Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Zhou Guanyu says he is eager to get back on track this weekend at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve to put behind him the disappointment of his retirement from the Azerbaijan Grand Prix last weekend whilst on course for a good result.

The Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN driver retired for a third time in four races at the Baku City Circuit, but it’s the performance prior to his retirement that he is focusing on, and something he hopes to build on in his first Canadian Grand Prix.

Zhou says the team have been working hard to solve the reliability woes that have affected him in recent events, and he is eager to break into the top ten this Sunday for the first time since the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.

“The benefit of back-to-back races is the opportunity to get on track immediately after a disappointing event and this is the approach I have for the weekend,” said Zhou.  “I am focusing on the positives from Baku: my performance in Q1 and the way I was running my race until the DNF are the starting points for Canada and this is what I am going to build on.

“The team has worked hard to understand the issue we had and we come to Montreal to get the result that evaded us last week.

Catie Munnings mainly cut her teeth in rallying, but she can now add rallycross to her résumé. On Thursday, Munnings announced she will make her rallycross début in the FIA RX2e Championship at the World RX of Sweden in Höljes Motorstadion on 1–3 July.

After rising through the ranks in the European Rally Championship and making a one-off in the World Rally Championship, Munnings is currently a mainstay in Extreme E. She drives for Andretti United XE alongside Timmy Hansen, a rallycross star who won the World Rallycross Championship Supercars (predecessor to the current RX1e) in 2019, and the duo finished the 2021 season third in the championship with a win at the Arctic X Prix. Andretti XE placed seventh in the 2022 opener in Saudi Arabia after failing to finish their Semi-Final race.

Munnings explained it is “very exciting to be a part of the first race, at the iconic circuit of Höljes. It’s something completely new for me; I’ve been racing electric in Extreme E, but nothing like this. I was so surprised by the speed you have when you first accelerate and the torque you have. It will be a big challenge for me. But I don’t have big expectations. I’m here to develop and to progress. I want to get more side-by-side experience as a driver. The guys are really quick, so I can’t wait to be there on the start grid and hopefully learn as much as I can from them.

“The RX2e car is so simple to drive: no gears, no clutch, no things to worry about as a driver. But then it has its challenges because you have to think about the regen bias and you can adjust the torque on each axle and how much the car pushes. It all changes completely, so you can have a totally different car at each race location. This will be a huge challenge for me since I don’t have experience of the rallycross tracks or this car so I would rely a lot on what the RX2e engineers tells me. But that’s part of the game and it’s the same for everybody when they start something new.”

Although Extreme E is not a rallycross series, it enjoys much crossover with World RX in their driver rosters. Hansen and his brother Kevin are regulars in both, while current XE points leader Johan Kristoffersson is a four-time World RX champion. Klara Andersson of XITE Energy Racing is contracted to race in World RX’s RX1e class for 2022, while her XE team-mate Oliver Bennett also has experience in the series. Timo Scheider doubles as both a World RX racer and Extreme E course advisor.

The Azerbaijan Grand Prix was one the Haas F1 Team won’t be remembering anytime soon, after Mick Schumacher finished fourteenth and Kevin Magnussen retired from the race.

It was a disappointing weekend in Baku for the American team, who failed to show the pace and promise which they’ve already managed on several occasions this season.

Team Principal Guenther Steiner, reflected on the previous round ahead of this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix.

“We were actually surprised how good the car came along on Sunday for the race, with Kevin fighting for points, but then we had the mechanical failure with the PU. In general, on Friday we didn’t start off on the right foot, we were a little bit off – more than a little bit – but on Saturday we got it in the right region where we needed to be. 

“Where we suffered most was on the straight, other people did a better job on low downforce going down the straights, so the whole weekend we suffered a little bit there. If qualifying hadn’t been compromised by the red and yellow flag we encountered, it could’ve been a better race but nevertheless, before the failure we were in a very good position to score points so I’m not too upset, I’m more disappointed that we had another DNF.” 

Kevin Magnussen is hoping to bounce back this weekend at the returning Canadian Grand Prix, after an unfortunate retirement last weekend in Azerbaijan. The Dane suffered a suspected power unit failure, after a puff of smoke was seen coming out of his VF22 moments before his retirement.

This weekend’s visit to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is the sport’s first since 2019, due to the Coronavirus pandemic. It’s a venue that Magnussen “really likes” and is very excited for the challenge. Usually drivers will attempt to use as much kerb as possible to gain lap-time, however, this season that certainly won’t be happening.

“Montreal is a cool, cool place. It’s a nice track as well, it’s pretty unique, it’s kind of like a street circuit but then also a hybrid – I really like it. It’s very bumpy so it’s going to be harsh in these new cars as they’re very stiff. it’s going to be challenge I’m sure but a good one.

“The goal is to score points, that’s for sure. I think we have the car to do that and I’m looking forward to going there.”

Magnussen’s best-ever finish in Montreal is twelfth, his father Jan Magnussen, achieved a best result of sixth at the circuit in 1998. Ahead of the weekend, Magnussen discussed the importance of having family attend races.

Thad Moffitt‘s #20 Young’s Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado RST will be dirty after Saturday’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Knoxville Raceway, which is probably why Clean Harbors and Safety-Kleen are the perfect sponsors for the race.

“Young’s Motorsports has been a great customer of ours through our Safety-Kleen business for thirteen years, so we’re excited to be represented on the hood of their truck—especially for such an important race,” commented Clean Harbors marketing director Buddy Judy. “We’re even more excited to see how good that Clean Harbors #20 looks dirty and up at the front. This is a legendary track so it’s only fitting to have a member of the legendary Petty family behind the wheel.”

The grandson of the legendary Richard Petty, Moffitt is seeking to break into the Truck Series in 2022 after spending the last five years competing in the ARCA Menards Series, including much of the 2021 season en route to a fourth-place points finish. He made his maiden Truck starts in the first three events of 2022 for Reaume Brothers Racing in alliance with GMS Racing, finishing eighteenth at Daytona followed by twenty-ninth and thirty-second at Las Vegas and Atlanta, respectively.

“Young’s Motorsports is thrilled to welcome Thad Moffitt to our driver lineup,” said team owner Tyler Young. “Our team takes huge pride in carrying the colors of the race entitlement sponsor and we are looking forward to having the opportunity to provide Thad and Clean Harbors the chance of earning their career-best Truck Series finish on Saturday night at Knoxville.”

Although the ARCA Menards Series visits two dirt tracks annually (the Illinois and DuQuoin State Fairgrounds), Moffitt never raced at either track. After running the first fourteen races of 2021, he relinquished his #46 David Gilliland Racing entry to Taylor Gray for the two dirt events due to a lack of sponsorship.

Nitro Rallycross has returned for the 2022 season with a worldwide global calendar spanning ten rounds, some fresh new faces, and an all-new electric class of racing. This weekend kicks the season off with round one at Lydden Hill in the United Kingdom, home to one of the most historic rallycross tracks ever raced.

Speaking to this weekend’s historic track, NRX begins with round one taking the series overseas to the United Kingdom for the first time after announcing a global calendar. Drivers will now take to 5 new countries to compete in this season including Sweden, Finland, Saudi Arabia, and Canadian rounds. The series will still hold events in its homeland of the United States but just a bit fewer than the international rounds. ERX, Wild Horse Pass, and a round in California are slated for the US rounds but also an unannounced season finale in March will be held there. 

With the new influx of international tracks, fans are pleased to see a new influx of drivers as well. While this year’s roster is similar to the previous, it contains some fresh new faces to join the field across all four classes. Drivers like Jensen Button and Kris Meeke join in the top class while in the lower classes of NRX NEXT and Crosscar the lineup has grown even more with skilled drivers like Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinsky and Tommi Hallman. 

Familiar faces return looking for redemption and a shot at gold as reigning champion and creator, Travis Pastrana returns for the all-new Group E class. Others like Andreas Bakkerud, Oliver Bennett, and Kevin Eriksson are making their second attempts at becoming champions this season jumping into Group E as well. Some competitors like Fraser McConnell are competing in both Supercars and Group E. 

With drivers competing in multiple classes the question must be asked of how many classes are there really? Nitro Rallycross is upping the ante with four new dedicated classes this season. Crosscars will make their debut as the smallest of the four, followed by the return of NRX NEXT. With NEXT returning we will see familiar names on cars such as reigning champion Casper Jansson, Lane Vacala, and Mikaela Ahlin-Kottulinksy as she jumps into NEXT full time.

Despite fracturing her foot in Extreme E‘s season-opening Desert X Prix in February, Christine “GZ” Giampaoli Zonca will ultimately not miss a single race. On Wednesday, with testing approaching, Veloce Racing confirmed GZ has been medically cleared to return to racing ahead of the Island X Prix doubleheader in Sardinia on 6–10 July.

“We’re thankful that Christine is okay after her crash and we’re excited to have her back with us as the team gets ready for what will no doubt be a challenging week of back-to-back Extreme E races,” said Veloce Racing CEO Daniel Bailey. “We left the season opener on the back foot, but these days of testing provide a perfect opportunity to build on the speed we showed in the first race and make sure we’re back to competing at the front.”

During single-car qualifying for the Desert X Prix in Saudi Arabia, GZ rolled her Veloce Odyssey on a left turn and broke her foot in three different locations, resulting in hospitalisation and surgery. Hedda Hosås replaced her for the heat and Crazy Race the following day.

Perhaps making recovery easier for her was Extreme E dropping the Ocean X Prix on 7/8 May in favour of the Sardinia double. She continued to walk with crutches until this point, and participated in the series’ Legacy Programme in Senegal without much restriction.

GZ returned to motorsport in late May by driving autocross in Spain, while her formal racing resumption took place a month later with the Spanish outfit Ya-Car Racing.

Pierre Gasly had an excellent Azerbaijan Grand Prix, filling the Frenchman with confidence that he can take the momentum into this weekend’s returning Canadian Grand Prix.

The Scuderia AlphaTauri driver performed magnificently in Baku, the French driver finished fifth after starting in sixth. The result saw Gasly finish as ‘best of the rest’, something the Frenchman has done now on a number of occasions.

Ahead of this weekend’s race in Canada, Gasly reflected on what was a successful previous round.

“I went back home from Baku with Max and, as he won the race, it was a pretty entertaining flight! I was extremely happy with our Baku weekend – P6 on the grid, P5 in the race. It was a perfect weekend, with great strategy and pit stops, an excellent start and good speed. I was very happy for the whole team, as we had not enjoyed much luck in recent races. It was tough, but we stuck together and kept working and it finally paid off. I feel we have kicked off our season properly now.”
 
This weekend’s race at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve represents the third street race in a row, and the end of a gruelling double-header. In the past, lap-time has been gained around the venue by riding the kerbs, however, Gasly believes the complete opposite will be needed to be quick this weekend.

“Canada is another street circuit and I think that this year, the Montreal circuit will be really challenging, especially with these new cars that are very stiff, much more so than their predecessors. The big kerbs and the high speeds will be a real test as will the final corner and the famous Wall of Champions! We will have to avoid the kerbs a lot more, whereas in the past you needed to ride over them to do a quick lap.

For two entries, Saturday’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event at Knoxville Raceway hopes to be a brotherly affair as Braden Mitchell and his younger brother Bryson Mitchell aim to make the race in the #53 Sparks Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado and #46 G2G Racing Toyota Tundra, respectively.

The older Mitchell previously attempted his NASCAR début at Eldora Speedway, then the only dirt track in NASCAR’s national series, in 2018 for Reaume Brothers Racing but failed. Over the next four years, he has continued his dirt career in late models alongside Bryson around the Southern United States such as North Alabama Speedway and the Talladega Short Track.

The brothers have competed in series like the Durrence Layne 602 Late Model Sportsman Series and CRUSA Dirt Late Models.

Braden posted on social media, “Ready to kick off the week with NCWTS in Knoxville, Iowa! Huge thanks to Sparks Energy for this opportunity!

Both of the Alabama-born brothers’ trucks are sponsored by Sparks Energy, which is based in their state and is notably a sponsor of Xfinity Series driver Joey Gase, who worked as Braden’s spotter for the 2018 Eldora race; Sparks Energy has also sponsored Xfinity events at Talladega Superspeedway. Gase also plans to race at Knoxville with On Point Motorsports.

For Lance Stroll this weekend is a particularly special one, as the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team driver prepares for his first home Grand Prix since 2019.

The Canadian Grand Prix has been absent on the calendar for the past two-years, following the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The Canadian driver will be hoping for better fortunes this weekend than he faced in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix last weekend, where he retired late on from sixteenth-place.

Stroll is “super excited” to be heading home this weekend, where he hopes to make some “solid progress”.

“Obviously I am super excited to be back in front of a home crowd and racing in Canada again! It is a shame we haven’t been to Montreal for the past couple of years, so there will be lots of work and preparation to get our car ready for the first practice sessions. As a team, we have made solid progress so far this season, so hopefully we can achieve a good result in front of my home crowd.” 

Circuit Gilles Villeneuve “a great venue for racing” – Sebastian Vettel

Sebastian Vettel had a super weekend in Azerbaijan, where fifth-place was a real possibility had it not been for running-off track early in the race. The German will be hoping to take his sixth-place finish at the Baku City Circuit, and turn it into motivation for this weekend at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

Team Principal of the McLaren F1 Team, Andreas Seidl, is hopeful that his team can remain “focused” for this weekend’s returning Canadian Grand Prix after a long commute from Azerbaijan.

This weekend’s race in Canada represents the end of one of the most demanding double-headers of the season, due to the incredible distance between last weekend’s race in Azerbaijan, and this weekend’s in Canada. It was a somewhat good weekend for McLaren in Baku, after the team scored a double points finish. Daniel Ricciardo finished eighth, with Lando Norris finishing right behind in ninth.

The British team will be hoping for a better result at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, as some of their main rivals scored big points at the Baku City Circuit.

Seidl is happy to be returning to Canada, after the circuit failed to feature on the calendar since 2019 due to COVID-19.

“We’re looking forward to going back to Canada after a two-year hiatus. The track is a favourite of lots of the drivers and it will be great to see the Canadian fans again, we felt an incredible amount of support there in 2019.  

Jordan Anderson Racing Bommarito Autosport will add a little Canadian flavour to its driver lineup as Dylan Westbrook is in the #3 Chevrolet Silverado for Saturday’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Knoxville Raceway. Westbrook, a sprint car racer who has competed on both sides of the U.S./Canadian border, is running his first NASCAR race.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to race sprint cars all over the United States and Canada, and to make my NASCAR Camping World Truck Series début at the track most famous for Sprint Car racing really brings everything full-circle,” commented Westbrook.

The 23-year-old has won sixty-four times in dirt championships like the American Sprint Car Series, where he is currently second in points with a victory at Lake Ozark Speedway. In his native Canada, he won the Ohsweken Speedway track championship in 2015, 2016, and 2019. Westbrook is no stranger to success at Knoxville either, winning the Brownells Big Guns Bash‘s 360 class in 2021.

He has also competed in series like the All Star Circuit of Champions and United Sprint Car Series, as well as events such as the Knoxville Nationals and legendary Chili Bowl Nationals midget race. In the latter, he reached the A-Main twice in 2016 and 2017.

“This year racing for Hill’s Racing we have been trying to run as many weekly races at Knoxville at possible when there is not a Lucas Oil ASCS Tour event trying to log some extra laps and learn as much as we can in preparation for the famed 360 and 410 Knoxville Nationals in August,” Westbrook added. “I am hoping some of the things I have learned over the years at Knoxville will allow me to have an edge over the NCWTS regulars and earn a respectable finish.”

Daniel Ricciardo is in high spirits ahead of this weekend’s returning Canadian Grand Prix, after a strong performance at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The Australian finished eighth at the Baku City Circuit; crucially ahead of team-mate Lando Norris.

The good result has given the 32-year-old a much needed confidence boost, ahead of a circuit which Ricciardo as fond memories of. The Australian driver claimed his first victory at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in 2014, whilst racing for Oracle Red Bull Racing.

It’ll be the first Formula 1 event in Canada since 2019, after the pandemic saw the Grand Prix cancelled for back-to-back years.

Ricciardo is excited ahead of the weekend, where he’s hoping to build on his momentum from Azerbaijan.

“All of my favourite races seem to start with M, Melbourne, Monaco, Monza and, obviously, Montreal. I’m buzzing to be going back to Canada after a couple of years. Montreal is a great city and there’s always a brilliant atmosphere so I’m looking forward to soaking that all up and using it to keep pushing forward on track – it’s always a fun one. I got my first win there back in 2014, so hopefully I can use some of that Canadian magic to get some more points for the team this time round. 

For the first-time since 2019, the FIA Formula 1 World Championship is returning to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve this weekend, for the very popular Canadian Grand Prix. The driver favourite hasn’t featured on the calendar since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A lot has changed since the last race at Canada, back in 2019 Pierre Gasly was still racing for Oracle Red Bull Racing, and Sebastian Vettel was leading the charge at Scuderia Ferrari.

For the weekend, Pirelli have brought the softest range of their tyres, with the C3 being the Hard, the C4 the Medium and the C5 being the soft. The race has usually been won in the past on a one-stop strategy, however, all the data is now three-years old. The surface will likely evolve rapidly, where drivers reach almost top speeds whilst also having to brake incredibly heavily.

The weather at the Canadian GP is always unpredictable, something drivers and teams won’t be wanting this weekend with so little data.

Pirelli’s Motorsport Director, Mario Isola, is expecting the teams to be faced with a number of questions this weekend due to the multi-year absence.

Guenther Steiner remains optimistic about Haas F1 Team‘s chances at scoring points in future races, despite a power unit failure putting Kevin Magnussen out of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Having failed to get either of the cars out of Qualifying One on Saturday, three retirements in the opening stages of the race put Magnussen into a good position to score points. However, the number twenty driver would suffer the same fate as three other Ferrari-powered cars, when his power unit failed in the second half of the Grand Prix.

Mick Schumacher was unable to score his first FIA Formula 1 World Championship point, but did overtake Nicholas Latifi to cross the line in fourteenth-place. Steiner has praised both of Haas’ drivers, as the American outfit looks ahead to the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday.

“It’s not what we wanted today but the good thing that we take away is that we were in a good position when we had some PU issues, but we still have to find out what it is. As I always say, our car is good enough to get into the points, we just need to make it happen.

“Kevin was fighting and was in the fight and Mick also put in a solid effort.”