Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Andreas Seidl says the McLaren F1 Team ‘worked very hard’ throughout the Dutch Grand Prix weekend, and they were rewarded with Lando Norris taking seventh place on Sunday afternoon.

The Team Principal of the Woking-based team believes sixth would have been the result but for the late race safety car, which meant Fernando Alonso was able to get ahead of him, but overall, it was pleasing to see Norris battling hard inside the top ten.

It was not such a good weekend for Daniel Ricciardo in the second MCL36, with the Australian unable to better his starting position of seventeenth on Sunday afternoon, with the Circuit Zandvoort offering very little in the way of opportunity for him.

The third race of the triple header comes next weekend at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza in Italy, and Seidl says they will be doing everything they can to get ahead of the BWT Alpine F1 Team there, after they fell twenty-four points back in the Constructors’ Championship with only seven races to go.

“Strong race for Lando this afternoon, finishing P7,” said Seidl.  “The Safety Car at the end of the race was a little unfortunate for him, and he had to make another stop to defend against cars doing the same.

Lando Norris says the McLaren F1 Team gave it their all throughout the Dutch Grand Prix on Sunday, and they were rewarded with seventh place, the fourth time in five races he has achieved this position.

The Briton felt compromised by battling not one but two BWT Alpine F1 Team drivers, with the strategy options their rivals had enabling them to get Fernando Alonso to finish ahead of them in sixth, meaning the team lost more ground to them in the Constructors’ Championship.

Norris believes sixth would have been the best they could have achieved on the day at the Circuit Zandvoort, so missing out by just one place meant it was a decent day for McLaren, and they will be looking to be ahead of Alpine again next weekend in Italy.

“Tough race, but I think it was a good one,” said Norris.  “We gave it our all. I think we had decent pace.

“It’s just tough battling with both Alpines, they can play a lot more with the strategy and hold me up. That was tough, so I’m happy with how we did. P6 would have been the best we could have achieved anyway, so one position out.

Just a week after qualifying third in Spa-Francorchamps, Francesco Pizzi returned to Charouz Racing for the penultimate round of the FIA Formula 3 season for the Dutch Grand Prix.

The Italian would not be as fortunate in qualifying this weekend, as he was forced to abort his first flying lap due to traffic. On his final flying lap, Pizzi was once again met with traffic, but this time he was able to complete his lap, which placed him twenty-first on the grid, the highest position within the Charouz team.

Pizzi showed his true potential in Saturday’s sprint race, making his way through the field to find himself fifteenth early on. However, he struggled to make progress from then on, and was eventually overtaken by PREMA’s Arthur Leclerc, leaving Pizzi sixteenth at the end of race one, his fourth-best finish of the season.

Sunday’s sprint race would prove to be uneventful and unimpressive for Pizzi as he crossed the line in twenty-first, the same position the Charouz man started the race from. Pizzi was later promoted to eighteenth place after penalties were applied to those above him, but it wouldn’t be enough for the seventeen-year-old to score just his second point of the season. 

Pizzi will now look ahead to the final FIA F3 weekend of the season in Monza, where he grabbed pole position and two race wins in Formula in 2020, which will give him a much-needed confidence boost after a torrid few weeks on track.

Fernando Alonso has described the intense close to the 2022 Dutch Grand Prix to be like qualifying when defending from cars on a fresher tyre compound to him. The Spaniard crossed the line in sixth place on Sunday afternoon, beating McLaren F1 Team‘s Lando Norris and helping BWT Alpine F1 Team score ten crucial points in the Constructors’ Championship.

Alonso was unlucky to start round fifteen of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship in thirteenth place, having failed to progress into Qualifying Three on Saturday. However, after getting past the Norris, the Scuderia AlphaTauri cars, and some other midfield runners, Alonso finished the race in the ‘best of the rest’ spot.

“It was a good race for us today finishing sixth and scoring more points in the standings. We lost a few places obviously at the start, but we made some ground back and stopped very early for the Hard tyre,” said the two-time World Champion.

“The pace of the car was good, and we continued to make progress. The only moment of the race where I felt we could relax a little bit was when we fitted the Softs and everything seemed set for us, but then the Safety Car came out and changed everything. We had to fight hard until the last lap with those behind us on fresher tyres and it was like a Qualifying session until the chequered flag.

“It’s a good result again for the team and my tenth points finish in a row, so let’s keep this up next weekend in Italy!”

Mattia Binotto has stated that despite Scuderia Ferrari achieving a podium finish at the Dutch Grand Prix, the team still “cannot be satisfied” with their showing out on track in Zandvoort. With both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr. starting second and third on the grid, Ferrari would have been hopeful of a strong result for both the FIA Formula 1 World Championship Drivers’ and Constructors’ championship but yet leave Zandvoort with just nineteen points.

Leclerc was able to maintain second place in the race until the end of his second stint, but the threat of both Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team cars always loomed large throughout. After pitting for the second time in the race, he found himself in fourth place and twenty seconds behind both Mercedes’ drivers who looked set for a one-stop race.

The late safety car provided the Ferrari pit wall with a chance to pit the Monegasque driver for the soft tyres and in doing so it gave the team the chance to fight for a late podium finish. With Lewis Hamilton opting to stay out during the safety car, Leclerc, on his new soft tyres, was able to pass the seven-time world champion with just seven laps to go to secure a podium finish.

For Sainz, fortune appeared to not be on the Spaniard’s side today as a number of mishaps from his Ferrari team cost him any chance of finishing inside the top five today.

During Sainz’s first pit stop, the pit crew took twelve seconds in completing the service of his F1-75 after the crew were late in delivering the left rear tyre to the pit box. With the safety car out, the Ferrari pit wall also elected to bring Sainz in for a new set of soft tyres but after an unsafe release into the path of Fernando Alonso, Sainz would be handed a five-second time penalty.

Zane Maloney started the FIA F3 feature race on pole after a stellar qualifying performance, and ART’s Victor Martins joined him on the front row. 

The five lights went out signalling the start of the feature race and pole sitter Maloney got a poor start off the line, giving Martins the opportunity to seize the lead out of turn one, which the Frenchman grabbed with both hands, passing Maloney down the inside to claim first position.

Maloney did not give up on his pursuit for the lead, as he was within 0.4 seconds of Martins on lap four, after setting the fastest lap of the race on lap three, which would remain the fastest lap of the race till the checkered flag, bagging the Barbadian an extra championship point.

However, Victor Martins’ lead was put under jeopardy, when Brad Benavides and William Alatalo tangled into turn two and found themselves in the barriers, prompting a safety car on lap four.

The top five read: Victor Martins, Zane Maloney, Jak Crawford, Franco Colapinto and Roman Stanek as the safety car made its way round the track and the two cars were removed from the barriers.

It was a much-improved race weekend for Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team for round 15 of the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship at the Dutch Grand Prix but the team come away from it disappointed that they didn’t walk away with their first win of the season.

Lewis Hamilton was leading a large part of the race and had committed to a one-stop strategy with the rest of the grid on a two-stop but two safety car incidents lost him that lead. His teammate George Russell got his sixth podium of the season after he overtook the seven-time world champion for second position.

Hamilton was hoping for his first win of the season as he looks to win a race in his 11th consecutive year in the sport but it wasn’t to be today.

“Today we were really challenged with the VSCs and Safety Cars. I think the strategy and the car had been so good up until that point, the pit stops were fantastic, the best I think we’ve had all year and it was really geeing me up. Especially after such an up and down year, we’ve not had a win since Saudi Arabia last year. So, it was finally there, within our grasp but of course then the safety car really didn’t help.”

“But the guys were really, really on it, we were all on it and I really was hopeful that we were going to get a 1-2 together as a team. But given how it played out after the final safety car and dropping back”

Despite claiming his sixth podium of the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season, Scuderia Ferrari‘s Charles Leclerc has spoken about his disappointment to be leaving the Dutch Grand Prix with just a third-place finish to his name.

After starting on the front row of the grid in second place, Leclerc found himself unable to match the pace of Max Verstappen and was soon looking over his shoulder at the impressive race pace being displayed by both Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team cars.

Leclerc was able to maintain second place over both Mercedes’ cars during his second stint of the race, but with the medium tyres starting to suffer from degradation, the Monegasque driver was called into the pits for the hard compound of tyre.

The Monegasque would rejoin the grid on lap forty-five in fourth place, over twenty seconds behind both Mercedes’ cars. However, the safety car which was sent out due to Valtteri Bottas‘ retirement, would allow the Ferrari driver the chance to pit for new soft tyres for the final stages of the race.

Leclerc was able to use the fresh tyres to his advantage as he would pass Lewis Hamilton on the start/finish straight on lap sixty-six to claim his eventual finishing position of third place.

After Oracle Red Bull Racing‘s eleventh win of the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season at the Dutch Grand Prix, Christian Horner has heaped praise on the team following another impressive showing.

Starting from pole position, Max Verstappen was able to maintain his lead on the opening lap but it soon became apparent that both Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team cars would have a pivotal role to play in the outcome of the race.

Verstappen pitted from the race lead during the safety car, which was forced out as a result of Valtteri Bottas’ retirement from the race. The championship leader rejoined the track in third position behind both Mercedes cars.

With a tenth race win of the season suddenly starting to look in doubt, George Russell’s decision to pit under the safety car subsequently made Verstappen’s task considerably easier. The Dutchmen was directly placed behind Lewis Hamilton, who was on old medium tyres, and Verstappen was able to pass his long-time rival with ease on the restart, as the Red Bull driver passed Hamilton before the two had even made turn one on the restart.

Horner revealed that the team decided to pit Verstappen from the race’s lead during the safety car, due to the team’s preference of being on the soft tyre come the race’s final moments.

The Porsche Carrera Cup GB is a great championship with great cars to drive. I think for us, individually, we’ve had our ups and downs but we’re still learning. We take it race by race, and every race is like another test session, because you’re always gaining more and more knowledge. It’s still my first year but I’ve enjoyed it a lot to be honest, because who wouldn’t want to race a Porsche around the track. I also feel extremely lucky having sponsors funding it, being in the position that I am. 

Even though it’s enjoyable, we have had our ups and downs, and we’re trying to take away all the mistakes that we’re doing and just get a lap together so we can be up there in qualifying, because we know we can do it. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to. We’ve got the team, we’ve got the facilities, I just need to stop messing about and do it.

With it being my first season, Team Parker Racing knows what to do with me. They know how to make me more comfortable with the car, they know if there’s something wrong with me as I’m still learning, and they know what to give me to learn the quickest and in the best way possible. I would never take back my decision to join Team Parker, and we’ll probably stay with them for the future as well. There are great members of staff, they have great facilities, and they’re just an amazing team overall.

It’s been a bit tricky, going from Ginetta GT5 into Porsche, learning a new way of driving a car. It makes me a better driver but learning how to drive the Cup car properly is extremely hard and it’s difficult to put a lap together, the car really is a beast. It’s something that we struggle with, and we’ve just got to do it. There are no excuses, you just have to get your act together and do it. Self-belief is something which I’ve struggled with a bit throughout the years, so I have to believe I can do it. Once you believe you can do it, it makes everything else a lot easier. Not a lot more enjoyable, but you have that little bit more satisfaction, knowing ‘I can do it now.’

Going to do a round of Porsche Carrera Cup Benelux where I could follow Harry King around has helped my confidence. It’s tricky because we had first practice and finished 16th. You look at that and it messes about with your head a bit, going from one weekend where you’re in the top ten to the next weekend when you feel you should be better. It is silly, but you want to be first place. I know where I want to be and where the team wants me to be, I just have to put it all together. I am slowly learning how to do it. Having the self-belief and doing it will help, because otherwise, if you don’t, even when you’re driving and you’re two or three tenths up you can think,’ I will definitely mess up.’ That’s what I kind of thought before, but now I talk to myself throughout the lap, telling myself to stay calm and finish the lap, because you can find the time. You break the lap down and take it corner by corner.

Robert Stout and Cleetus McFarland‘s Stadium Super Trucks Race #1 at Bristol Motor Speedway did not go as hoped as the former missed the podium while the latter was involved in yet another wreck. Race #2 had a happier ending for both as they duelled for the lead throughout, and a late pass by Stout allowed him to finally score his first win of 2022.

McFarland started on the front row after suffering terminal damage in the first race from contact with Max Gordon, and he used the starting spot to his advantage to quickly take the lead. Stout began his day further back in eighth but only needed half a lap to move up to second: his starting lane on the outside groove, led by McFarland, had the better launch at the green flag to move into the top five; after Stout got by pole-sitter Dave Kiley and Matt Carriker, Zoey Edenholm and Derek Bieri overshot the sharp turn onto the backstretch pit road which Stout capitalised upon.

Two laps later, Stout caught McFarland before the latter spun out entering the back pit lane, leading to contact. Gordon ran behind the two, and the trio remained in those positions through both competition cautions. Despite losing a chunk of his nose on a landing following the final restart, Stout continued to stalk McFarland before his prey ran wide to give an opening down pit road. McFarland was able to shut the door as they entered the infield before Stout caught up again in the final chicane.

The battle continued through lap fifteen when Stout made his move on pit road that forced McFarland wide and Gordon to bypass the ramp while running three-abreast, though McFarland beat him into the infield once again. The pit road hairpin ultimately became McFarland’s undoing on the final lap when he overshot and lost two spots to Stout and Gordon.

“I used up all my brakes,” McFarland explained. “I got into that corner and I just couldn’t stop the dang thing. I was like, ‘Nooooo!'”

All is right in the world again as Jeff Gordon strapped himself into the cockpit of a race car for the first time in five years, even if it appears to be a fun one-off for now. Gordon spent this weekend competing in the Porsche Carrera Cup North America at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where he finished twenty-second and sixteenth in two forty-minute races.

Gordon last raced competitively at the 2017 Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona, where he won the overall, and that run had come over a year after ending his legendary NASCAR career. While mainly focusing on running Hendrick Motorsports as Vice Chairman, he found the opportunity to race again at IMS, where he won a record five times in NASCAR on the oval layout.

He drove the #24 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car with a pair of familiar faces supporting him in crew chief Ray Evernham and spotter Steve Barkdoll. Evernham won forty-seven races and three Cup Series championships as Gordon’s crew chief while Barkdoll helped Gordon begin his stock car career in 1990.

With no prior experience in such cars, Gordon was only twenty-eighth of thirty-five entries in practice followed by twenty-second in qualifying. He ran on the cusp of the top twenty in the first race on Saturday before placing twenty-second. Race #2 on Sunday proved to be a more successful run as he gained six positions to finish sixteenth, including passing Jeff Moser on the final lap.

Parker Thompson and Riley Dickinson won the two races.

C.J. Greaves now holds the most Red Bull Crandon World Cup victories of any driver with four, but it was not a simple Sunday drive for him as he had to get around a massive defence set up by Ryan Beat. By the end, he was able to take his second Cup in a Pro 4, and he remains the only driver to win the event in both Pro 4 and Pro 2 trucks.

A staggered start meant the Pro 2 trucks, inferior to their four-wheeled counterparts, got a forty-second head start. After a do-over start following Zac Zakowski‘s flip just two corners in, Beat caught leader Cory Winner while Greaves began his climb; by the time Beat completed the pass on a wide Winner for first, Greaves had breached the top ten.

After picking off Tanner Foust and Mickey Thomas—the latter having won the Pro 2 World Championship race earlier in the day—for second, Greaves chased down Beat before his faster truck outran the Pro 2 down a straightaway. Despite Greaves initially completing the overtake, Beat returned the favour in the Forest County Potawatomi Turn One to regain the position. The two ran side-by-side through the track’s technical sections before Greaves cleared him for good with three laps remaining.

Fellow Pro 4s Andrew Carlson and RJ Anderson subsequently got by Beat to complete a podium sweep for the four-wheel-drive class. Nevertheless, Beat’s fourth topped the Pro 2 racers.

Greaves last won the Cup in a Pro 4 in 2015, while his two other victories in 2013 and 2018 came in Pro 2; he also has six more Cup wins in other classes, including the Pro Stock SxS hours prior. He had clinched the Championship Off-Road Pro 4 title on Saturday, becoming the first driver to win a COR class title and the World Cup in the same season. One of his COR Pro 4 victories in 2022 came during the Forest County Potawatomi Brush Run weekend, and he won the Brush Run itself to mark the second straight year in which one person won both that and the World Cup after Jerett Brooks in 2021.

In partnership with VELO, the McLaren F1 Team revealed an exciting new logo at the Dutch Grand Prix, which involved the word ‘LOVE’.

For those who watched the Grand Prix and wondered why McLaren were running a new logo, it is in fact a fan-based project currently going on between the two companies. The logo is actually made up of messages from ninety-five of McLaren’s fans, in a bid to spread positivity and reveal some of their fans supportive notes.

A series done by the two will also reveal some of the team’s fans and why they love motorsport, hence the logo! The logo was situated on both of Daniel Ricciardo‘s and Lando Norris‘ sidepods at Zandvoort, with The Netherlands being known for having a ‘love culture’.

This was evident on Max Verstappen‘s drive to victory, where the orange army celebrated and embraced with each other, as they saw their idol claim back-to-back home victories. The lucky ninety-five fans who had their messages make up the logo, were chosen out of 2,700 applicants. The competition was run globally, with one of the ninety-five winners having had their message of “Viva La Papaya” make up part of the ‘LOVE’ logo.

McLaren’s and VELO’s series will launch on September 22, named ‘Love the Unexpected‘ and will see a variety of chosen fans share their own personal story with motorsport and why they follow it. Two of the fans who will feature in the series are Matthew Poat and Alex Crees.

Norway’s Sondre Evjen took his first every victory in the FIA European Rallycross Championship in a very exciting round 4 at the Ferratum World RX of Riga-Latvia, beating current championship leader Anton Marklund to the line by less than half a second.

In the final twist in a changeable weekend at the Biķernieki circuit in Riga, the final took place in wet conditions. Evjen – who had been in fourth place in the overnight standings, quietly getting on with his own race weekend and staying out of drama – managed to get the power down on the incredibly slippery asphalt, heading into turn one level pegging with Marklund. Both drivers leaned heavily on each other, trying to get their cars turned in, but it was the JC Raceteknik machine of Evjen who made it out of the first two turns in the lead.

Marklund opted to dive into his joker lap to try and get clear air, allowing him to push hard and get an advantage on Evjen. Indeed, it looked like everything had gone swimmingly for the SET Promotion driver, who swung round Evjen at the next joker merge. However, Marklund drifted slightly too wide into a wet patch of track, span his wheels, desperate for traction, and Evjen pounced. His Audi S1 looked so poised and controlled as the Norwegian nailed his foot to the floor, and regained the lead. Evjen’s usual millimetric precision slipped a couple of times on the final lap, not helped my Marklund giving him a friendly nudge on the final run round the hairpin, but he managed to hold on to take his maiden and a very popular event win. Marklund came home second, and the overnight leader Enzo Ide brought home his Audi S1 less than a second behind the leader – a thrilling end to a fabulous weekend of motorsport.

Marklund probably won’t be too upset with second place, however, as his main rival, #YellowSquad driver Janis Baumanis continues his run as potentially the unluckiest man in rallycross. The Latvian favourite looked all set to challenge for the win. He was doing pretty much everything right, sitting third in the overnight standings. Indeed, Baumanis took charge of his semi-final, leading from eventual winner Evjen to the audible delight of the home fans. However, on lap three, disaster struck: turbo issues dropped him down the order, out of contention, and out of the running for the final.

This means that, despite his best efforts, Baumanis now lies 26 points adrift of Marklund with only two rounds to go. The season is now Marklund’s to lose. The question now becomes: can Baumanis hold on to second place? Evjen is only two points behind him, and Ide only 7. Both drivers are hungry for more and will be pushing at every available opportunity.