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Dave Robson admitted it was a ‘difficult’ and ‘frustrating’ São Paulo Grand Prix for the Williams Racing team, with Alexander Albon and Nicholas Latifi finishing only fifteenth and sixteenth in Sunday’s race.

Both drivers struggled for pace during the race at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace, and they were not helped by the timing of the second safety car.  Albon was compromised by pitting just before it was deployed, meaning his rivals were given a free stop afterwards, while Latifi was unable to catch the back of the pack before the race resumed after being allowed to unlap himself by the stewards.

Robson, the Head of Vehicle Performance at Williams, says it was a disappointing result for the team in Brazil, and the only real highlight was the fact that his two drivers were able to battle each other over the closing laps.

“Another difficult day and we struggled for pace throughout the race,” said Robson.  “With the early safety car, we were able to switch Alex to an effective two-stop race using only Medium tyres.

“With the second safety car coming shortly after Alex had made his final stop, most of the tyre advantage we were accruing for the final stint was lost. At the restart Alex suffered with a loss of power, which took us a couple of laps to recover and he was unable to make any further progress.

Alexander Albon felt his race pace was ‘okay’ during Sunday’s São Paulo Grand Prix, but the timing of the safety car compromised his day and left him only fifteenth at the chequered flag.

After retiring with a mechanical problem during Saturday’s Sprint race at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace, the Williams Racing driver always knew he was in for a tough day in Brazil starting from the back, and so it proved to be as a hard tyre gamble at the start was quickly proven to be wrong.

An early safety car enabled them to switch to the medium tyre and a two-stop strategy, but the second safety car period gave his rivals free pit stops and meant he was unable to better fifteenth at the end of the penultimate race of the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season.

“Our race was okay, but we got unlucky with the safety car, with everyone in front of us getting a free pitstop, ultimately compromising our whole race,” said Albon.  “We did a good job and in terms of the race, I was happy how I was driving, and it looked like we were optimising the race.

“I do think we may have made an error with our start tyre as everyone else was on the softs and mediums, but the safety car gave us an opportunity to immediately swap to a two-stop Medium race.

Guenther Steiner admitted it was unfortunate that Kevin Magnussen was eliminated in a first lap crash with Daniel Ricciardo during Sunday’s São Paulo Grand Prix as it ended a positive weekend for the Dane.

Magnussen had started from his and the Haas F1 Team’s first pole position during Saturday’s Sprint race, and although he fell to eighth in that race against the more regular front-running drivers, the team still had hopes of scoring points on Sunday.

However, the turn eight incident with McLaren F1 Team’s Ricciardo ended that chance, and Steiner was a disappointing way for Magnussen’s weekend to conclude.

“Unfortunately no points for us today,” said Steiner.  “Kevin’s race finished on Lap 1 when he was hit by Ricciardo and there was no way to get back out on the track, the car was destroyed.”

Mick Schumacher finished outside the points in thirteenth in the second Haas, and Steiner admitted that despite the best efforts of the German, there was just too much for him to do to contend for points, particularly as he struggled with tyre degradation.

Mick Schumacher felt the medium compound tyre did not work as well for the Haas F1 Team as they would have liked during the São Paulo Grand Prix, and it meant an afternoon of struggles for the German in what could be his penultimate race weekend with the team.

Schumacher had made good gains during Saturday’s Sprint race at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace but could not replicate the same kind of performance on Sunday, and ultimately was forced to settle for thirteenth place.

The German felt the pace was good when using the soft tyre, but the performance of the medium cost them dearly and it meant another pointless weekend for a driver seemingly fighting for his future within the FIA Formula 1 World Championship.

“That medium tyre didn’t seem to work for us and we struggled a lot,” said Schumacher.  “Once we got onto the softs I was a lot more comfortable and felt a lot more competitive as well.

“We maybe extended the first stint a bit too much, but you never know how long the softs will last, so overall it was alright.

Jonathan Eddolls admitted it was a difficult São Paulo Grand Prix for Scuderia AlphaTauri, with neither Pierre Gasly nor Yuki Tsunoda able to score points in Sunday’s main event at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace.

After starting tenth on the grid following Saturday’s Sprint race, Gasly was running inside the top ten early on but struggled with tyre degradation throughout the race.  The Frenchman was switched to a three-stop strategy as a result, but he could not make it work and finishing outside the top ten before a five-second time penalty for speeding in the pit lane relegated him to fourteenth.

On the other side of the garage, Tsunoda had started from the pit lane after changes to his car overnight, but he still did not have the pace needed to be a top ten contender, and he was strangely not allowed to unlap himself during the safety car period due to a computer glitch from the FIA meaning he was a lap down on the field and unable to progress beyond seventeenth and last thereafter.

Eddolls, the Chief Race Engineer at AlphaTauri, says the team will regroup and look to fight back as they bid to beat the Haas F1 Team to eighth place in the Constructors’ Championship next weekend in Abu Dhabi, the gap being just two points ahead of the season finale.

“It was a difficult afternoon for the team,” admitted Eddolls.  “Yuki struggled for the majority of the weekend to extract competitive lap times from the car, so we took the difficult decision to change the setup and start from the pitlane.

Pierre Gasly tried to bring home a good result for Scuderia AlphaTauri during last Sunday’s São Paulo Grand Prix, but it was not to be as he ended up outside the points.

The Frenchman ran inside the top ten in the early stages but found himself shuffled down the pack as the race went on, and a five-second time penalty for speeding in the pit lane rounded off his day in Brazil.

Gasly was ultimately classified in fourteenth position in his penultimate race with AlphaTauri, with his final outing with the team before he moves to the BWT Alpine F1 Team coming this weekend in Abu Dhabi.

“I gave everything I could today and I’m happy with my performance, it’s just frustrating not to be able to fight for points,” said Gasly.  “I had a strong start and was able to get up to P9, we were quite competitive on the Softs, but then on the Mediums we struggled.

“I fought as hard as I could, but we just did not have the pace and there wasn’t much we could do this afternoon.

João Ferreira enjoyed a strong 2022 as he won the FIA European Cup for Cross-Country Bajas. With a title under his belt, he will begin 2023 by taking part in the legendary Dakar Rally for the first time.

The 23-year-old will drive a Yamaha for X-raid Team in the T3 category with fellow Portguese Filipe Palmeiro as co-driver. Palmeiro spent the last three Rallies working in T1 with Benediktas Vanagas, who also races in the European Cup.

He posted on social media, “I’m about to embark on the biggest and most challenging experience of my life! At the command of a X-Raid YXZ1000R Turbo Prototype prepared by the X-raid Yamaha Supported Team, and navigated by my friend Filipe Palmeiro, I will participate in the Dakar Rally 2023! The toughest All-Terrain Test in the World, takes place from December 31 to January 15, and marks the start of the 2023 Rally-Raid World Championship. With testing still going in 2022, we can only really say this is the best way to end such a positive year. As always, we take this challenge as another step in my learning and development as a pilot!”

Driving a Mini Cooper, Ferreira won the Italian Baja in July and a string of podiums at the Hungarian Baja and his native Baja Portalgre 500 enabled him to claim the European Cup by five points over Michal Maluszynski. He also took part in the World Rally-Raid Championship‘s final two rounds Rallye du Maroc and Andalucía Rally, but did not finish either. He won the Open SSV class thrice at the Rallye du Maroc, but withdrew before the final leg to race the Baja TT Norte de Portugal, which he went on to win. David Monteiro, who serves as his co-driver in the European Cup, worked with him in the W2RC events.

His father Paulo Rui Ferreira also competes in rally raid. The father/son duo dominated the 2022 Rallye du Maroc as Paulo won a stage and the Open SSV overall.

Lithuania’s Benediktas Vanagas will have an eleventh go at the Dakar Rally in 2023, and with some more firepower this time as he and Toyota Gazoo Racing Baltics will pilot the enhanced Toyota GT DKR Hilux T1+.

Kuldar Sikk of Estonia will continue as his co-driver; the Balts already work together in the FIA European Cup for Cross-Country Bajas and won the Hungarian Baja in August. Filipe Palmeiro was Vanagas’ navigator for the 2022 Rally, but he has joined up with João Ferreira in T3 for 2023.

Vanagas made his Dakar début in 2013 in an OSCar before switching to Toyota in 2015. Competing in a Hilux, he scored his best finish of eleventh in 2019 while his 2022 effort was cut short by a retirement in Stage #4.

The Hilux T1+, nicknamed “BlackHawk VII”, is lighter than the original T1 model and sports a 3.5-litre V6 twin turbo engine versus the T1’s 5-litre V8. The T1+ also uses a monoshock system rather than dual shocks, which allows for the vehicle to better recover from hard landings and uneven terrain. Vanagas described the T1+ as “externally identical to the previous version, but very different inside.”

Other teams that use the Hilux T1+ include flagship Toyota Gazoo Racing and Overdrive Racing, and the former won the 2022 Rally with Nasser Al-Attiyah. Toyota is also one of just two manufacturers with a T1+ vehicle alongside Prodrive with its Hunter; although M-Sport and Neil Woolridge Motorsport are developing a Ford Ranger T1+, they will not enter the truck into the 2023 Rally.

Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team’s Lance Stroll took home one point after a tenth place finish at the eventful Brazilian Grand Prix, while team-mate Sebastian Vettel crossed the line just outside of the points in eleventh. 

Aston Martin Team Principal Mike Krack was pleased to see the team competing for points in the mid-field, but ultimately felt that they missed out on a greater result with several elements of the race not playing into their favour. 

“This was a thrilling race on a fantastic racetrack in front of a terrific crowd – but, despite running in the top 10 for the entire afternoon and coming home with a valuable World Championship point, things did not really work out for us today.”

Krack said that Vettel’s race was compromised by the safety cars, particularly the final restart on the medium tyres which saw him struggle to keep pace with the soft-runners. 

“Sebastian raced hard on a two-stop strategy, running as high as third, but the timings of the Safety Car and Virtual Safety Car really played against him today.”

Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team’s Lance Stroll finished the Brazilian Grand Prix in tenth place, collecting a point for the team after an eventful race. He explained that he lacked pace on the mediums, but found success on the softs at the end of the race. His final stint allowed him to crack the points, having been able to gain positions after the late-race safety car restart. 

“There was a lot going on in the race, but we were able to take some chances towards the end. We did not have much pace with the Medium tyre earlier on in the race but the balance on the Soft was much better.”

Stroll noted that Alfa Romeo Racing extended their lead ahead of Aston Martin this weekend, with Valtteri Bottas finishing a position ahead in ninth place. Alfa Romeo now sits in sixth with fifty-five points, five points ahead of Aston Martin. 

Stroll hopes to put together a successful run at the season-closing Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and make his best attempt at the ambitious task of overtaking Alfa Romeo in the constructor’s championship. 

“It is a nice feeling to score a point after a challenging weekend as a whole but it is a shame that Alfa Romeo pulled a little bit further away from us in the Constructors’ Championship today. It will be tough, but we will try and overhaul them in Abu Dhabi next weekend.”

NASCAR driver Austin Theriault was not the only racer to enter the United States midterm elections and see success. While Theriault was voted into the Maine House of Representatives, Joe Lombardo claimed the Nevada gubernatorial election by defeating incumbent Steve Sisolak with 48.8% of the vote to Sisolak’s 47.3%. As of this article’s publication, 99% of the vote has been counted.

Perhaps unsurprisingly considering the demographic of the off-road community, Lombardo is a Republican. Somewhat surprisingly, however, he was endorsed by both former President Donald Trump and the Republican base but did not lean into the former camp’s more extremist ideas. Still, his platform has run along standard party lines on supporting law enforcement and the like.

He has worked as the Sheriff of Clark County, where Las Vegas is located, since 2015. The state of Nevada, especially Clark County is a hotbed for American desert racing such as Best In The Desert and the iconic Mint 400, of which Lombardo served as grand marshal in 2021.

Befitting his occupation, Lombardo raced a Trophy Truck Spec in SCORE International events for COPS Racing Team, whose founder John Langley created the television series Cops. Langley approached Lombardo about joining the team after they became acquainted during filming of said show. After Langley’s passing in 2021 from a heart attack while racing the SCORE San Felipe 250, the team has continued to operate with support from Mike Meehan.

Lombardo ran the 2018 Baja 1000 for COPS and finished seventeenth in class. He has continued in BITD while campaigning for governorship, racing a Brenthel Trick Truck in Class 6100 Spec. His truck even sported “Lombardo for Governor” decals.

Riley Herbst might be gearing up to run the Baja 1000 now that the NASCAR Xfinity Series season is over, but his Stewart-Haas Racing decided to give him a good-luck present beforehand in the form of a contract extension. On Tuesday, SHR announced Herbst will return to the #98 Ford Mustang for the 2023 season.

2022 saw Herbst’s best season to date in the Xfinity Series as he scored twenty top-ten finishes, eight top fives, and a pole at Nashville en route to placing tenth in the standings. He improved in every statistical category, including recording seven more top tens than in 2021. He also ran two races in the Truck Series for David Gilliland Racing, finishing twelfth in both at Daytona and Kansas. He has a pair of top fives in eleven career Truck starts.

Herbst joined SHR in 2021 after spending the previous three years, two of which were part-time slates, with Joe Gibbs Racing. Although he has yet to win a race, his improved performance has allowed for back-to-back playoff appearances.

Although having ride stability is certainly welcome, Herbst likely has his eyes on the Baja 1000 where he is sharing the #264 Trophy Truck Spec with cousin Pierce. He also ran the previous two editions with Pierce and fellow cousin Thor Herbst, finishing second in class in 2020 and ninth in 2021. Herbst hails from a family rooted in off-road history, and his uncle Tim is also competing at the 1000 in a Trophy Truck.

Herbst is the second Monster Energy driver with good news on Tuesday as Xfinity colleague Ty Gibbs moves up to the Cup Series.

To nobody’s surprise, Ty Gibbs will race in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2023 with his grandfather’s Joe Gibbs Racing. To many’s surprise, however, it will not be in the #18 Toyota Camry.

In a bit of a twist, Gibbs will continue using #54 like he did in the Xfinity Series. Although #18 has been a JGR staple since their inception in 1992 and Gibbs used it in the ARCA Menards Series, he has developed an identity around #54 as he won with it in his Xfinity début along with ten more races and the 2022 championship.

#18 has been JGR’s flagship number as Dale Jarrett won the 1993 Daytona 500 in it followed by Bobby Labonte‘s 2000 championship and Kyle Busch‘s two titles and fifty-six wins. The number became synonymous with Busch during his fifteen years with JGR, but his departure for Richard Childress Racing in 2023 and Gibbs being deemed ready for Cup prompted the change to signal a new era. JGR still intends to revive the number in the future, though it is unknown whether they will switch one of their other existing cars (#11, #19, #20) to #18 or if an ally like 23XI Racing—who has not reached the four-car limit—would assume the role.

Assuming another team does not scoop it for themselves, the 2023 Daytona 500 will be the first Cup race without a #18 since the 1991 season ender in Atlanta. Greg Sacks was the only driver to use the number that year at the Daytona 500.

Despite being only 20 years of age, Gibbs has already become the hottest young prospect in NASCAR. He won the ARCA championship in 2021 along with four races in a part-time Xfinity schedule before elevating to a full slate in 2022. He won seven times en route to the title, though not without some controversy due to his driving style.

Sergio Vallejo is one of the top rally drivers in his native Spain, being the Spanish Rally Champion in 2009 and 2014 and winning the Spain Tarmac Cup GT class last year. Rally raid will be a new foray for him as he is set to make his Dakar Rally début in 2023. He will race a Century CR6 in the T1 class.

His younger brother Diego has competed at Dakar as co-driver to Óscar Fuertes of Astara Team. While the older Vallejo has long been interested in taking part as well, his fascination grew upon attending the race to support Diego. A lack of funding and time to train for the race prevented him from attempting the 2021 and 2022 editions before renting a CR6.

“It has a very similar handling to the dirt Porsche I drove in 2017 and 2018,” Vallejo told La Voz de Galicia. “It is a very bulky car, predictable and easy to drive.”

Nicknamed “The Wolf”, Vallejo has raced in the World Rally Championship, initially only competing in the Rallye de España as the home rally before expanding to multiple starts in 2001. His best WRC finish is ninetenth at that year’s Rallye de France.

Although he has never run a rally raid competitively, the 55-year-old has been testing with his brother in an SSV in Morocco.

While the T2 class is typically overshadowed by its other four-wheel counterparts in T1, Team Land Cruiser Toyota Auto Body has dominated T2 at the Dakar Rally by winning it every year since 2014. For 2023, they will try for a decade’s sweep.

The team unveiled the Toyota Land Cruiser 300 GR Sport at Sanage Adventure Field in Toyota City on Monday. Toyota Auto Body Co., Ltd. president Keiji Masui stressed the importance of using the Dakar Rally to build a “a car that can go anywhere and come back alive.”

Akira Miura will return as primary driver after he won T2 in 2018, 2021, and 2022. Miura joined Toyota Auto Body in 2005 before becoming a mechanic for the Dakar team in 2007 and elevating to driver in 2016. He has represented the team in various events including the Silk Way Rally in Russia, the Mint 400 and Vegas to Reno in the United States, and the Rallye du Maroc in Morocco. The lattermost event, a leg of the World Rally-Raid Championship like Dakar, was claimed by Miura in October.

Miura and co-driver Laurent Lichtleuchter have worked together for eight years and assisted in developing the Land Cruiser 300.

French touring car champion Ronald Basso will once again serve as Miura’s team-mate. He made his Dakar début in 2009 alongside father Jean-Claude Basso, and later raced an SSV with Julien Ménard before being hired by Toyota in 2021 to replace three-time T2 winner Christian Lavieille. Jean-Michel Polato will work as his team-mate.