunday afternoon, with the Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake driver colliding with Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Daniel Ricciardo, who in turn was pushed into Ocon’s A523.

Ocon was then pushed into Gasly’s car and was launched over the top of his team-mate, with his seat breaking apart in the incident.  He was taken to the medical centre as a precaution but was released without injury.

“There is not much to say from today,” said Ocon.  “It’s a very frustrating end to the weekend being involved in a racing incident with a few cars at Turn 1 on the first lap.

“There was not much we could do and the result was both cars had to retire with significant damage. Fortunately, I’m OK. Right now our focus is on regrouping and coming back stronger as we have another race next weekend in Belgium.

Nico Hülkenberg felt his MoneyGram Haas F1 Team car had performed better than expected during Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix, but it was still not good enough to score a top ten finish.

Hülkenberg had started the race at the Hungaroring inside the top ten but expected his race to be more difficult, something that has been a common theme throughout the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season.

The German racer finished the day in fourteenth, not far away from the points, and although he acknowledged it was not good enough on the day, it was not as bad as expected going into the race.

“Not good enough in the race, which wasn’t news really, we kind of knew and expected this,” said Hülkenberg.  

“To be fair though, I think we looked better today than we have in the past few races on Sunday, so I’m not too disappointed – given this is one of the toughest of the season in terms of non-stop corners, and there isn’t much rest for the tyres or the driver.

Daniel Ricciardo says there were plenty of things to be happy about after finishing an encouraging thirteenth on his return to the FIA Formula 1 World Championship grid on Sunday.

The Australian, who was drafted in to replace the sacked Nyck de Vries at Scuderia AlphaTauri after the British Grand Prix, survived first lap contact with Zhou Guanyu at turn one, the tap from the Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake driver pushing him then into the side of Esteban Ocon. 

He fell to the back of the field as a result of the contact, and from there on he was forced to switch to an aggressive strategy to gain positions.

Ultimately, he ended the day in thirteenth position, just on the tail of Valtteri Bottas, and he feels points may have been a possibility had he not taken the hit on the opening lap that saw him lose multiple places.

“The whole weekend has been good and to come back, really feel all the things I’ve missed in the last twelve months, I can’t ask for more on the first weekend, and it gives me confidence,” said Ricciardo.  

Xevi Pujolar has confirmed that the issue that affected Zhou Guanyu’s start at the Hungarian Grand Prix was not the Chinese driver’s fault, but they are still investigating the cause of why he could not get off the line.

Zhou had lined up a career high fifth on the grid at the Hungaroring and was hoping to secure what would have been a third top ten finish of the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season, but it was not to be as he did not get away from the line as soon as the lights went out.

Pujolar, the Head of Trackside Engineering at Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake, says a problem with the brake system appeared to have triggered a failsafe on the engine, which meant that Zhou was unable to get off the line. 

With team-mate Valtteri Bottas forced to take avoiding action as a result of Zhou’s starting issue, it meant that fifth and seventh on the grid was only converted to twelfth and sixteenth at the chequered flag, something the team were not happy with.

“We are still investigating what went wrong there,” Pujolar is quoted as saying by WTF1.com.  “It looks like something with the brake system strategy that caused a failsafe on the engine side.

After playing a starring role in Qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix, Zhou Guanyu’s race unravelled as soon as the lights went out at the Hungaroring, with an issue with his car meant he dropped down the field like a stone.

The Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake driver did not get off the line at all well, with an issue with his braking system causing his throttle to fail, but his race was to get even worse at turn one.

Now part of the mid-pack, Zhou left his braking too late and clipped the rear of Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Daniel Ricciardo, with the Australian then pushing the two BWT Alpine F1 Team drivers into a collision.  Zhou was deemed responsible for the clash, with the stewards handing him a five-second time penalty.

Zhou knew that his chances of points disappeared as soon as the issue with his car started, and he is keen for the team to investigate why it happened, so it does not reoccur again in the future.

“The elation from yesterday’s result turned on its head, and there is no denying today has been very disappointing,” said Zhou.  “We are yet to gather all the information about what exactly went on at the start: I was on full throttle, and then all of a sudden, something went wrong and I had to do the entire procedure again just in order to do a proper start.

Timmy and Kevin Hansen are the drivers for the Hansen World RX Team. They have been in the thick of the fight in the 2023 FIA World Rallycross Championship, and, as an evolution of the most successful team in European rallycross history, are taking the fight to reigning champion Johan Kristoffersson. Although Kristoffersson has won each round so far, the Hansen brothers are gaining with each round, with Kevin currently third in the championship, and 2019 world champion Timmy securing a second-place finish in Sweden. The Checkered Flag [TCF] sat down with the two drivers in their hospitality area at Lydden Hill Race Circuit on Saturday 22 July to discuss their passion for rallycross, their current goals and where they see the championship going in the future.

“It’s very exciting to see how far we’ve come in just six years and just how impressive the future is looking“

TCF: Welcome back to Lydden Hill! A lot has changed since we were last here in 2017, with the change to electric rather than internal combustion, and the track now has a jump and the Talladega drift section. How much does this feel like a return to somewhere you’ve been before and how much is it a completely new challenge?

Timmy Hansen [TH]: Well I think they’ve done great in keeping the classics of Lydden while also adding new features and making the track a bit more challenging. There’s now more than one line through turn one, for example, that makes it hugely more exciting for overtaking. They’ve added the jump and they’ve really taken nothing away from the old track, just added modern new features that are a bit challenging for us drivers.

Kevin Hansen [KH]: And with the new cars, and with the speed we get on this new track, you can really push it and show its true potential, because you have such long straights here at Lydden Hill and you can really experience and see from the side of the track how fast these new cars are. So, coming back to where we were a few years ago with the sport much more modern, with the new kit and with a new future with the new promoter, it’s very exciting to see how far we’ve come in just six years and just how impressive the future is looking.

Even though the Williams Racing team failed to score points in the Hungarian Grand Prix, Dave Robson says eleventh place for Alexander Albon reflected a strong recovery from the Thai driver after he had been eliminated in Q1 during Qualifying on Saturday.

Albon used an aggressive strategy to jump other drivers by using the undercut, and from there his defensive driving, coupled with the straight-line speed of the FW45, enabled him to stay ahead of a number of other cars that had been faster than him.

Logan Sargeant had also used a similar strategy but was fighting for around fifteenth position when, late in the day, he spun at the chicane and lost some positions.  Williams opted at that point to retire the American’s car to avoid causing any additional damage.

Robson, the Head of Vehicle Performance at Williams, felt both drivers had driven strongly at the Hungaroring, and they were pleased to maintain their seventh place in the Constructors’ Championship despite not adding to their points tally.

“Today was exciting and both drivers were able to mount a very strong recovery from yesterday,” said Robson.  “Both followed aggressive strategies that allowed us to be on the attack and whilst it made for a difficult final stint, both dealt with it very well and showed good pace whilst also managing their tyres.