Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Haas F1 Team Principal Guenther Steiner reflected on the return of the Dutch Grand Prix last year, and commended the work done to modernise the historic track and bring the event back as a mainstay on the Formula One calendar.

“I think it was the best example of an old school venue with a new interpretation. I think the organising committee there, the promoter, did a fantastic job reviving an old track so we can go back while making it ready for the modern era of Formula 1. Hats off to them as everybody’s really looking forward to going back to Zandvoort.”

When asked about the drivers’ feedback on the upgraded car after the Belgian Grand Prix, Steiner said that Spa didn’t bring out the best in VF-22. He added, however, that data collected on-track parallels the information gathered from the wind tunnel, which is promising. 

“It’s difficult to say their feelings on this because it’s a back-to-back and really on that circuit, we didn’t shine. The good thing is we see the data on the car is matching the data in the wind tunnel and at this stage, that’s the most important thing.”

Looking ahead to the rest of the season, Steiner outlined what he expects to be the team’s stronger tracks and weaker ones– Steiner defined this weekend’s race in Zandvoort as one with great potential for results. On the other hand, the following weekend in Monza doesn’t inspire much confidence in Steiner.

ROKiT F4 British Championship certified by FIA has announced that they will be running a dedicated new driver test session at Snetterton later this year for drivers looking to enter the series in 2023.

On 27-28 October drivers will get chance to sample the Tatuus-Abarth-Pirelli package around the Norfolk circuit’s 2.96-mile “300” layout.

Hugh Chambers, Chief Executive Officer of Motorsport UK said, “We’re very pleased to unveil plans for our first official New Driver Test for 2023 at the end of October.

“One of Motorsport UK’s key objectives, as the organisers of ROKiT British F4, is to create meaningful pathways through the sport for drivers.

“Now, with this initiative, that process can begin even sooner, providing drivers a headstart on winter testing, an opportunity to network within the paddock and immerse themselves at an earlier stage in all that the championship has to offer.

Jeremy Clements‘ win at Daytona International Speedway last Friday has been reduced to a trophy with an asterisk. On Tuesday, NASCAR announced his #51 Jeremy Clements Racing team has received an L2-level penalty for an intake manifold violation; while he remains the official winner, he cannot use the victory to qualify for the Xfinity Series playoffs.

Although Clements’ car passed post-race inspection, it was taken to the Research & Development Center for further analysis which led to the infraction’s discovery. Specifically, it broke Sections 14.6.12 K and U of the NASCAR rulebook, with the former clause saying “[t]he intake manifold must conform to NASCAR templates, gauges, scales, fixtures, and any and all other measuring devices” while the latter explains, “The floor of the intake manifold plenum must conform to the NASCAR Inspection Intake Manifold Plenum Plug Gauge. The Inspection Intake Manifold Plenum Plug Gauge must fit into the intake manifold opening and contact the floor of the intake manifold plenum. The depth of the intake manifold plenum must be 4.000 (+0.000, -0.005) inches.”

Also known as an inlet manifold, the intake manifold is located atop the engine and allows it to evenly supply air to every cylinder, which is aided by a carburetor (the Cup Series utilises throttle-body fuel injection). The plenum chamber is located atop and centre of the manifold, and this component must adhere to a tight dimensional guideline.

Clements had initially secured a playoff spot after surving an arduous Wawa 250 on Friday to score his first win since 2017 and a popular triumph for a small team. However, the penalty means he will have to win again or hope for a major miracle if he wishes to qualify for the playoffs with three races remaining. After being sixteenth in points and 133 below the cutline with 403 (Ryan Sieg is twelfth with 536), the L2 penalty also comes with seventy-five points being deducted which drops him to nineteenth with 328 points. Even if Clements makes the postseason, he loses the ten playoff points that the win provided.

Crew chief Mark Setzer has also been fined $60,000.

Ralph Boschung returned to the FIA Formula 2 series for the first time since round six in Baku after being forced to sit out the last three race weekends following his diagnosis with facet syndrome.

The Campos Racing driver showed impressive pace on his return, topping the times in the Friday practice session, before qualifying in tenth place for the Sprint race, and securing pole for the semi-reversed Feature race grid.

Saturday saw him battle at the front during the 18-lap Sprint race, finishing the day in third place. Sunday was a tougher race, despite starting from pole position, the Swiss driver was battling not only on track, but with neck pain throughout the feature race, eventually finishing in fourteenth place.

Talking after the race Boschung described his excitement to get back out on track, “I’m delighted to return to racing again at Spa, after a long time away from the track. We started strongly on Friday by going fastest in Free Practice despite the tricky conditions, and I was happy to claim 10th and the Sprint Race pole in qualifying.

“We had good speed on Saturday, and I had battle hard both on track and with my injury to stay in contention for the podium. Sunday was also a tough day, we had the pace for points but we got caught by the drivers on the alternate strategy.

Ahead of this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix, Pirelli have announced that they will be bringing their three hardest compounds of tyre to the FIA Formula 1 World Championship action this weekend at the Zandvoort circuit.

Pirelli’s Motorsport Director Mario Isola has stated that the tyre manufacture has taken the decision to select the three hardest compounds due to the unique challenge that the banking around the Zandvoort circuit provides on the Pirelli tyres.

This will mark just the fourth time this season that Pirelli will bring the hardest compounds of tyres to a Grand Prix this season, with the other occasions coming in Bahrain, Spain and Great Britain.

Isola is hopeful that a combination of the new tyres and car packages will provide further overtaking opportunities in the Netherlands after last season’s Dutch Grand Prix saw just twenty-four overtakes.

“Zandvoort proved to be a spectacular addition to the calendar last year, and the most challenging parts for tyres are the banked Turns 3 and 14, which are taken at high speed and place sustained combined forces on the car: downforce as well as lateral demands.

After taking victory in Saturday’s FIA Formula 3 sprint race in Spa-Francorchamps, Oliver Bearman followed it up with an impressive third place finish in Sunday’s feature race.

The Brit would have been excused for not being on top form, given he had never previously raced at the legendary Belgium circuit. However, this is not how the weekend panned out, as the Prema driver left Spa with his best result of the year, leaving him second in the standings, only trailing championship leader Isack Hadjar by one point. 

In contrast to Friday’s qualifying session, Sunday’s feature race conditions were dry throughout. Bearman started eighth, but quickly moved up to sixth in the opening laps, before the safety car was deployed twice. When the race resumed on lap ten, Bearman battled hard with fellow Brit Jonny Edgar, who he eventually passed with three laps remaining in the race.

Bearman secured  third place, making a last minute move on Oliver Goethe going into Les Combes, moving him up to fourth on track, and within five seconds of third place Caio Collet, who was demoted to sixth place after facing a penalty for dangerously re-entering the track.

Bearman commented on his weekend in Spa and his excitement for the penultimate round of the 2022 FIA F3 season this weekend:

Christian Mansell experienced an exhilarating weekend in his second and final FIA Formula 3 outing with Charouz Racing System this season as his two race contract came to an end after the Spa-Francorchamps feature race.

The Australian started the weekend strongly in Spa, the circuit that played host to his win in the GB3 championship last season, as he placed eighteenth in free practice, the highest position of all three Charouz cars, less than a second slower fourth place Josep Maria Martí.

However, in a qualifying session plagued by changing conditions, Mansell could only place twenty fifth in qualifying. Despite a disappointing session, the seventeen year old would start the race with joint championship leaders entering the weekend, Victor Martins and Isack Hadjar, ahead of him, such was the nature of the qualifying session in Spa.

With the grid being met with dry conditions on Saturday for the sprint race, Mansell got off to an excellent start, launching off the line to make up several places, and end the first lap in an impressive eighteenth place.

Nevertheless, the Australian would run out of luck, as through Les Combes, Rafael Villagomez understeered into the side of Mansell’s car, putting him into the barrier and out of the race, inside the opening two laps.

The Trident Motorsport team were ecstatic with their exceptional Spa-Francorchamps FIA Formula 3 feature race result, as Zane Maloney took the race win and Roman Staněk came home to take second place, after starting from second and fifth respectively. On top of this Jonny Edgar crossed the line in fifth place, rounding off a fifty four point feature race haul for his team.

Giacomo Ricci, Trident’s team manager expressed his joy after the feature race saying, “We are extremely delighted with today’s result, a one-two finish achieved by Trident Motorsport with Maloney and Staněk on the most complete and challenging track of the season.

“It is certainly a day to remember for the team and for our drivers, with Edgar taking fifth at the end of an extremely close race for the Red Bull Junior driver.

“The points secured in Belgium allow Maloney and Staněk to improve their standing positions, with the Czech driver now having the lead in his sights. Trident Motorsport, on the other hand, moved to second in the team standings. 

“Today’s result should not take our concentration away ahead of the next round of the season next week in Zandvoort, which will be even more pivotal on the outcome of this season.” 

With the Dutch Grand Prix returning for its second season back on the calendar, Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen will be driving the track for the first time in an F1 car this weekend. The Danish driver said that he has previous experience at the track, however, having driven there in his junior career.

“I drove around Zandvoort in Formula 3 and also before that in Formula Renault 2.0 and I’ve always loved the track. It’s changed a bit since I last drove there but from what I saw on TV, it still has the same sort of character and is still as exciting.”

Magnussen looks forward to racing around the historic track, and when asked how VF-22 is expected to perform at the high-downforce, high-speed venue, he said that he isn’t quite sure whether or not it will suit the car. 

“Specifically for the VF-22, I don’t really know, but driving a Formula 1 car around there is going to be awesome. It’s one of those places from back in the seventies and eighties so you really will get a bit of nostalgia driving around there in a Formula 1 car. It’s going to be significant so I’m excited and looking forward to it.

Zandvoort is known for its banked corners, an element Magnussen is excited about, considering how these turns can impact on the racing there. 

Oliver Goethe enjoyed his second weekend in the FIA Formula 3 Championship at the legendary Spa-Francorchamps, although the Danish-German driver heads back to his usual EuroFormula Open ride after experiencing both highs and lows in Belgium.

Racing again for Campos Racing in place of the injured Hunter Yeany, Goethe qualified an excellent fourth for Sunday’s Feature Race in Belgium, which put him ninth on the grid for Saturday’s Sprint.

“What a weekend, and what an experience!” expressed Goethe.  “It’s quite hard to summarize everything that happened.

“Qualifying was great fun. Campos gave me an amazing car and somehow, I nailed the last-minute shootout and grabbed P4 for Sunday’s race. Even I was surprised that I finished ahead of all the main title contenders in my second ever Qualy.”

He was inside the top ten when an overtake by Trident’s Zane Maloney went wrong which resulted in the monster of all crashes at Blanchimont, with both drivers hitting the barriers hard.  The damage to the car was so bad that the mechanics had a sleepless night at the track repairing the car before the Feature race.

Following the Belgian Grand Prix, Pirelli’s Motorsport Director, Mario Isola has reflected on what he has described as a ‘great race’ around the Spa-Francorchamps circuit.

Today’s race saw all three tyre compounds used, with the majority of the grid opting for a mix of the hard and medium tyre compounds to execute their race strategy.

Max Verstappen and Oracle Red Bull Racing’s aggressive strategy of starting on the soft compound tyre allowed the championship leader to gain six places on the opening lap.

Isola noted that the high levels of tyre degradation experienced by the grid today was down to the high temperatures experienced across the Spa circuit.

“We saw a great race, with the hard being used by the majority of drivers. We will analyse all the data at our disposal but to hear on the radio that it was two-tenths of a second faster than expected was a fantastic achievement for us.

“Even though we knew that today’s conditions would be warmer than they were on Friday and Saturday, it was interesting to see the variety of strategies used, given the weather, track evolution, and a higher degree of degradation than expected. There were no problems with graining and the degradation was essentially thermal.

The Spa-Francorchamps Circuit has seen a number of modifications since the last time Formula One visited and Isola remarked that the tyre manufacturers experience at the recent Spa 24 Hours helped them forecast which tyre compounds to bring to Belgium this weekend.

Tatiana Calderón returned to FIA Formula 2 for the first time since 2019, joining the Charouz Racing System team in Spa-Francorchamps.

The Colombian driver had been competing in the NTT IndyCar Series, but her season was cut short, leaving her without a drive. In the week leading up to the Belgian Grand Prix Calderón announced that she would be rejoining the grid for the four remaining rounds of the 2022 F2 season.

Friday saw the action kick off and Calderón completed a trouble free practice, despite a number of red flags throughout the session. While the session was shortened, she managed to adjust to the 18-inch wheels, with this weekend being the first time she had driven the car with the new wheels.

Qualifying saw her struggle on soft compound tyres at the start of the session along with having to abort a fast lap. The result saw her line up on the grid in twenty-first for both races.

With Jehan Daravala unable to take the start of the sprint race, Calderón gained a position before the lights had gone out. Off of the line she battled with Juri Vips and Amaury Cordeel, this would set the tone for the race as Cordeel fought back. Calderón crossed the line in twentieth place before being promoted to nineteenth after Lirim Zendeli picked up a five-second time penalty.

Felipe Drugovich admits finding a seat on the FIA Formula 1 World Championship grid in 2023 is unlikely to materialise, but the Brazilian is looking to become a reserve driver somewhere next year.

The current FIA Formula 2 Championship leader does not currently have ties with a Formula 1 team, unlike many of his rivals in the series, including closest rivals Théo Pourchaire and Logan Sargeant, who are involved in the Sauber Junior Team and Williams Academy respectively.

Drugovich currently holds a forty-three point advantage over Pourchaire with just three rounds of the season remaining, and his focus does remain on clinching the title this year, but he does still have aspirations in becoming Brazil’s next Formula 1 driver.

“I see my future… I mean, somehow I’m going to be able to drive something next year,” Drugovich is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com.  “I still don’t know what it is, what I’m going to drive next year I don’t know.

“It might happen like Nyck [de Vries], I think getting to F1 nowadays is very very difficult and it’s looking like the opportunities for a main seat in F1 next year are obviously very limited.

Mick Schumacher is set to end his stint with the Ferrari Driver Academy at the end of 2022, with speculation rife that he will be leaving his ride with the Haas F1 Team after this year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Schumacher joined the Ferrari Driver Academy (FDA) back in 2019 after the German won the FIA Formula 3 European Championship, and they oversaw his move into FIA Formula 2, a championship he went on to win in 2020.

He then subsequently joined Haas for the 2021 season, although his rookie campaign saw him fighting at the back of the pack against then team-mate Nikita Mazepin as the team put all their development focus into the 2022 car.

He has suffered some high speed and high-profile crashes during the 2022 season as he attempted to find the pace to match his new team-mate Kevin Magnussen, most noticeably during Qualifying for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix and during the Monaco Grand Prix.

Schumacher finally scored his maiden points in the FIA Formula 1 World Championship when he finished eighth in the British Grand Prix, with the German almost taking seventh as he battled Oracle Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen to the line.

The Belgian Grand Prix will remain on the FIA Formula 1 World Championship calendar for at least one more season, although its place beyond 2023 remains uncertain.

The 2022 event could have been the last with the contract with the Spa-Francorchamps circuit expiring, and it saw Max Verstappen dominate despite having started fourteenth on the grid.  

Spa’s presence on the calendar was made even more perilous with Formula 1 adding new venues across the globe, such as Las Vegas and Qatar, whilst also looking to return to South Africa for the first time since 1993 and the possible fist Chinese Grand Prix since before COVID-19 hit.

However, 2023 will now definitely see Formula 1 return to Belgium, whilst 2024 and beyond could see it go on a rotational cycle with another track.  Previous calendar concepts have not included Spa, and there are no guarantees that it would host the first race after the summer break as it has done in recent years.

“Formula 1 can confirm that the Belgian Grand Prix will be on the 2023 calendar following an agreement to extend our partnership together,” said a statement on Sunday.  “Further details on the 2023 calendar will be announced in due course.”