Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

The NEOM McLaren Formula E Team have started the 2022/23 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship superbly, with the newest side to the all-electric series having claimed a podium and a pole position at the recent double-header in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia.

McLaren’s employees have “pulled together as a collective” to hit the ground running in Formula E, with René Rast and rookie Jake Hughes having also played their part. It was Rast who claimed a podium at the recent round in Saudi Arabia, whilst Hughes claimed his first Formula E pole position on just his third attempt. Given how well the season has started for the Woking-based team, they enter this weekend’s inaugural Hyderabad E-Prix full of confidence.

Heading into the fourth round in India, McLaren currently sit third in the Constructors’ Championship, but are some way behind the two Porsche-powered teams on the grid. There is no doubt that McLaren perhaps have the best package when it comes to qualifying and single-lap pace, with Hughes having started all three races this season in the top three. McLaren’s issues, though, appear to come to light during the race, with energy management seemingly being the big concern.

With this in mind, Team Principal Ian James is aware that there’s “still a gap” to Porsche up-ahead, with it being something that the side need to “address” to move towards the top two in the standings.

“The season so far has been a really positive journey for the team. Since our debut race as the NEOM McLaren Formula E Team out in Mexico City, the team has proven they can live up to the challenges this Championship places on us. Everyone has pulled together as a collective and continues to push for excellence. However, there’s still a gap to the front-runners which we need to address and all teams will be looking to improve going forward – so there will be no let-up on our side either.

Rookie Jake Hughes has been one of the star performers so far in the 2022/23 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, with the NEOM McLaren Formula E Team driver having started life in the all-electric series brilliantly.

The British driver has so far finished fifth on two occasions and eighth once in the opening three races of the Gen3 era, leaving the twenty-eight year-old fifth in the Drivers’ Championship as it stands. If that wasn’t enough, the rookie claimed his first Formula E pole position ahead of the second race in Diriyah, something he’d love to do again this weekend at the inaugural Hyderabad E-Prix.

Formula E heads to India for the first time in the history of the all-electric series this weekend, with it kicking-off a three-race streak of new host cities. Hughes goes into the weekend with a “fair amount of confidence” as a result of his great start to the season, with him currently having finished every race in the points.

The British driver is looking forward to seeing the “passionate” Indian fans and is hopeful of another great result.

“I’m really looking forward to racing in India, Formula E’s first new race of the season. We have three races in a row all at new venues, and I think India is the perfect place to start. The fans there are so passionate and really love motorsport, and visiting Hyderabad is something I am really looking forward to. It will also be exciting getting to experience the atmosphere at the race.

Mattias Ekström, winner of the 2016 FIA World Rallycross Championship, has been announced as Rallycross Promotor’s new Sporting Director. Working closely with Executive Director Arne Dirks, Ekström will help develop and grow World RX as it heads into its second decade as a championship, and its second all-electric season.

Ekström’s experience in the sport is generational. He started watching his father, Bengt Ekström, compete in the European championship back in the 1980s. “Certainly it is what inspired me to follow in my father’s footsteps and pursue a career in motorsport” Ekström explained, adding “it’s a discipline I love, one that has brought me a lot of success and one that I am convinced has a very bright future.”

Speaking about his new role, Ekström said “as Sporting Director, I will represent Rallycross Promoter in all sporting matters relating to the World Championship, from the format to commercial and sponsorship affairs and in broader terms, the overall product. I’m keen to bring the benefit of my experience to really strengthen the series at this important stage in its history”.

That stage of history began last year with the introduction of the new all-electric RX1e class. The electric monsters produced some electrifying racing as the season progressed and the teams and drivers developed their vehicles. For Ekström, the future of rallycross is bright and the potential for the sport to grow is enormous: “The length of the races mean drivers can really exploit the full power and potential of these amazing cars, and if we want to get the manufacturers back in and more teams and sponsors involved – which is clearly one of the major goals – being more sustainable is the only way forward. In the future, all motorsport will be judged on how sustainable it is; the time to act is now”.

Executive Director Dirks is delighted to have Ekström on board: “He is a very familiar face in the motorsport world and somebody whose reputation for success and forward-thinking precedes him. He knows the rallycross business inside-out and is obviously extremely well-connected and respected in the industry. His addition to the team adds another layer of credibility at an exciting time for the World Championship, as we race full speed ahead towards the second season of our new electric era”.

Charles Leclerc believes only small improvements are needed ahead of the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship, with the Monegasque driver feeling no major changes are needed to have a better season.

The Scuderia Ferrari driver started the 2022 season in great form with two victories in the opening three races, but a series of mistakes and mechanical issues and the rise of Oracle Red Bull Racing restricted him to just one further win across the remaining nineteen races.

Leclerc says he will go into 2023 with more maturity after learning a lot throughout the previous year, but it is just small areas of growth rather than an overhaul of his driver that he is aiming for this season.

“I think I mature every season — you learn new things, so you change as a driver,” Leclerc is quoted as saying by Racer.com on a recent YouTube blog. “Whether there is a particular change where I was like, ‘OK, this I need to change,’ not really.

“It’s just small improvements. After every mistake you learn and you grow, so I’m more mature. But there’s not been a particular change, no.”

Toby Hederics has tackled Australia’s toughest off-road events, but he wants to expand his horizons beyond to one of the hardest events in the world as he plans to compete in the 2025 Dakar Rally. He will race a bike under the Hederics Racing Australia banner.

“We are so excited to finally announce HRA has been working on BIG things,” posted HRA on social media. “Follow along here for all the behind the scenes, exclusive announcements and hold on for the ride as we get our Toby to Dakar 2025!! You’re not going to want to miss a minute! Now, lets GET IT!”

Hederics’ experience includes the Australian Off-Road Championship and its premier event Finke Desert Race. In 2017, he was the second-best bike finisher in the inaugural Sunraysia Safari Rally behind Dakar veteran Rodney Faggotter; another overall runner-up came in 2019 after battling with Jacob Smith throughout.

His father John “Hedge” Hederics was nicknamed “Australia’s Stéphane Peterhansel“, a nod to the fourteen-time Dakar Rally winner and in reference to John’s successes that include ten Australasian Safari victories. Toby and John, as well as the former’s older brother Beau, have competed together on both two and four wheels in races like Sunraysia; Toby also served as John’s navigator during the 2022 AORC season.

Off the track, Hederics and his family operate an orange orchard in Belah Heights, for which he has travelled abroad to Spain to study citrus farming techniques. The 27-year-old is a member of the Murray Valley Regional Advisory Committee for Citrus Australia.

Jack Aitken has confirmed that he has left his role as test driver for Williams Racing and has switched his attention to making a career in sportscar racing.

The Anglo-Korean driver competed in one Grand Prix for Williams, racing in place of George Russell for the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix when the Briton was brought in by the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team in place of the COVID-19-hit Lewis Hamilton.

Aitken then spent the next two years as part of the Williams Development line-up, but with no full-time seat opening up for him within the Grove-based team – both Alexander Albon and Logan Sargeant are reportedly on multi-year contracts – he has called time on his role.

“We’ve mutually decided to part ways,” said Aitken to Motorsport.com ahead of his recent Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona debut with the Action Express Cadillac outfit.

“I kept an involvement last year, which was great. I really like the team and I’m based half-an-hour away from the factory, so it was very convenient to do simulator work and I was happy to help and attend some races.

Besides full-timers Carson Hocevar and Lawless Alan, Niece Motorsports will field a multi-driver #41 for the entire 2023 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season. Travis Pastrana will kick off the season in the truck at Daytona International Speedway, while others expected to also pilot the #41 include Ross Chastain and his younger brother Chad, as well as Bayley Currey, among others yet to be revealed.

While Pastrana is known for his action sports exploits, he has been eager to dip his feet back into NASCAR since the turn of the decade. This is most notably highlighted by his hopes of making the Daytona 500 and by extension his Cup Series début for 23XI Racing, with the Daytona Truck race taking place two days prior. All five of Pastrana’s Truck starts have come at 1.5-milers, four being at Las Vegas while the exception was at Kansas in 2020. His 2017 and 2020 Truck races all came for Niece, whose general manager Cody Efaw was his crew chief during his lone full season in the Xfinity Series in 2013.

“I’ve had the pleasure of working with Al (Niece, team owner), Cody, and the Niece Motorsports crew quite a bit since the team was formed,” said Pastrana. “I was looking to be part of as much racing as possible during Daytona Speedweeks this year and couldn’t be happier to have the opportunity to drive their #41 truck with support from WWEX Racing in my first Daytona start in the Truck Series.”

Ross Chastain finished runner-up in the 2019 Truck Series championship with Niece before moving up the ranks and becoming one of Cup Series’ hottest names, especially following his since-banned video game wallride at Martinsville last year en route to a second-place points run. He has continued to race for Niece in the years since graduating to the Xfinity and eventually Cup tiers, scoring a win at Charlotte in the #41 in 2022.

Chad Chastain, who is six years younger, has four Truck starts to his name, all for Niece since 2021. He ran three races in 2022 in the #41 and #44, curiously finishing thirtieth in all of them.

In 2021, Colby Howard ran a pair of NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series races for CR7 Motorsports. Two years later, he will run the full season for the team in the #9 Chevrolet Silverado RST. The team announced the hiring on Tuesday.

Howard finished seventeenth in the 2022 Truck standings, his first as a regular in the series, for McAnally-Hilgemann Racing with three top tens. He was not retained by MHR for 2023 as his #91 became the #35 and was filled by Jake Garcia. His series début came with Young’s Motorsports in the final two races of 2019, while he finished thirteenth (Darlington), fifteenth (Bristol), and thirty-eighth (Martinsville) in three starts for CR7 in 2021.

He arrived in the Trucks after spending the last two seasons in the Xfinity Series for JD Motorsports. Howard was originally running the full 2021 Xfinity slate before leaving JDM midseason to begin his transition into the Trucks.

“It was an easy decision for us to put Colby in the #9 Chevrolet Silverado with the speed he showed two years ago when he ran select events with our team, and also with the impressive season he had last year,” said team owner Codie Rohrbaugh. “I have been very pleased with the work and dedication he has put into CR7 Motorsports during the offseason. We have a lot to prove this year.”

As part of his new duties with CR7, Howard will also become a full-time mechanic in the team shop.

Conor Daly will once again join forces with boxing great Floyd Mayweather‘s The Money Team Racing in 2023, this time entering the Daytona 500 and up to six to-be-announced races.

“The Money Team Racing shocked the world by making the Daytona 500 last year and I believe in this team and know we will prepare a great car for this year’s race,” said Mayweather. “Like a fighter who’s always ready to face the best, Conor has the courage to buckle into this beast without any practice and put that car into the field. Conor is like a hungry fighter and my kind of guy. I sure wouldn’t bet against him.”

Daly made his Cup début at the Charlotte Roval in 2022 with TMT, where he finished thirty-fourth. The start came after making one-offs over the previous two years in the Truck Series for Niece Motorsports, which in turn occurred during breaks in the NTT IndyCar Series seasons.

He is set to enter his fourth full-time campaign in IndyCar with Ed Carpenter Racing. He finished seventeenth in the 2022 standings with a best finish of fifth in the GMR Grand Prix followed by a career-high sixth in the Indianapolis 500.

“I am thrilled to be given the opportunity to attempt to run in the Daytona 500,” Daly commented. “It is the most prestigious race in NASCAR and to have the chance to compete in it is truly an honor. I am also excited to be running the entire IndyCar Series season and select NASCAR Cup events.”

The 2022/23 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship has started almost perfectly for the TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team, with the German manufacturer having certainly developed what appears to be the best Gen3 powertrain, resulting in three victories already this season.

From the three completed races this year, Porsche have locked-out first and second at each, with the factory outfit having won the double-header in Diriyah thanks to Pascal Wehrlein. Wehrlein and Jake Dennis – who drives for Porsche’s customer team – have dominated the season so far, to the point where they look almost unbeatable. Season Nine has certainly seen Porsche awaken in the series, having been somewhat of a sleeping giant up until this year.

Team Principal Florian Modlinger is understandably incredibly pleased to see how “successful” the start of the season has been; however, he’s warned that the side will have to “improve from race to race” to remain ahead.

“In Formula E, we’re all racing in completely new cars. So of course it’s great to have such a successful start to the new season. We’ve shown how strong we are on two completely different racetracks. Nevertheless, it’s no guarantee of success. We’ll have to improve from race to race and keep a close eye on the competition. In Hyderabad we’ll be facing the first of this season’s new racetracks.

“As always, we’re preparing meticulously and working on the weaknesses we’ve identified so that we can be competitive in India, as well.”

Pascal Wehrlein enters round fourth of the 2022/23 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship as the current Championship leader, after winning both races at the Diriyah double-header. Due to having won both races, Wehrlein can match the record for most consecutive victories in the all-electric series, should he win the inaugural Hyderabad E-Prix.

The German driver was immense in Saudi Arabia, with him having fought his way through the points places with ease in both races, thanks to superb energy management. His overall performance at the recent double-header has resulted in “so much positive energy” amongst the TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team; however, Wehrlein knows that there are “still things we need to work on”.

“Super,” the German replied in response to what it’s like leading the standings.

“It was incredibly good to feel so much positive energy in the team after the two wins in Diriyah. Everyone has put a lot of commitment, heart and soul into this project, and this fantastic start to the season makes us all proud. Of course, there are still things we need to work on. We’re not the strongest in qualifying yet.

“Still, we’ve managed to put ourselves in a position where we can drive to the very front of the field. The car is still new to us and we’re getting better acquainted with it every weekend. We’ve done our homework for now, but just because we’ve won doesn’t mean we can take our foot off the throttle.”

After last racing in NASCAR‘s national divisions in 2014, Jason White has been keen to return since the turn of the decade. Two years after making his first Xfinity Series starts in seven years, he will enter a Craftsman Truck Series event for the first time in nearly a decade when he pilots the #1 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro of TRICON Garage at Daytona International Speedway on 17 February.

White was a Truck Series regular in the early 2010s, notably racing with backing from firearm auction site GunBroker. His most successful campaign came in 2010 with current Xfinity team SS-Green Light Racing when he won the pole at Daytona and scored six top tens to place tenth in points. 2014 marked his most recent year of Truck competition when he ran four races for RSS Racing (also now in Xfinity) and the since defunct NTS Motorsports, finishing twenty-third at Las Vegas in his last start. In 156 career Truck starts, he has twenty-one top tens.

He returned to NASCAR in 2021 on an Xfinity superspeedway-only schedule for RSS and MBM Motorsports, highlighted by a tenth at Daytona.

TRICON’s #1 is their multi-driver truck, with William Sawalich set to run six races in it starting at Martinsville in April. Now Toyota’s flagship Truck team, TRICON is fielding four full-time trucks: the #5 for Dean Thompson, the #11 for Corey Heim, the #15 for Tanner Gray, and the #17 for Taylor Gray with Sammy Smith as one of his substitutes due to the former being too young for larger tracks.

ABT CUPRA Formula E Team boss Thomas Biermaier has revealed how “proud” he is of “each individual” within the German outfit, as the 2022/23 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship continues to be an incredibly challenging one.

ABT’s return to Formula E has perhaps been even more difficult than they ever imagined, with the team having already suffered three retirements from the first three races of the season. After Robin Frijns crashed out at the season opener, Nico Mueller retired from both races at the Diriyah double-header, to further add to the team’s poor start to the year. The only upside of Diriyah was how well rookie Kelvin van der Linde did whilst replacing Frijns, with the Dutchman having been ruled out for the bulk of the season.

This weekend’s inaugural Hyderabad E-Prix, though, presents ABT CUPRA with a great opportunity to finish higher up the order, given that the Hyderabad Street Circuit is new for everybody. Biermaier knows how tough things are for his side at the moment but recognises that they are “going in the right direction”, even if the “steps are small”

“Our entire team, all mechanics, engineers and race drivers, are used to success. Now we’re facing a whole new challenge, and I’m proud of how each individual is taking on this task. Everyone is working as hard as they can in their own area to make sure we catch up soon. With Formula E’s tight calendar, the steps are small at the moment, but they are going in the right direction. We’re going to India with exactly the same spirit.”

Biermaier also gave van der Linde a special mention ahead of this weekend, with the South African having been thrown into “ice cold water” in Diriyah.

Zane Smith will officially race the #36 Ford Mustang for Front Row Motorsports in his Daytona 500 début, the team announced Tuesday. His 2023 NASCAR Cup Series schedule will also eat into his team-mate Todd Gilliland‘s slate as Smith will take over his #38 for five rounds.

Smith is perhaps the hottest Ford prospect today as the reigning Craftsman Truck Series champion, who finally claimed the title in 2022 for FRM after back-to-back runner-up finishes. He will return to the FRM #38 truck to defend his championship in 2023, while also making select starts in the Cup and Xfinity Series. Healthcare company Centene Corporation will sponsor his Cup and Truck rides.

The #36 ran the full Cup season in 2019 for Matt Tifft, with Matt Crafton and John Hunter Nemechek making starts as injury substitutes, before being shuttered at season’s end. It was revived in 2020 and 2021 as a Daytona 500-only entry with David Ragan.

“I’m fortunate to have a great sponsor of Centene’s stature to step up and support me and Front Row Motorsports as I look to gain racing experience in the NASCAR Cup Series while at the same time defending the NASCAR Craftsman title,” said Smith. “I’m excited to represent Ambetter Health and Wellcare as Centene continues to grow their involvement in NASCAR and their healthcare presence across the United States.”

After Daytona, Smith will replace Gilliland in the #38 at Phoenix Raceway (12 March), Talladega Superspeedway (23 April), Sonoma Raceway (11 June), Texas Motor Speedway (24 September), and the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval (8 October).

Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake unveiled its 2023 challenger Tuesday morning, the C43, at a launch event held jointly in Zurich and at the team’s headquarters in Hinwil, Switzerland.

After the MoneyGram Haas F1 Team and Williams Racing revealed their liveries, and Oracle Red Bull Racing unveiled their RB19 car – albeit one that looked almost identical to last year’s title winner – Alfa Romeo became the fourth team to appear in the launch season so far. The C43 has a striking and new-look livery; the team have dropped their usual red and white colours and have adopted a new and impressive black and red one. Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas will be hoping the new look can lead them to an improvement in the standings of the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship, which they finished sixth in last season.

“Bringing a car to life is a long process which touches every department of a racing team, therefore it’s a moment of great pride to see it unveiled today,” said Alessandro Alunni Bravi, the Managing Director of Sauber Group and Team Representative.

“We chose to do it in front of our fans, close to our home, because the launch of a new car is not only a moment to state your objectives for the season ahead: it’s also a time to give back to the people who have supported you, be it in the grandstands, in front of the TV or back at the factory, and express our gratitude for their passion and their belief in our project.

“Our new car is the results of months of work, but today is just the beginning of a journey: we need to keep working hard, with humility and dedication, to bring performance to the track. Everyone in the team is committed to this target and we are confident we will reap the rewards of our work.”