Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Mattia Binotto is already putting the disappointment of the French Grand Prix behind him as his Scuderia Ferrari team turn their attention to the Hungarian Grand Prix this weekend.

Charles Leclerc crashed out of the lead at the Circuit Paul Ricard on Sunday, and Binotto, the Team Principal at Ferrari, says there is little point in dwelling over the Monegasque driver’s mistake.

“There is no point on dwelling on Charles’ mistake,” said Binotto.  “These things can happen, even to great drivers like him and together, we have already put it behind us.”

Despite losing a potential race win, Binotto says there are plenty of positives to take away from France, particularly the pace of the F1-75 throughout the weekend and the recovery drive of Carlos Sainz Jr.

Sainz started on the back row of the grid following grid penalties for unscheduled engine component changes, but he drove superbly to finish fifth, and but for a late pit stop for fresh tyres – Ferrari did not think his set of medium compound tyres would have lasted until the chequered flag – he could have even fought for a top three result.

Pierre Gasly said he tried everything he could to fight into the points during Sunday’s French Grand Prix, but it was just not enough to succeed as he was forced to settle for twelfth at the chequered flag.

After being eliminated in Qualifying at the first hurdle on Saturday, the Scuderia AlphaTauri driver knew he had it all to do to get into the top ten in his home event, but a lack of grip in the high-speed corners cost them dearly, and it was difficult for him to push as hard as he wanted to.

“We tried to fight to get back into the points and what we managed is P12, which clearly isn’t the performance we would have liked,” said Gasly.  “The fans and spectators made it a special weekend to put a big smile on my face, but I am extremely disappointed in the performance we showed.

“If I knew what the problem was, we could have changed it, but there was just a lot of sliding around and a lack of grip, especially in the high-speed corners. I tried everything I could in the car to push, changing lines, but there was nothing that clicked.”

Gasly admitted it was disappointing not to get points, particularly when the upgraded AT-03 appeared to be an improvement at the Circuit Paul Ricard on Friday, and they will need to investigate why the pace appeared to disappear when it mattered on Saturday and Sunday.

Oliver Goethe will replace Hunter Yeany at Campos Racing as the FIA Formula 3 Championship visits the Hungaroring this weekend.

The Dane has raced with Motopark in his maiden Euroformula season this year, winning eight of his 14 races and leading the standings after difficult campaigns in Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine and Formula Regional Asian Championship by Alpine in 2021.

Yeany broke his left wrist at the Red Bull Ring earlier in July, so Goethe will run alongside Pepe Marti and David Vidales at the Spanish team.

“We wish Hunter a speedy recovery and a strong debut for Oliver in FIA F3,” Campos said.

Goethe added, “I’m extremely excited to make my FIA F3 debut this weekend with Campos Racing.

Christian Horner felt Max Verstappen had done enough to jump Charles Leclerc during the early pit stop cycle at the Circuit Paul Ricard by pitting ahead of the Monegasque racer, but the Scuderia Ferrari drivers crash meant they never found out if that was the case.

Oracle Red Bull Racing’s Verstappen had slotted into second behind Leclerc at the start and was pressurising the polesitter for much of the first stint, although he dropped a few seconds back before he headed to the pits for his first pit stop.

Verstappen was making progress on fresh tyres and was on course to take over the lead only for Leclerc to crash out, and from there on it was a straightforward afternoon for the championship leader, much to the delight of Team Principal Horner.

“The main thing today is that Charles was ok, it was a cracking race between Max and him in that first stint,” said Horner.  “We pushed the button early and went for the undercut, Max had effectively taken track position, so it’s a shame we didn’t get to see how that played out, it would have been a great battle.

“In the end it was a straightforward victory for Max and a very good point scoring day.”

Lance Stroll took his fourth top ten finish of the season in Sunday’s French Grand Prix, and he says his first lap at the Circuit Paul Ricard helped set up his race.

The Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team driver was able to jump a few places on the opening lap and he said he knew a good start would be important if he was to be a points contender in France.

Stroll, who now has four tenth place finishes in 2022, felt he had the pace to close on McLaren F1 Team’s Daniel Ricciardo in the closing stages on Sunday, but he was left ultimately to defend from team-mate Sebastian Vettel at the end.

“We had a great first lap today that set us up to have a great race,” said Stroll.  “I nearly got [Esteban] Ocon in Turn Nine as well, but it was important to have such a good start.

“I felt I had some momentum in the closing stages to possibly catch [Daniel] Ricciardo. We are continuing our trend of being more competitive on a Sunday so today is a good platform as the summer break approaches.

The “new open-wheel invasion” of NASCAR continues as Daniil Kvyat will enter the Cup Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday. He will drive the #26 Toyota Camry for Team Hezeberg.

A longtime NASCAR fan and ex-Formula One driver, Kvyat attended the Cup race at Road America in early July as a guest of Team Hezeberg. He befriended the team’s technical ally Josh Reaume months prior, who offered him a chance to compete in stock cars when possible.

“I’m very happy to be able to make my NASCAR Cup Series début at Indianapolis,” said Kvyat. “I have always been passionate about racing in NASCAR, the top form of motorsport in the United States. NASCAR has always been intriguing to me, as it is a pure form of motorsport to me.

“I’m looking forward to being successful in this form of motorsport and I hope to contend for wins and championships in the future. I can’t thank NASCAR, Josh Reaume, Toine Hezemans, Ernst Berg, and everybody at Team Hezeberg enough for the opportunity. The guys at the shop have been working tirelessly to prepare machine and myself for this experience. It will be my first time at Indianapolis, and I am looking forward to seeing it in person. From what I have seen on video, Indianapolis is a challenging circuit, but I’m looking forward to that challenge, along with competing in the NASCAR Cup Series.”

Days later on 12 July, he tested a late model owned by Reaume’s Camping World Truck Series programme Reaume Brothers Racing at Hickory Motor Speedway, marking his first oval track laps. While the Indianapolis race is its infield road course, he has expressed interest about running ovals in the future as part of a full-time campaign.

BWT Alpine F1 Team have overtaken McLaren F1 Team in the Constructors’ Championship to provisionally take the ‘best of the rest’ spot, with a four-point gap separating the two teams. The French outfit were able to outscore their rivals at their home event, taking home sixth-place with Fernando Alonso and eighth-place with Esteban Ocon, while McLaren would finish seventh and ninth with Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo respectively.

“The goal today was to score points with both cars, and we’ve done just that! I’m happy with my race today and it was brilliant to drive in front of the home fans who have been incredible all weekend, so thanks to them for all their support.

“It was a tough one out there in the heat, and I enjoyed the on-track racing with some tight battles. We’re now fourth in the Constructors’ Championship, so we leave here feeling very positive and motivated to keep that position. I do hope we race in France next year as there is nothing quite like a home Grand Prix.

“Merci to all the fans and allez Alpine!”

“I am pleased with our race today” – Fernando Alonso

Two-time world champion, Alonso, is happy with his result, after he jumped Norris at Turn One and was able to control the race to finish in sixth-place. The Spaniard is now tenth in the Drivers’ Championship after his year got off to a tricky start, though he has been putting in some brilliant performances recently.

Charles Leclerc has walked away from Sunday’s French Grand Prix incredibly frustrated, after crashing out of the race from the lead. The Monégasque took an impressive pole position on Saturday afternoon and was controlling the pack in the early stages of the Grand Prix, but found himself under pressure from a very quick Max Verstappen.

On lap eighteen, the number sixteen driver took a wider line through Turn Eleven and went into a spin after hitting the white line. Leclerc’s Scuderia Ferrari car spun through the colourful run-off area where he gently hit the wall, and was unable to reverse his way out; prompting the first and only real Safety car of the event. Thankfully, Leclerc was okay.

The Ferrari driver’s initial radio message, after the accident, hinted at an issue with the throttle being the cause of the spin; just two weeks after struggling with throttle sticking in Austria. However, Leclerc took the blame for the crash in his post-race interview, while Verstappen cruised his way to victory and extended his championship lead.

“I’m very disappointed. This is not the outcome that I wanted today, as we had the pace to win. I made a mistake and paid the price for it. Now I will head home to reset before the next race in Hungary, where I will give it my all once again.

“It was a hard race today” – Carlos Sainz Jr

The French Grand Prix was also less-than-smooth for Carlos Sainz Jr, who was already at a disadvantage at the start of the weekend when he took a penalty for exceeding component limits on his car. The Spaniard started from nineteenth on the grid and was initially stuck in a DRS train, before charging through the field to finish fourth.

Twice Dakar Rally winner Nani Roma took a hiatus from racing in March after being diagnosed with bladder cancer, but his treatment has appeared to be taking positive steps. In a recent interview with Catalan TV3 news programme Els matins, he revealed improving conditions have gradually opened the door towards returning to the driver’s seat. While a timetable for his comeback is not set in stone, he expressed hope of testing again in September ahead of potentially racing the Rallye du Maroc a month later and the 2023 Dakar Rally.

Roma won the 2004 Rally in the Bikes category on his ninth try before switching to the Cars the following year. He won that division in 2014 to become one of just three drivers who have won the overall on both two and four wheels, joining fourteen-time champion Stéphane Peterhansel and thrice victor Hubert Auriol. Also among his Dakar achievements are seventeen career stage wins on a bike and thirteen in a car.

The 2022 edition was his second with Bahrain Raid Xtreme Prodrive. However, Roma’s hopes of vying for the overall win or a podium were disrupted when he suffered a barrel roll in the fourth stage. Despite recovering with a fourth-place class finish in the penultimate leg, the Stage #4 retirement meant he could only place fifty-second overall.

Two months after the Rally, Roma announced he would step back as to begin his cancer fight, which would have prevented him from running at least the Andalucía Rally in June until it was postponed to mid-October and now takes place after the Rallye du Maroc. Andalucía serves as his home rally raid, taking place in his native Spain (albeit on the opposite side of the country).

“Everything has gone very well, but when you hear the word ‘tumour’ or ‘cancer’ you get some smoky moments,” Roma told Els matins. “[Doctors] told me it was serious but I would get over it, and problems with a solution are less problems. And from there, go head on: in life, things sell as they sell.

McLaren F1 Team’s Lando Norris struggled with a lack of pace and high tyre degradation at the French Grand Prix, and was ultimately unable to build from his fifth place starting position and ultimately finished in seventh.

With the team finding themselves in a performance deficit to their nearest competitors recently, Norris “expected” to have trouble battling for the sharp end of the points.

“Tough day but I think it was what we expected. It was a long race and we struggled a little bit with the degradation of the tyre but also just with the pure pace.

“We weren’t as quick as we needed to be, so yeah, just tough but I won’t say disappointed. It’s sort of what we were expecting, so not a surprise.”

Norris said that the team will look to make the most of the upgrades they brought to France at the next race weekend in Hungary, as they are motivated to improve upon their current standing as summer break nears. 

What would have been a banner day for Joe Gibbs Racing went up in smoke when Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch‘s 1–2 finish in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series round at Pocono Raceway instead ended in disqualification for failing post-race inspection. Nevertheless, NASCAR announced Monday that the team has decided not to appeal the penalties.

Hamlin and Busch were done in when their cars were revealed to have illegal material stuck to the front fascia. NASCAR did not specify what the offending objects were nor where on the fascias were they located, though Cup Series managing director Brad Moran explained they impact the cars’ aerodynamics.

“There was some issues discovered that affect aero of the vehicle,” Moran said following the race. “The part was the front fascia. There really was no reason why there was some material that was somewhere it shouldn’t have been, and that does basically come down to a DQ. It is a penalty, both for the #11 of Denny Hamlin and the #18 of Kyle Busch have been DQed. Their vehicles are being loaded in the NASCAR hauler. They’re going to go back to the R&D Center. The final results have been changed to show that the two DQs were there, and they have the opportunity to appeal it, and it’ll be all sorted out by next week.

“We don’t want to be here talking about this. We just saw a great race. Last thing you want to do is meet here afterwards and talk about this problem. But the teams and the owners and everybody is well aware that this new car was going to be kept with some pretty tight tolerances, and there’s some areas that all the teams are well aware that we cannot be going down the path that we had in the past with the other cars.

“It is partly to do with the new car, and the rules have tightened up, and everyone has to kind of abide by our new rules, which everybody is well aware of. We saw enough that the DQ was warranted, and we are bringing the vehicles back for further evaluation, so we will look much closer at both vehicles. But as of right now, we are hopefully not going to find anything else, but we are going to inspect them further when we get them back to the R&D Center.”

Coffee generally goes well with bread; just ask any coffeehouse about their food menu.

Brad “Bread” Pérez hopes to be further proof of that claim as he has entered Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, driving the #13 Toyota Supra GR for MBM Motorsports with sponsorship from Apex Coffee Roasters. If he makes the race, it will be his Xfinity début.

Pérez began his NASCAR foray in March by running the Camping World Truck Series race at Circuit of the Americas where he finished twentieth. Another start came at Sonoma in June with a run of twenty-second. Both races came with Reaume Brothers Racing, who formed a technical alliance with MBM in 2021.

The 25-year-old mainly competes in the Sports Car Club of America, while his off-track activities include working as a crew member for Truck team Rackley WAR and other odd jobs. He is also a fan favourite on social media for his friendly personality and work ethic.

“I will be attempting to make my NASCAR Xfinity Series debut at the famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway this weekend with MBM Motorsports! I want to thank Apex Coffee Roasters, GreenTech Energy, Victory SIM for sticking by me and continuously believing in me,” Pérez posted on social media. “LAST but not least the entire Laster family for being so good to me, Dane Laster, Tamara Laster and Brayton Laster you all have been a blessing in my life and I’m proud to have AutoRepairVinStickers.com and JunkCarBlaster.com on the car at the most famous race track in the world”.

Josef Newgarden‘s frightening medical situation following the NTT IndyCar Series Sunday race at Iowa Speedway has prompted Team Penske to place Santino Ferrucci on reserve duty for Saturday’s Gallagher Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course.

After Newgarden’s race and hopes of a weekend sweep ended with a lap 236 crash while leading, he fainted in the motorhome lot and suffered a head abrasion upon hitting the ground. He was awake and alert while being observed by medical personnel before being airlifted to MercyOne Des Moines Medical Center, the latter of which was stressed as being due to traffic and not due to imminent health danger. He was held overnight for further evaluation before being released on Monday and returning home to Nashville.

“Per series protocols, Newgarden will be reevaluated by the INDYCAR Medical Team on Thursday to determine his status for the Gallagher Grand Prix,” reads a Team Penske statement on Monday. “Should Newgarden not be able to race, Ferrucci will take the wheel of the No. 2 PPG Chevrolet.”

Ferrucci is already scheduled to be at Indianapolis as he is competing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series that same day with Sam Hunt Racing. However, in the event that his services are needed with Penske, the timing makes it unlikely (but not necessarily impossible) he will pull double duty by running both races as Xfinity starts immediately after IndyCar.

The 24-year-old has been a bit of a “super sub” in 2022. Save for the Indianapolis 500 with Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, his two other starts this season have been as an injury replacement: in March, he ran the Texas race in the #45 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda as a last-minute callup when Jack Harvey was not cleared following a hard wreck in final practice; three months later, he filled the #77 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet for Callum Ilott at Detroit after Ilott broke his hand at the Indy 500.

With his rallying career limited to occasional starts, Dani Sordo has been keen to expand his horizons in rally raid. Three months after making his discipline début, his efforts have translated into a podium as he placed second in the FIA T3 category of his home rally raid Baja España Aragón.

Sordo drove a Can-Am Maverick X3 for Nasser Racing, a team owned by Dakar Rally star and Baja Aragón overall winner Nasser Al-Attiyah, with his WRC co-driver Cándido Carrera serving in the same position. The first of two stages on Saturday proved to be a struggle due to dust kicking up from competitors who started ahead of him, but he recovered to finish seventh in class. This pace carried into the second stage as Sordo set a time of three hours and forty-seven seconds to top his category, clearing runner-up Pedro Carvalho by over five minutes and promoting him into the class overall lead.

A tyre puncture in the third and final leg on Sunday killed his chances of a class win, with his 2:06:53.9 only being enough for fifth and trailing Guillaume de Mevius by four minutes. João Dias finished second at 2:03:35.9, and his total time of 7:55:50 enabled him to leapfrog Sordo for the T3 victory by trumping Sordo’s 7:58:03.1 while also gaining four positions in the general classification. While falling short of the class win, Sordo still settled for the category podium and eighth among the entire field. Fellow Spanish native Cristina Gutiérrez joined the two on the T3 podium.

“We are happy with the experience we’ve gained in this discipline and to have ran this legendary race,” said Sordo. The runner-up finish also gave him the T3 win in the Spanish Cross-Country Rally Championship (CERTT – Campeonato Español de Rallies Todo Terreno), whose overseer RFEDA co-sanctioned the event alongside the FIA for four-wheel competitors.

He has competed in WRC since 2003, enjoying success as factory driver for Citroën, Mini, and Hyundai with three wins, fifty-three podiums, and a pair of third-place points finish. The Spaniard also won the Junior World Rally Championship in 2005. He scaled back to a part-time position at Hyundai in 2018 to help the Korean make develop younger drivers and win the Manufacturers’ Championship, though he continued to see strong results by winning the 2019 and 2020 Rally Italia Sardegna. For 2022, Sordo is sharing a Hyundai i20 N Rally1 with 20-year-old Oliver Solberg, and the older driver scored a pair of third-place finishes in his two starts to date in Portugal and Italy.

Johan Kristoffersson is the most successful name in FIA World Rallycross Championship history with four titles and twenty-seven race victories to his name. On 30/31 July, he will hope to add Nitro Rallycross to his decorated résumé as he makes his début in the Group E class at Strängnäs Motorstadion. He will drive the #3 FC1-X for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing JC.

DRR JC is a partnership between American team Dreyer & Reinbold Racing and Swedish outfit JC Raceteknik, the latter of which won the 2021 World RX championship as KYB EBS JC with Kristoffersson. Said season, which was Kristoffersson’s first with Audi, saw him win thrice.

“We know how good Johan is and we worked very well together last season,” said JC owner Joel Christoffersson. “It will be interesting to see how he gets acclimated in the FC1-X at Strängnäs, especially when most of the other drivers have already done an event in the car at Lydden Hill.

“We learned a lot with our four drivers and cars in the first round. It’s always a big milestone to get the first race with brand new cars under our belts and now we can focus more on the details of increasing our performance. Johan’s experience will also help us and we can look forward to a good weekend together.”

Prior to his 2021 campaign with JC, Kristoffersson spent six years in a Volkswagen. The 2018 World RX season saw him record easily the most dominant year ever as he won eleven of twelve races and was nearly 100 points ahead of championship runner-up Mattias Ekström.