Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Laurent Rossi has said that both Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly will be ‘losers’ if they crash each other out during the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season as the two Frenchman become team-mates at the BWT Alpine F1 Team.

Gasly has moved across from Scuderia AlphaTauri to replace the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula 1 Team-bound Fernando Alonso to join Ocon at the Enstone-based team, and the two have openly admitted in the past they have not had the best of relationships coming through the junior formulae.

Although both have subsequently said that they are happy to work alongside each other and be professional about it, Rossi, the CEO of Alpine, says they will not tolerate any issues between Ocon and Gasly that would negatively affect the team.

“If any problems come up, they (Ocon and Gasly) will be the losers because everyone expects that and many think they are big kids,” Rossi is quoted as saying to French publication L’Equipe by PlanetF1.  “There they can show that they have transformed into mature leaders.

“At the end of the contract, they will approach 30 years [of age], they must not mess up because it is dangerous to find yourself pushed out of a team because you haven’t shown sufficient maturity. Both are aware of this and they have affirmed it to me individually and together.”

With Michael McDowell on the best two-year stretch of his career by a wide margin and Todd Gilliland entering his sophomore run, it comes with little surprise that Front Row Motorsports will keep the duo in the #34 and #38 Ford Mustangs for the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season.

While the drivers remain the same, they will have new names calling the shots for them. Travis Peterson will work as McDowell’s crew chief, coming over from Ford ally RFK Racing where he was the engineer for Chris Buescher’s #17. Ryan Bergenty becomes Gilliland’s crew chief after working as McDowell’s car chief. McDowell’s 2021 crew chief Blake Harris was hired by Hendrick Motorsports to work with Alex Bowman while Seth Barbour is promoted from the #38’s pit box to team technical director.

“Michael and Todd are an intricate part of continuing our NASCAR Cup Series success in 2023,” commented team manager Jerry Freeze. “Michael and the #34 team are coming off a record year, and we believe with Travis Peterson, they will only build on that success and have an even better season.

“Todd showed us growth in his rookie campaign. The addition of Ryan as the crew chief, and the promotion of Seth, we believe we’re making changes to give Todd what he needs to improve.”

After racing in inferior equipment for much of his Cup career, McDowell’s fortunes took a turn for the significantly better when he won the Daytona 500 in 2021 and made the playoffs. He backed up the year with an even better 2022 statistical campaign as he more than doubled his top tens (twelve in 2022 versus five the previous year). Had it not been for a 100-point penalty that relegated him to twenty-third in the standings, he would have finished in the top twenty.

In 2018, ThorSport Racing switched to Ford after spending six years with Toyota, only to return to the latter in 2021. After two seasons, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series team has rejoined the Blue Oval for 2023.

“With twenty-eight years in the Truck Series, we look forward to the partnership with Ford Performance in NASCAR,” said team owner Duke Thorson. “Our pursuit of wins and championships remains at the forefront of our objectives.”

Despite only spending three years with Ford, ThorSport won the 2019 championship with Matt Crafton. It was their third of four total titles in the Truck Series, with the other three—most recently in 2021 with Ben Rhodes—coming with Toyota.

ThorSport raced with Chevrolet prior to 2012, meaning they have used all three current manufacturers.

As part of their new alliance, ThorSport also claims dibs on Ford Performance’s driver development programme. As such, Hailie Deegan has joined the team after spending the last three years with David Gilliland Racing. She finished twenty-first in the 2022 standings with two top tens while winning Most Popular Driver.

After Maximilian Günther topped the first two days of pre-season testing at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo, Valencia, a new name finally ended a session on top, as Norman Nato went fastest on the third day of running.

Nato’s top spot would’ve thoroughly pleased the Nissan Formula E Team, with the Frenchman having actually looked very solid throughout the test so far. Nato, who is returning to the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship following a year out, went fastest with a 1:25.776, with Mahindra Racing‘s Oliver Rowland just behind in second.

The Brit was just a tenth behind the Frenchman following the close of the third day’s running, with Sébastian Buemi claiming third for Envision Racing, following a mixed pre-season so far. It meant that DS Automobiles didn’t have one of their powertrains in the top three for the first session so far of the official test; however, Edoardo Mortara ensured that there was one in the top four.

Mortara claimed fourth for Maserati MSG Racing, whilst his team-mate ended the third day in nineteenth and a couple of seconds off the pace. Mitch Evans and Sam Bird claimed fifth and sixth for Jaguar TCS Racing, with the DS Penske duo of Stoffel Vandoorne and Jean-Éric Vergne right behind in eighth and ninth respectively.

In between the Jaguar’s and DS Penske’s was Robin Frijns, who has been working well with the new ABT CUPRA Formula E Team outfit. Rounding off the top ten was top rookie Jake Hughes, who has looked solid all week so far for the NEOM McLaren Formula E Team. The Brit certainly looks comfortable in the all-electric series, with him having been a regular top ten finisher in testing so far.

It has been announced that Mick Schumacher will be Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team‘s reserve driver for the upcoming 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season.

Schumacher lost his seat in Formula 1 last month when it was confirmed by the Haas F1 Team that they had decided to replace the 2020 F2 champion with a veteran of the sport in Nico Hülkenberg.

Many fans were sceptical over this decision by Haas as Schumacher is a talented young driver who carries a very successful and important name within the sport. However, with that comes expectation and pressure to perform, which lead to Team Principal Guenther Steiner choosing a more experienced line up for next season.

On the other hand, Mercedes’ Team Principal Toto Wolff has spoken openly and positively about the German driver and his family with his father Michael Schumacher, his uncle Ralf Schumacher and cousin David Schumacher all previously racing for the Mercedes team across motorsport.

Wolff is delighted to have Schumacher join the team, believing that he has all the qualities to learn and improve with the team and the two years of experience that he already has in the sport will make him ready to step into the car if needed to.

It has been confirmed that Scuderia Ferrari and Mick Schumacher have decided to end their collaboration, with the German leaving the Ferrari Driver Academy after four years together.

Schumacher joined the prancing horse back in 2019 where he was a part of their young driver programme. A year later, the German driver would go on to win the 2020 FIA Formula 2 Championship with the Prema Racing team, winning three races to secure the title ahead of current NTT IndyCar Series star Callum Ilott and current Scuderia AlphaTauri driver Yuki Tsunoda.

In 2021, he was given a seat in the FIA Formula 1 World Championship with the Haas F1 Team. With Ferrari being an engine supplier to Haas, it made perfect sense for Schumacher to join the team and gain some experience at the pinnacle of the sport. However, Haas’ decision to focus purely on developing their 2022 car meant his first season was one fighting at the very back of the field.

Schumacher’s second session was better, and overall across his two seasons with the team, he started fourty-three races and scored twelve points. He finished in sixth place at the Red Bull Ring and in eighth place at Silverstone, but his season was blighted by high-profile and high-speed crashes during the Saudi Arabian and Monaco Grand Prix weekends.

His departure confirmed the rumours from earlier in the season that Schumacher would lose the backing of Ferrari at the end of the season, and the German also lost his Haas seat at the end of the year to Nico Hülkenberg.

Nico Hülkenberg knows he will need three months of ‘hardcore preparation’ ahead of his return to the FIA Formula 1 World Championship in 2023 after his first test with the Haas F1 Team last month left him struggling physically.

The German has been out of full-time racing in Formula since the end of the 2019 season, with Hülkenberg restricted to just five outings for COVID-19-hit drivers in that time, three for the BWT Racing Point Formula 1 Team in 2020 and two for the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team in 2022.

Hülkenberg, who will replace Mick Schumacher at Haas in 2023, completed one hundred and ten laps of the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi in the post-season test, and he admitted that by the end of the day, he was suffering with some ‘human degradation’, although he was expecting that after so long out of racing.

“It’s not just the neck, it’s the body, too – the glutes have to work a lot,” Hulkenberg is quoted as saying by Racer.com. “It was hard, tough, was feeling some human degradation towards the end of the day, but that was to be expected.

“I coped better than I expected to be honest, so that’s good. Three months of hardcore preparation now.

Life in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship has started beautifully for Maserati MSG Racing, as it was Maximilian Günther who once again ended the day top of the timesheets at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo, Valencia.

The German driver who departed the Nissan Formula E Team at the end of Season Eight to join Maserati, has started pre-season in fine fashion, having topped all three completed sessions so far. It certainly gives the impression that the Italian carmaker aren’t in the series to simply make up the numbers, with Günther having set the quickest lap ever completed at the circuit in a Formula E car.

Following Günther’s 1:25.449, was reigning World Champion Stoffel Vandoorne who appears to be getting on with DS Penske swimmingly; however, he was over a quarter of a second behind the rapid German.

Third was taken by Norman Nato in his Nissan, after enjoying a strong session in the Spanish sun following a difficult opening day of pre-season. The DS powertrain certainly appears to be working well, with fourth having been taken by Jean-Éric Vergne, making it two DS Penske’s in the top four and three DS powertrains in the top four.

It was actually four DS powertrains in the top five, as Edoardo Mortara claimed fifth just ahead of Robin Frijns. Perhaps the star of the day, though, was rookie Jake Hughes, who has looked super so far in Valencia.

Trident have confirmed that Oliver Goethe will join Gabriel Bortoleto in their 2023 FIA Formula 3 lineup, making the step up from Euroformula Open, after clinching the 2022 title.

This won’t be Goethe’s first F3 rodeo, as he participated in race weekends in Budapest and Spa-Francorchamps during the 2022 season, for Campos Racing.

Goethe impressed in his short Formula 3 stint, particularly at Spa, where he secured an incredible 4th place in the feature race.

The eighteen-year-old also impressed during Formula 3 post-season testing in Jerez, where he completed all three days of the test in Trident machinery.

Trident team principal Giacomo Ricci expressed his delight at their new signing as he said, “We are extremely proud to have him in our line-up for 2023 in FIA Formula 3 Championship and we look forward to a new season together.  

Logan Sargeant admitted he did not push as hard as he could have done during his free practice outings with the Williams Racing team at the end of the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season to ensure he acquired the Superlicence points needed to gain a full-time drive for 2023.

Sargeant will become the first American Formula 1 driver since Alexander Rossi in 2015 to race in Formula 1 next season when he replaces Nicholas Latifi at Williams. 

He participated in his first free practice session with the team in his home event at the Circuit of the Americas, and he followed that up with additional sessions in Mexico City, São Paulo and Abu Dhabi.

His performances in FIA Formula 2 ultimately proved enough for him to get enough points to earn himself a Superlicence, but he did not want to risk too much during his practice outings to potentially put his chance of a Formula 1 seat at risk.

“I think the FP1s gave me a taste,” Sargeant is quoted as saying by Racer.com. “I don’t think they allowed me to fully get comfortable in the car — I never really completely pushed as I needed the extra SL points just in case, but it obviously gave me a taste of the speed, brakes, downforce.

Zak Brown has revealed that Andreas Seidl was always intending to leave the McLaren F1 Team at the end of his contract, but his move away from the team was fast-tracked following the Team Principal merry-go-round that has occurred since the end of the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season.

Seidl’s departure from McLaren was announced on Tuesday, with the German subsequently being announced as the CEO of the Sauber Group.  Andrea Stella was also announced by McLaren as their new Team Principal ahead of the 2023 season.

Seidl was set to join Audi Sport – which will merge with Sauber ahead of the 2026 season – once his McLaren contract ended at the end of 2025, but when Frédéric Vasseur announced that he would be leaving Sauber/Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN to join Scuderia Ferrari as their new Team Principal for next season, talks between McLaren and Sauber owner Finn Rausing began about possibly bringing in Seidl immediately.

Brown revealed that positive talks with Stella about taking over the reigns at McLaren meant it was easy for the team to allow Seidl to depart, with all parties remaining on good terms throughout the discussions.

“[Andreas] informed me during the season that he was going to go elsewhere when his contract was up at the end of 2025,” Brown is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com.  “[It was] probably pretty clear where that destination would be, which was quite understandable, given his background.

Jeffrey Earnhardt will get another crack at a full NASCAR Xfinity Series season in 2023 as he becomes the permanent driver of Alpha Prime Racing‘s #44 Chevrolet Camaro. The team announced the signing on Tuesday, making him their first full-timer since co-owner Tommy Joe Martins ran the entire 2020 and 2021 seasons under the previous identity of Martins Motorsports.

“We’re so excited to have Jeffrey with us next season,” said Martins. “Jeffrey has been a competitor and a friend to me for a few years now. When Caesar (Bacarella, co-owner) and I started this team last year, we both talked about having Jeffrey at the top of our roster. To see this all come together for 2023, he and I both feel like we finally got our guy.”

Earnhardt previously contested the entire 2014 and 2021 Xfinity seasons for JD Motorsports, respectively finishing eighteenth and twenty-sixth in points. Outside of these years, he has mainly been a journeyman competing for multiple organisations.

In 2022, he ran thirteen Xfinity races for Sam Hunt Racing, Emerling-Gase Motorsports, and Richard Childress Racing. The RCR start came at Talladega and was a special occasion as he joined the team his family has long been involved with, used his grandfather Dale Earnhardt’s #3 at a track where the older Earnhardt saw much success, and won his first career pole before finishing second.

“I’m really pumped this came together with Tommy and Caesar,” Earnhardt commented. “We were evaluating different options and after speaking with them we knew this would be the perfect fit. They are making major moves to strengthen their programme and they made me feel welcomed. I’m fortunate to have my sponsors from last season continuing their support and we’ve got some new partners onboard. I’m looking forward to putting on that bowtie and leading this team to their first victory next season.”

For the 2023 off-road racing season, Red Bull will join forces with a UTV powerhouse. On Tuesday, the energy drink company announced a partnership with Can-Am to form the Red Bull Can-Am Factory Team and a new-look Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team that will compete in the World Rally-Raid Championship and North American desert racing. As part of the new deal, the programme’s six drivers will all race the Can-Am Maverick X3 prepared by South Racing.

From their inception in 2020, the Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team had used the OT3 from Overdrive Racing. The car enjoyed tremendous success at the 2022 Dakar Rally when Seth Quintero won all but one stage in the T4 class. After Quintero suffered a stage retirement that knocked him out of category overall contention, Austin Jones went on to win for Monster Energy but will migrate to the rival energy drink brand and Junior Team for 2023. Jones finished third in the W2RC T4 standings and has also won his class at the Baja 1000 twice.

Mitch Guthrie returns to the Junior Team, three months removed from winning the inaugural California 300 in September.

Rokas Baciuška held off Marek Goczał and Jones for the 2022 World Rally-Raid T4 title. The Lithuanian was already a Can-Am driver for South Racing, but can now add Red Bull athlete to his burgeoning résumé. By joining the Red Bull Can-Am Factory Team, Baciuška will move up to T3 for 2023.

Cristina Gutiérrez and Francisco López Contardo return to the Red Bull Can-Am Factory Team. López won the T3 championship ahead of Quintero and Gutiérrez.

Audi Sport have released a statement welcoming the news that Andreas Seidl will join the Sauber Group as their new Chief Executive Officer in January, with the feeling that the appointment is good news ahead of the planned merger between the two outfits in the upcoming years.

Seidl was announced as the new CEO on Tuesday after the German ended his four-year spell as Team Principal of the McLaren F1 Team, and it marks a return to Hinwil for the first time since the BMW and BMW Sauber F1 Team era between 2000 and 2009.

Sauber will become the Audi works team from the 2026 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season when the German marque makes its long-awaited debut in the sport, and the placing of Seidl as CEO was good news for the team.

Seidl has previous experience working within the Volkswagen brand during his time as Team Principal of the Porsche WEC Team in the FIA World Endurance Championship in the mid-to-late 2010s, and Oliver Hoffmann, the CTO of Audi AG, has welcomed the announcement, calling his track record in motorsport as ‘impressive’.

“We welcome our future partner’s choice,” said Hoffmann. “Andreas Seidl has extensive experience in leadership roles across motorsport programs on both the manufacturer and Formula 1 team side.

McLaren F1 Team have announced that Executive Director of Racing Andrea Stella will be promoted to Team Principal with immediate affect following Andreas Seidl leaving the team and becoming the CEO of the Sauber Group.

Seidl’s time with the team comes to an end, and in his time as Team Principal, the team has seen eight podiums and a singular race win at the Italian Grand Prix with Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris bringing home a 1-2 finish. Seidl wishes the team well for the future as he moves onto the Sauber Group.

“I joined McLaren in 2019 and have really enjoyed working with Zak [Brown] and the team,” said Seidl. “We have achieved some good results, and I will always have fond memories, with Monza being a personal and career highlight.

“The team is on a great trajectory, and I would like to thank everyone for their support, trust and commitment. Thanks to Zak and the shareholders for their understanding of my personal decision to move on to another challenge. I wish Andrea and the team all the best for the future.”

Stella becomes the new Team Principal and has a wealth of experience in Formula 1, having been a key member of the McLaren team since 2015.  Stella began his career with a fifteen-year stint at Scuderia Ferrari, including as Performance Engineer for Michael Schumacher and Kimi Räikkönen (2002-2008) and then as Race Engineer for Räikkönen and Fernando Alonso (2009-2015). He is delighted to take the position and hopes he can deliver.