Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

The NEOM McLaren Formula E Team endured a challenging weekend at the inaugural Cape Town E-Prix; however, René Rast still performed superbly and recovered from a grid penalty to claim fourth.

McLaren’s weekend in Cape Town was arguably one of their most difficult of the season, with the team having not had the usual pace that’s seen them towards the front all season so far. The Woking-based team are usually one of the best in qualifying; however, Jake Hughes qualified thirteenth after hitting a wall, and Rast qualified seventh. Rast actually the started the race in tenth following a three-place grid penalty for hitting Jake Dennis in India, giving him plenty of work to do.

Despite his grid penalty, Rast recovered superbly during the race to claim fourth, elevating him from eighth to seventh in the Drivers’ Championship. Hughes’ race was just as challenging as his qualifying, with the Brit having struggled for pace towards the end of race, resulting in him only managing tenth.

McLaren Team Principal Ian James recognises that “there’s still work to do in order to realise our full potential”, with the hope being that they can find more pace across the next month before the inaugural race in São Paulo.

“Cape Town has, undoubtedly, provided one of the most stunning backdrops to a Formula E race. The Capetonians have also welcomed us with open arms, proving not only to be passionate about motorsport, but knowledgeable about Formula E. I’m confident that the race itself also delivered for the fans, with action aplenty.

René Rast bounced back from his error in Hyderabad superbly at last weekend’s inaugural Cape Town E-Prix, with the German having worked his way from tenth to fourth, securing him some valuable points.

Rast was slapped with a three-place penalty after he took out Jake Dennis in India, meaning he started in tenth on Saturday rather than seventh. Regardless, he worked his way towards the front incredibly well, thanks to “good energy management”. His strong points haul saw him rise to seventh in the Drivers’ Championship, with the German continuing to push towards the top five.

Rast was incredibly pleased with the way himself and the NEOM McLaren Formula E Team “executed” the race in Cape Town, with the “right calls” having also been made.

“Today was good. I had a good recovery today. I started the race in P10 and finished in P4. I was really happy with my performance in Qualifying in the Group stage, where I was fastest, which unfortunately didn’t come together in the Duels.

“I then received a penalty from India, so started three places back. However, I had good race pace, good efficiency, good energy management and the team and I made the right calls. I’m very happy with how we executed the race and delighted to have scored some more points, a good step in the right direction. Next up is Brazil next month, which I am looking forward to.”

Last weekend’s inaugural Cape Town E-Prix was overall a successful one for DS Penske, with Jean-Éric Vergne having narrowly missed out on back-to-back victories in the 2022/23 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship.

The Frenchman has thrown himself into title contention, after both Pascal Wehrlein and Jake Dennis failed to score any points. Vergne’s second place finish last Saturday saw him close the gap to Wehrlein to thirty points, with DS Penske having also moved up to fifth in the Constructors’ Championship, marking a successful couple of rounds for the Americans.

Reigning World Champion Stoffel Vandoorne had a mixed weekend, with his qualifying having been ruined by a red flag in the closing minutes of his group. He started outside the top ten as a result, yet managed to recover to claim seventh, securing him some solid points. Vandoorne still finds himself outside the top ten in the Drivers’ Championship, meaning he still has plenty of work to do to get himself into the fight at the front.

Despite Vandoorne’s title woes, DS Penske are certainly getting stronger at each E-Prix, with Team Principal Jay Penske hoping that his team can “keep that momentum” and continue to push in “the right direction”.

“Seeing JEV on the podium twice in a row confirms our performance, he’s done a fantastic job and moreover, shows his skills to adapt quickly to the fastest track of the calendar. I’m confident Stoffel’s fortunes will turn around very soon too, he fought hard and drove a great race to end in the points. Well done to the whole team, we are definitely on the right direction and we need to keep that momentum.”

Jean-Éric Vergne has certainly elevated himself into title contention, with the double Formula E Champion having claimed an impressive second place at the inaugural Cape Town E-Prix, which hosted the fifth round of the 2022/23 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship.

After an abysmal start to the Gen3 era, Vergne and DS Penske are certainly fighting back with some force, with the Frenchman having now claimed back-to-back podiums. Of course, his podium in India was a victory, with him having actually come exceptionally close to winning in Cape Town, only to be denied by a breathtaking overtake by race winner António Félix da Costa.

Vergne showed good pace all weekend and closed the gap to Pascal Wehrlein in the championship to thirty-one points, having gained nineteen on the German who retired. Whilst Vergne and the team still have some work to do, the veteran is pleased to see that the team are “coming back stronger” now at every single race, with the Americans seemingly on an upward trajectory.

“It’s been a really nice weekend in Cape Town, I’ve loved this city and the location of the track was amazing. The track itself was very, very cool. Overall, I’m very happy with second place, and happy to be frustrated with second place! I think we’re coming back stronger race after race as a team, and as long as we keep going in that direction, I’m going to be very happy.”

“At some point, my luck will turn around” – Stoffel Vandoorne

On the other side of the DS Penske garage, it was another frustrating weekend for Stoffel Vandoorne, who was denied a place in the duels following a red flag in his qualifying group.

Attrition hit the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge field like a truck in Stage #1, with uneven dunes and fuel attrition hampering many competitors. Appropriately, the top performing vehicle on Monday was a pickup truck so iconically durable that deserts have historically been navigated in virtually every manner from insurgencies to motorsport.

Toyota Hiluxes swept the T1 podium with Nasser Al-Attiyah, Yazeed Al-Rajhi, and Henk Lategan completely in control. Al-Attiyah, who won the Prologue, continued his momentum as he beat Lategan and Al-Rajhi by nearly six minutes, while fellow Hilux driver Juan Cruz Yacopini was fifth. Martin Prokop‘s Ford Raptor was fourth but still placed nine minutes back of Al-Attiyah.

Prodrive’s two Hunters Sébastien Loeb and Guerlain Chicherit have long been projected as Al-Attiyah’s biggest rivals, but mechanical gremlins that doomed their Dakar Rally overall hopes came back to haunt Loeb as a damaged cooling pipe knocked him out after thirty-nine kilometres. Chicherit was the closest contender to Al-Attiyah but stopped twice due to motion sickness; although he managed to finish the stage, the medical development forced him to retire from the rally altogether.

“We had the water pipe problem that we’ve never seen before over all the thousands of kilometres of testing and competition we’ve done, but that’s another step on the learning curve for us,” commented Bahrain Raid Xtreme team principal Gus Beteli. “We’ll get the car ready for tomorrow and attack these stages here in Abu Dhabi to get as many Championship points as we can. Guerlain’s car was perfect so it’s such a shame for him to feel sick in the dunes even after the treatment he’s had after Dakar so we wish him well to recover for Mexico.”

Chicherit was not the only competitor to experience health episodes during the day. Rally2 rider Vincent Biau had woken up feeling ill and took medication before starting the leg, but found himself having to stop multiple times to vomit or rest. While Biau had been exhibiting symptoms prior to the race, many noted that the stage was particularly difficult due to an abundance of broken dunes and high temperatures.

It was an incredibly mixed Cape Town E-Prix for the TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team, with António Félix da Costa having claimed his first victory for the team, whilst championship leader Pascal Wehrlein retired.

The inaugural race in South Africa will go down as one of the greatest in the history of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, with Team Principal Florian Modlinger having hailed the event as “great advertising” for the all-electric series. Da Costa’s magic victory means the factory Porsche outfit have won three out of five races this season, highlighting their supremacy when it comes to races.

Wehrlein would’ve been in contention for the win presumably had he not ploughed into the back of Sébastian Buemi on the opening lap, after out-braking himself in dramatic fashion. Thankfully for the German, his lead in the standings remains at eighteen points, after Jake Dennis failed to finish in the points.

Considering Da Costa started in eleventh, the Portuguese driver certainly wasn’t expected to fight for the win; however, he showed excellent racecraft to work his way to the front. His overtake on Jean-Éric Vergne for the race win was breathtaking, after he dived down the inside of the Frenchman at the insanely fast Turn Eight on the penultimate lap.

Da Costa’s special win means Porsche actually extended their lead in the Constructors’ Championship considerably, with the Germans now boasting a forty-two point lead over Envision Racing.

Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake Technical Director Jan Monchaux reflected on a successful weekend of running at Bahrain International Circuit for pre-season testing ahead of the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship. 

Alfa Romeo completed 401 laps between their two drivers, Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas, across the weekend. The team also took the third fastest time of testing as a whole, which may be a source of encouragement in spite of the caveat of the testing conditions in play. 

“We can be satisfied about these three days of solid work. The most important thing when having limited testing is to tick off all the boxes, and we’ve managed to do that: we collected plenty of data and I feel we’ve prepared for the season as best as we could.”

Monchaux was satisfied with the reliability of C43 throughout testing, with only minimal issues appearing through testing– all of which were quickly remedied by the team’s crew in the garage without much delay. 

“Reliability was reasonably good for this stage in the season, and when we had some minor issues, the good work by our crew enabled us to make up the lost time without affecting our programme.”

Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake’s Valtteri Bottas has already noticed improvements compared to last year’s car during pre-season testing at Bahrain International Circuit, where the team were able to gather knowledge and prepare their C43 ahead of the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship.

Bottas was able to complete seventy-one laps on the opening day of testing, taking the driver’s seat of C43 for the afternoon session. He slotted into twelfth on the timesheets with a 1:34.558. He was pleased to be able to complete his entire testing schedule, which was important in setting the basis for the rest of the weekend.  

“Our running has been good today, we got through the whole program, which was our objective for today. Getting good mileage on the first day of testing is the most important thing, and we were able to learn more about the car, find out the first indications on which setups work, how the new tyres feel and all of that. 

“Overall, it’s been a good Day One; there is still work to do, of course, but it has been a good start and I can already feel some improvements from last year.”

Saturday saw Bottas in the car for both sessions, completing a total of 131 laps and clocking a fastest lap of 1:30.827. With this time, he ended the day in an encouraging third place. 

Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake’s Zhou Guanyu looks forward to hitting the ground running after a successful pre-season test at Bahrain International Circuit, having achieved strong results and gotten in significant mileage ahead of the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship.

After Thursday’s sessions were complete, Zhou’s fastest time of 1:33.723 landed him in eighth place on the time sheets. He was able to put in sixty-seven laps that morning, completing his programme in spite of a lengthy red flag. 

He was encouraged by the result of the first day, already feeling at home in the team’s C43 after a smooth day’s running for the Chinese driver. 

“It felt good to be back in the car today. Everything went quite smoothly, and I felt comfortable straight away. Of course, this is only the opening day of testing, and there is plenty of work ahead for everyone, but it’s been a positive start. 

“We have been able to complete all of our schedule, even though there was a pretty long red flag at the very beginning of the day. Overall, I can consider myself quite happy.”

Alexander Albon reckons Williams Racing are ‘definitely’ in a better place with their car than they were twelve months ago after three productive days of pre-season testing at the Bahrain International Circuit.

Williams struggled under the new regulations in 2022 with the team scoring only eight points across the season, four of which were scored by Albon.  They had a best finish of ninth, which they achieved three times, once each for Albon, Nicholas Latifi and Nyck de Vries.

Albon, who returned to the FIA Formula 1 World Championship last year after sitting out the 2021 season, says the mileage Williams achieved during the three days in Bahrain was good, and it will be important now to sit down and go through the data they have acquired in order to prepare for the first race of the season.

And with Williams in that better place, he is keen to see just how far he can take the team during the 2023 season as they bid to pull themselves off the bottom of the championship standings.

“In terms of mileage, we’ve had a very good three days,” said former Red Bull Racing driver Albon.  “We’ve ticked everything we wanted to tick off and completed our race and qualifying runs.

Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team had a mixed three days of testing ahead of the seasoner opener at the Bahrain International Circuit in less than a week.

The German team suffered a large number of problems on Day Two of the three-day test, with George Russell getting limited running after an issue that saw him bring out a red flag mid-way through the afternoon session. Even the morning session saw Lewis Hamilton struggle with performance and grip throughout his runs, which is not what we’ve been expecting from a team that will be fighting to take back the Constructors Championship after Red Bull took it away from them last year for the first time in eight years.

Day Three saw a much better outcome for the team though, completing 148 laps and looking much more competitive in both the morning and the afternoon sessions. It was certainly a much more successful day for the team, who made extensive changes overnight and it clearly paid off with Russell doing well on a number of compounds and setting the, at the time, fastest lap on the C5 tyre, before Charles Leclerc went four-tenths quicker than the Brit. Hamilton got his place in the car in the afternoon session on Saturday and did lots of race simulation work on harder compounds before setting the fastest time of the session on the C5 compound, a time that would later drop below Sergio Pérez.

“It has been an interesting few days here in Bahrain,” said seven-time World Champion Hamilton. “There has been a lot of discovery and the whole team has approached it with the same mentality, working hard, not being complacent and staying focused.

“We’re not quite where we want to be but it’s a good platform to start from. We don’t know where we will be next week, but we will stay positive and continue to push to the maximum.“

Logan Sargeant completed his first pre-season testing programme as a FIA Formula 1 World Championship driver on Friday, with the American completing one hundred and fifty-four laps of the Bahrain International Circuit.

Sargeant, who becomes the first American to race in Formula 1 since Alexander Rossi raced five times for the Manor F1 Team back in 2015, says his running with Williams Racing in Bahrain proved to him that his fitness is up to the level required to race in Formula 1.

And he was pleased with the pace and performance shown by Williams with their updated FW45, with the car seemingly improving throughout the test, although he knows there is still things to do for the team to be truly competitive in 2023.

“I think today tops the most kilometres I’ve ever done in a day,” said Sargeant after Friday’s running.  “I was able to physically hold up well.

“We got through so much running which is a testament to the team and the hard work they’ve put in. We moved in the right direction the whole day and it was really positive.

Otmar Szafnauer says the BWT Alpine F1 Team are feeling ready for the start of the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season after three positive days of testing at the Bahrain International Circuit.

Szafnauer, the Team Principal of the Enstone-based outfit, was pleased with the three days of running in Bahrain, with Esteban Ocon and new signing Pierre Gasly both putting in consistent performances.

The team stuck to its plan rather than looking for sensationalist lap times across all three days, and Szafnauer reckons it was good to get as much running as they did so to prepare for the new season in the best possible manner.

And going into next Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix, the American hopes that his new driver pairing can start the year on a positive note and bring home a good haul of points.

“Today marked the final day of pre-season testing in Bahrain and we’re all feeling ready for the racing to begin next weekend,” said Szafnauer.  

Esteban Ocon feels the BWT Alpine F1 Team learned a lot during the three days of testing at the Bahrain International Circuit last week as everyone prepares to start the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season.

Alpine did not go for ultimate lap time throughout the three days of testing in Bahrain, but Ocon feels the team made a lot of progress with the development of the A532 that should give them a good platform to build on.

The Frenchman remains confident that the team can hit the ground running in 2023 and build on what was an impressive 2022 campaign for them, with Alpine looking to close the gap to the leading three teams and fight more regularly for potential podiums this season.

“It’s been good to properly kick off the new season and put the A523 to the test here in Bahrain,” said Ocon, who scored his maiden Formula 1 win with Alpine back in 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix.  

“There was much to learn during these last three days and we definitely did a good job to cover many different areas. We tried a variety of set-up items and tyre choices, and operationally we managed to have a good feel for what works well.

Pierre Gasly says he is excited for the start of the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season after feeling it had been a productive three days of testing at the Bahrain International Circuit for his new team, BWT Alpine F1 Team.

Gasly moved to Alpine at the end of 2022 after concluding his time with Scuderia AlphaTauri, a team that took him to his maiden Formula 1 victory in 2020 and gave him two other trips to the podium.

Although Alpine did not set sensational lap times throughout the three days, the Frenchman remains confident of the potential of the A523, and he cannot now wait to get behind the wheel of the car again in opening practice this weekend.

Gasly says Alpine completed most of their planned runs throughout the three days in Bahrain, and although he knows there is still work to do, he is pleased with the progress made and he is keen to see where the Enstone-based team are in the true pecking order.

“It’s been a very intense three days for pre-season testing in Bahrain and, I must say, I’m definitely ready and excited for the first Grand Prix next weekend,” said Gasly.  “For me, this week was all about continuing my familiarisation with the team and getting up to speed with the A523 on track.