Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

After a poor weekend for the Haas F1 team, Kevin Magnussen has stated that the team were not surprised by the VF22’s lack of performance at the Belgian Grand Prix.

Starting in twelfth, Magnussen made a strong start as the Dane found himself occupying a place inside the points within the first three laps.

However, a lack of top speed around the Spa-Francorchamps Circuit, soon saw the Haas driver tumbling down the order.

Coming out in eighteenth place after his second and final pit-stop, Magnussen was only able to gain two places before the chequered flag for an eventual sixteenth-place finish.

Speaking after the race, Magnussen was already looking to put a tough Belgian Grand Prix behind him and the team.

“I think we had an idea that this wasn’t going to be such a strong weekend. This type of track isn’t really our track so we tried what we could, but we didn’t really have the pace today. All in all, it hasn’t been the best of weekends, but we’ve got more running, collected more data and that will be useful going forward. I’m looking forward to the next race.”

Mick Schumacher: “It was frustrating not having any top speed compared to the cars around us”

Starting on the back row of the grid after a penalty for new engine components, Mick Schumacher was left with it all to do at Spa and, like his teammate, struggled to get any real performance out of his VF22.

Schumacher had gained five places from his original starting position by the time the safety-car had come out but the VF22’s lack of top speed soon saw Schumacher plummet down the order after the safety-car restart.

The German driver found himself in as high as thirteenth-place shortly before pitting for the first time in the race. Struggling to gain any real momentum in the race during his second stint, Schumacher would come home for a seventeenth-place finish.

Despite the poor showing for the Haas F1 team, Schumacher remained hopeful that the team’s struggles this weekend were track dependent and that the Zandvoort circuit would suit the VF22 just like the Hungaroring did before the summer break.

“It was tough, especially after the safety car restart to see those cars driving by. It was frustrating not having any top speed compared to the cars around us. On the other hand, it’s great to be here and great to be driving in front of so many people, some German!

Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN went close to scoring points as Zhou Guanyu finished fourteenth, within seconds of tenth place, at the Belgian Grand Prix. Birthday boy, Valtteri Bottas, saw his race come to an early end as he was collected by a spinning Nicholas Latifi and spun into the gravel in the opening laps.

Both Alfa Romeo drivers took grid penalties coming into the race with Zhou starting in nineteenth place and Bottas starting in fourteenth. Despite this, there was a strong belief from the team that they could score points, especially with a mixed-up grid.

However, this sadly did not go to plan as Bottas’ race ended early when he was beached in the gravel trying to avoid a collision with Latifi. Zhou did the best he could to try and score points for the team but just lacked that first sector pace compared to Williams Racing which saw him finish in fourteenth place.

Alfa Romeo’s team principal Frédéric Vasseur, spoke positively after the race about the team’s performance despite the unfortunate circumstances. He admitted that the penalties would make for a complicated weekend but believes the pace of the car deserved a better result.

“The team did a good job, given the circumstances: unfortunately, that was not enough for a point today. We knew that, taking power unit and gearbox penalties with both cars, we’d have a complicated weekend, but we can take heart from the pace we showed.”

Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN had an unfortunate day at Spa-Francorchamps, with Valtteri Bottas’ race coming to an early end after trying to avoid a spinning Nicholas Latifi which subsequently left the fin beached in the gravel. Zhou Guanyu ended up finishing in fourteenth place after starting in nineteenth place.

Both drivers came into the race on Sunday taking grid penalties meaning that Zhou would start in nineteenth place and his team-mate Bottas would start in fourteenth. There was confidence going into the race that Alfa Romeo could pick up points, however, this was short-lived as Bottas ended up stuck in the gravel in an attempt to avoid a spinning Latifi on the second lap which in turn ended the birthday boy’s race.

Bottas spoke after the race about the opportunity of scoring points, especially with a mixed-up grid but it wasn’t to be in the end. He now has all of his focus set on next weekend’s race at Zandvoort.

“We had pace today and, with such a mixed-up grid, there could have been opportunities to get a good result, so it’s disappointing to finish my race so early. It was a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time: I saw Latifi spin towards the left, and all I could do was take evasive action to avoid a collision.”

“Unfortunately, I spun on the grass and ended up stuck in the gravel: I tried to go forward and back, but couldn’t move. It’s not the birthday present I wanted, but hopefully I can still have some fun tonight, before we turn our focus on next week.”

McLaren F1 Team had a difficult race weekend at Spa-Francorchamps for the Belgium Grand Prix as both Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo finished outside of the points, which keeps them fifth in the constructors behind a more consistent BWT Alpine F1 Team.

Norris started the race in seventeenth place due to taking a grid penalty alongside six other drivers and would have a tough day ahead if he was going to make it inside the top 10 at the end of the forty-four-lap race.

Both Norris and Ricciardo got away cleanly, picking up positions on the opening lap. However, there was a safety car deployed on lap two as Valtteri Bottas was in the gravel trap, and Lewis Hamilton had stopped at turn sixteen after a coming together with Fernando Alonso. This moved Ricciardo up to sixth and Norris up to twelfth.

Norris pitted on lap thirteen and changed to the hard compound tyre, emerging in seventeenth place. He was able to get up to thirteenth two places behind his team-mate due to other cars making pit stops. Norris then pitted again on lap twenty-nine for fresh mediums after being overtaken by both the Alpines.

Both McLaren’s were unable to make it back into point-scoring positions for the remainder of the race leaving Norris in twelfth place and Ricciardo in fifteenth.

McLaren F1 Team suffered another difficult race weekend as both drivers Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo were unable to score any points at the Belgium Grand Prix.

Norris started the race in seventeenth place after taking a grid penalty, with Ricciardo starting in a promising seventh position. The race began with both drivers gaining positions after a safety car was deployed on lap two for Valtteri Bottas’ beached car.

After the restart, both drivers were able to find themselves in point positions for a good proportion of the race. However, due to McLaren struggling for pace and being stuck in a constant DRS train, both Alpines were able to overtake them which lead to the team pitting both drivers for a second time and when re-entering onto the track, left them further down the field. Norris finished in twelfth place with Ricciardo finishing in fifteenth place.

McLaren’s team principal Andreas Seidl spoke after the race admitting that the team struggled due to the warmer conditions which contributed to the overall final positions of both drivers.

“It’s been a tough Sunday for us here in Spa. Warmer conditions today contributed to a lack of pace which, in the end, resulted in us going backwards during the race. Lando finished P12 and Daniel P15, and it wasn’t possible for them to score a better result.“

Pierre Gasly’s ninth place finish at the Belgian Grand Prix finally snapped Scuderia AlphaTauri’s points drought, which had dated back to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in early June.

A late change to Yuki Tsunoda’s power unit forced the Japanese driver to start his race from the pit-lane and he was soon joined by his teammate, as Gasly’s electrical system on his ATO3 car failed on the grid, denying the Frenchmen of the chance to start the race from eighth position.

On the electrical system fault, Team Principal Franz Tost stated the team would need to examine what exactly went wrong on Gasly’s electrical system to prevent the issue ever happening again.

“Pierre drove a great race. Whilst on the starting grid, in his P8 spot, the electrical system stopped working so we had to bring his car back to the garage, where we were then able to start the PU to be able to begin the race from the pitlane. We must go away and investigate why it worked again once we returned to the garage.”

With the drama of the pre-race electrical system failure behind him, Gasly got to work on what turned out to be an impressive one hundredth race in his Formula One career for the twenty-six-year-old driver. An aggressive strategy which included pitting early onto the hard tyres, before a twenty-two-lap stint on the mediums to end the race saw Gasly rewarded with a ninth-place finish.  

Tost was keen to heap the praise onto Gasly after such an impressive drive from the pit-lane to the points.

“Of course, it was then a difficult race for Pierre, but he drove very well. He struggled with a lack of grip at the beginning of the race but during his later stint on the Mediums, he did a great job, and managed to make up multiple positions.”

Yuki Tsunoda was unable to match his teammates impressive drive around the Spa-Francorchamps Circuit. A combination of an alternate strategy and a period stuck in a DRS train, saw Tsunoda unable to secure a points finish.

Despite his thirteenth-place finish, Tost was also keen to praise Tsunoda for what he called ‘a really strong race’ from the young Japanese driver.

“Yuki also started from the pitlane today with a different strategy, with him starting on the hard tyres, he was able to do an extended stint on these, not coming in until lap 18 for the new tyre. I must say, Yuki also drove a really strong race and showed a good performance. He got stuck for some time behind Zhou but was able to overtake him on the last lap and finished in thirteenth.”

The Andalucía Rally was initially going to be a five-leg affair whose selective sections span 1,302 kilometres. However, the revised supplementary regulations published on 22 August, well after the race had been postponed to October, revealed it will be a stage shorter with less ground to cover at 1,212 km.

The dropped leg was originally one of the middle segments and is merged into the first, changing its distance from 248 to 481 km, the longest of the four intact; the opening leg will still feature a qualiying stage. Stage #2 is shortened from 264 to 258 km, while the next’s 387 drops to 334. The final stage remains the shortest at 139 km versus the original 142.

In total, there will be five selective sections after previously boasting six, while the twelve road sections drop to eight. From start to finish including the liaison areas, the rally will stretch 2,111 kilometres.

In conjunction with the changes, the race will begin on 19 October and end four days later on 23 October. Originally, it was scheduled to commence on the 18th with the same concluding date.

The Spanish rally serves as the final round of the 2022 World Rally-Raid Championship. It was originally the fourth leg on the calendar scheduled for 6–12 June before Rally Kazakhstan in April was cancelled due to the Russo-Ukrainian War and summer wildfires forced Andalucía to be moved. The new date shifts it to after the Rallye du Maroc, which in turn had its slot moved forward by five days.

After mainly focusing on working at Niece Motorsports, Dawson Cram will finally get a chance to race in 2022 as he enters this Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race in the #35 for Emerling-Gase Motorsports; it will be his second career start in the series. He will also race at Kansas Speedway on 10 September. Both starts come with backing from BE WATER.

“We are thrilled to have Greene Concepts’ BE WATER artesian spring bottled water brand along with its Happy Mellow brand on our racecars during the upcoming 2022 Xfinity Series,” Cram stated in a press release. “As an athlete performing races at speeds near 200 mph, 300 miles in distance, and temperatures exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit, proper hydration is extremely important which BE WATER offers while Happy Mellow provides relaxation and minerals afterward. I believe wholeheartedly in the BE WATER brand’s focus on courage, strength, goodness, generosity, and patience along with Happy Mellow’s attention on health and wellness support.”

Cram raced for multiple smaller organisations in the Camping World Truck Series from 2017 to 2020 before establishing a family team. Cram Racing Enterprises contested a part-time slate in late 2020 and 2021, with Cram running thirteen races during the latter year and notching a best finish of seventeenth on the Daytona Road Course. In thirty career Truck starts, he has seven top twenties with a highest run of fourteenth at Michigan in 2020. The team went dormant in 2022 as he focused on working as a mechanic for Niece, and he has also been employed by Xfinity teams like JD Motorsports.

In 2021, he ran the Xfinity race at New Hampshire for Mike Harmon Racing and finished thirty-fifth.

“I am very excited to be making my second start in the NASCAR XFINITY Series with a great team and a great brand,” Cram continued. “It feels like the right timing with the right group of people and I couldn’t be happier to be going back to Darlington for my fourth start in NASCAR.”

Williams Racing increased their total in the Constructors’ Championship to four points, after Alex Albon put on a majestic defensive display to finish in tenth-place at the Belgian Grand Prix.

After starting an incredible sixth, the Thai driver lost some places early on; however, he quickly made his way back into a comfortable position thanks to his rocket ship of a FW44. Williams were ridiculously fast down the straights, which massively benefitted Albon late on, after leading a five car DRS train for the final points place. No one could find a way past the Thai driver, who claimed a deserved points finish at Spa-Francorchamps.

On the other side of the garage, it was disappointment once again for Nicholas Latifi. The Canadian driver finished last of the running drivers after spinning on the second lap. Latifi dropped a wheel into the gravel on the exit of Les Combes whilst continuing to accelerate, causing him to spin across the circuit. Whist spinning he clipped Valtteri Bottas, who span into the gravel himself and was forced to retire from the race on his birthday, after becoming beached.

This ruined Latifi’s race, which left him in Albon’s shadow once again.

Williams’ Head of Vehicle Performance, Dave Robson, discussed both of the drivers races, where he praised Albon for “delivering another hard-earned point”.

With the Stadium Super Trucks‘ upcoming weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway being in support to YouTuber and SST driver Cleetus McFarland‘s Bristol 1000, it is only appropriate that other content creators take part in either or both. Such names will include a trio of SST newcomers as Derek Bieri, Matt Carriker, and Fielding Shredder tested trucks at series headquarters on Monday in preparation for their maiden starts.

Bieri runs Vice Grip Garage, which has 1.3 million subscribers and focuses on restoring and driving classic vehicles. His most-viewed video, a 2021 effort to start up and drive a 1968 Buick LeSabre 400, has over ten million views. He frequently shows up to races organised by McFarland including the Bristol 1000.

Unlike Bieri and McFarland, Carriker’s YouTube channel DemolitionRanch focuses on firearms. Launching his page in 2014, he is one of the top gun personalities on the site with over eleven million subscribers. A veterinarian by trade, the Carriker family also runs two channels covering veterinary care (Vet Ranch) and vlogging (OffTheRanch), which respectively have 2.85 million and 4.2 million subscribers.

Despite the different account scope from his fellow SST newcomers, he is well familiar with off-road racing, having owned a Trophy Truck. He worked with various teams at the SCORE International Baja 1000 three times, such as supporting the Trophy Truck Spec of Dion Podgurny for the 2016 race. Carriker has also taken part in the Mint 400 and expressed interest in running King of the Hammers.

Shredder is a drift racer whose Shredder Racing channel boasts 47.2 thousand subs. He broke into the larger media scene in 2019 when he starred in the Netflix drifting series Hyperdrive, where he finished third. His contract with Netflix—which included an NDA on discussing the show—expired earlier this year, which permitted him to provide such content for his page.

Alex Albon produced arguably his best performance since returning to Formula 1 at the Belgian Grand Prix, after defending tenth place like a lion all the way to the chequered flag to score a well deserved point.

It was a magical weekend for the Thai driver, who made it to Qualifying Three purely on merit after an outstanding Saturday. Due to a plethora of grid penalties for other drivers, Albon actually started the race from sixth; however, quickly dropped a few places.

Despite losing some ground early on, Albon remained in the points places with help from his FW44, which was nothing short of a rocket ship down the straights. Albon was able to overtake people with ease, with many mentioning just how fast the Williams Racing car was during the race. Towards the end, Albon led a DRS train of five cars; however, none could overtake the apparent mile-wide Williams.

It was a brilliant performance from Albon, who hailed the race as one of his “personal bests” after finishing tenth.

“This was one of the tougher races I’ve done in my career and also one of my personal bests. We did the best job we could today and it’s a good feeling. On the lap to the grid, it was clear that tyre degradation was going to be really high and hotter track temperatures than we have had the rest of the weekend made tyre wear worse. On the final stint I was thinking about three-stopping, but we held on, kept Lance [Stroll] behind and then it was about not making any mistakes.

Pierre Gasly’s one-hundredth career Formula 1 Race proved to be one to remember, as the Scuderia AlphaTauri driver battled his way back from a pit-lane start to secure a ninth-place finish at the Belgian Grand Prix.

The French driver had originally taken advantage of a number of penalties further up the grid, as his twelfth-place finish in qualifying turned into an eighth placed start for the Grand Prix.

However, an electrical system failure prior to the race start saw Gasly forced into starting his race from the pit-lane.

Pitting early, Gasly was able to undertake a large stint on the hard tyres before finishing his race on the Medium compound. The extra pace provided by the medium tyres towards the end of the race allowed Gasly to work his way from seventeenth on lap twenty-three to a ninth placed finish come the end of the Grand Prix.

Speaking after the race, Gasly described his comeback at the Belgian Grand Prix as ‘incredible’.

“It’s been an amazing race, it’s my 100th race today, so it’s a special one. I’m really surprised with how we’ve finished, after having to start from the pitlane to come back home in the top 10 is pretty incredible, so we should be happy with that today.

“We were obviously lined up in P8 on the grid, but had an issue and had to return to the garage, luckily we got the car started, and were able to begin the race from the pitlane.

“The car isn’t quite where we want it to be yet, we’ve still got some areas we need to work on, but I’m pleased we managed to be back scoring points again today.”

Yuki Tsunoda: “I’m pretty happy with how I drove“

Zane Maloney becomes the sixth F3 feature race winner of the 2022 season, crossing the line first in Spa-Francorchamps.

The Trident driver started the race from second and after taking the lead on lap 11, he held position till the checkered flag, to take his first ever Formula 3 race win.

Caio Collet began the race on pole, with Maloney and Francesco Pizzi behind him. 

As the lights went out and the race got underway, Collet got off the line quickly and held his lead. However Pizzi was not so fortunate, dropping down the order after dipping his wheel in the gravel.

In the last corner of lap one, Pizzi and MP Motorsport’s Kush Maini made contact forcing a yellow flag. Joint championship leader coming into the weekend Victor Martins, was also caught up in the incident forcing him and Maini to retire from the race and prompted a virtual safety car which was quickly upgraded to a full safety car. 

The Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway was always bound to be a wild conclusion to the NASCAR Cup Series regular season, but Sunday’s race really took things to another level. While not the late-night overtime wreckfest of the Xfinity Series race on Friday, the 400 was postponed to Sunday due to weather, saw multiple crashes highlighted by a thirteen-car pile-up with twenty laps remaining that eliminated much of the field, an hours-long rain delay, and a dash to the finish that propelled Austin Dillon into the sixteenth and final playoff slot over Martin Truex Jr. despite the latter’s sixth-place points standing.

Dillon was nineteenth in the standings entering Daytona and therefore needed a win to qualify for the playoffs, and two slots were still available after Kurt Busch withdrew his playoff waiver. Ryan Blaney, third despite being winless, was virtually assured a playoff spot provided he did not crash out; incidentally, he was involved in the first accident of the race on lap 32, and spent the rest of the day salvaging a finish of fifteenth, six laps down. Despite the day and Truex finishing eighth, Dillon’s win and Blaney’s points advantage were enough for the latter to clinch.

“Honestly, it’s been a good year for us, but the wins haven’t come,” commented Blaney. “I feel like we can be a big threat in the playoffs, it’s just a matter of putting races together. It’s been a good year, but a great year would be wins and I feel like this team can do it if we just continue to do what we know and we improve on the things that we can get better at.”

Truex, who got caught in a lap 126 crash, will miss the playoffs for the first time since the inaugural year of the format in 2014. 

“We just had too much damage at the end,” he explained. “We had a good spot on the restart and we got a good restart. We got the #2 (Austin Cindric) up front, which is what we were trying to do, but just couldn’t keep up. Just too much damage. It’s a shame. We knew it was going to be tough with so many cars out of the race and the distance between me and the #12 (Blaney). It was going to be hard to hang on to fourth or better with a car that torn up.”

The Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team came so close to achieving their pre-race goal of scoring a double points finish at the Belgian Grand Prix, with Sebastian Vettel finishing eighth and Lance Stroll in eleventh.

Vettel drove superbly in his last race at Spa-Francorchamps. The German demonstrated solid pace capable of battling with Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon, something which has been virtually impossible for the four-time World Champion this season given the AMR22’s mixed performance.

Stroll also drove brilliantly, but in the end didn’t quite have enough to beat Alex Albon for the final points place. The Canadian driver was stuck behind Albon for an obscene number of laps, with the Thai/British driver having seemingly made his car a mile wide. Stroll ended up being caught in a DRS train, meaning he had to balance his focus between attacking and defending.

Team Principal Mike Krack was hoping both drivers would finish in the points; however, he did praise Stroll for “executing some impressive” overtakes.

“After qualifying yesterday we said that our aim would be to score points with both cars in today’s race, and we very nearly achieved just that: Sebastian finished a fine eighth, and Lance ended up 11th, less than a second behind the 10th-placed finisher [Albon]. We started both cars on Mediums, then split the strategies [Vettel: Medium-Hard-Medium; Stroll: Medium-Medium-Hard].