Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Rally de Portugal will mark the first rally in the 2022 WRC2 campaign for the Hyundai Motorsport and for this season the team will have a great line-up of two experienced drivers in a pair of Hyundai i20 N Rally2 cars fielded by the RedGrey Racing team.

The Finnish duo of Teemu Suninen and Mikko Markkula are returning to the team after their successful debut for the team in the Rally de Espana last year, where they finished the rally as runner-up.

Suninen has competed with a Rally2 car in Portugal last time in 2021 when he took a second place finish driving for the M-Sport team, before Suninen later parted ways to join the Hyundai outfit at the end of the year.

Suninen hopes he can find a good rhythm in the car early on as this will be the first gravel rally in an i20 N Rally2 machine.

“Rally de Portugal is one of most legendary events in calendar. It’s relatively fast, but still quite a technical gravel rally. It is a bit like a sprint: you have to go flat out, but on the second loop it is critical to look after your tyres at the same time, as it can get a bit rough in places.” Suninen said.

The FIA Formula 2 Championship is heading to the hills of southern France where the drivers will take to the Circuit Paul Ricard for the first time since 2019 after the championship’s promoters announced the addition of the circuit to the 2022 calendar.

The addition comes after the cancellation of the 2022 Russian Grand Prix following Russia’s invasion of neighbouring country Ukraine and F2 was set to support the Grand Prix in September.

Regarding the announcement, F2 CEO Bruno Michel told journalists, “Since it was announced that we would drop one event, we have been working on finding a venue to replace it, keeping in mind the costs. Le Castellet came out as the best option, and we are really pleased to return to the Circuit Paul Ricard.”

“With this added round, we go back to fourteen events as announced before the start of the season. This means that the 2022 season calendar is the most sizeable one we have had since the start of the FIA F2 back in 2017.

“It will be a very busy month of July for the teams and the drivers, but a very exciting one for the fans and everyone involved in F2.”

The legendary American rally and Gymkhana video series star Ken Block has revealed the next car in the line-up of “Hoonicorn” type of cars.

The car which is an all-wheel-drive, 1,400 horsepower Porsche 911 SVRSR, nicknamed “Hoonipigasus” is a purpose built car for the 2022 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb that takes place in Colorado, USA on 26 June.

The event is celebrating its 100th anniversary this season and it will be the first time since 2005 Block will be taking on that challenge. The “Hoonipigasus” is built by his team Hoonigan Racing Division in conjunction with the Porsche specialists at BBi Autosport and the new partnership of Mobil 1.

The car will feature a pink livery that is paying homage to Porsche’s 1971 24 Hours of Le Mans racer Porsche 917/20 “Pink Pig” and it’s designed by the street artist Trouble Andrew (as known as Guccighost or his real name: Trevor Andrew).

Trouble Andrew has also designed a new livery for Block to be used on the newly acquired Hyundai i20 WRC rally car that is being used in the American Rally Association series.

Hyundai Motorsport’s longest serving driver Thierry Neuville says the first gravel rally of the season is a very exciting event to compete at with the stages being enjoyable yet challenging and they will be as the Rally de Portugal event will mark the gravel debut for the new Rally1 hybrid cars.

The Belgian, who is joined by his fellow compariot Martijn Wydaeghe in the co-driver seat for this season in the Hyundai i20 N Rally1 claimed a second consecutive podium finish last time out in Rally Croatia, the duo almost binned it on the final stage of the rally when the car slid in to a bank and almost made a 180 degrees swing but despite that they managed to recover back to keep the third place finish.

The Belgian crew is now aiming to take the maiden win for Hyundai in the new era of the top class. So far they are the only team that haven’t stood on the top step yet this season.

“Rally de Portugal is very exciting event for us competitors; there are always huge crowds of fans and a great atmosphere. The stages are enjoyable yet challenging.” Neuville said.

“This is mainly due to the high temperatures, so tyre wear is important here as well, and it can be quite rough on the second pass of the stage. It’s going to be our first gravel event with the new hybrid cars; we saw in Sweden on the gravel set-up in the snow that the car was fast and we hope that we are going to be strong on this surface.”

Portuguese soccer coach André Villas-Boas will be taking part in some demo runs with an ex Citroën Racing Citroën C3 WRC in Portugal this weekend as part of the FIA World Rally Championship 50th anniversary celebrations that is being held in conjunction with Rally de Portugal.

Villas-Boas is a true rally fan, he has contested the Dakar Rally back in 2018 before taking on his home rally in 2021, driving a Citroën C3 Rally2 in the WRC3 support category for privateer drivers. He entered the Rally de Portugal round to raise awareness for his Race for Good charity.

The former Chelsea manager has now purchased an ex Esapekka Lappi C3 WRC directly from the PSA Group at the end of last year to be part of his private rally collection and he will use that car for the first time this weekend.

“I like to collect cars with prestige, I always wanted to own a rally car, so I started investigating. At first, I was in limbo about which rally car to own. I have fortunately a good relationship with the PSA Group, and the first car that came up was actually a [Citroën] C4 from Loeb.” Villas-Boas told WRC.com.

“It was a great car with six wins, but it needed rebuilding. It was actually a car that had been around for a while was sold by Citroën and then was around a few drivers, so the 10 years of its life were very intense.”

The official entry list for the 2022 FIA World Rally Championship round five at Rally Italia Sardegna has been published, featuring 60 crews from 24 nations that will take on the challenging gravel roads of Gallura in Sardinia, Italy on 2-5 June.

The participating drivers could have been more but the organizers were forced to limit registrations to 60 crews, excluding a dozen teams due to logistical and regulatory requirements of the FIA.

In the Rally1 class there are a total of 11 hybrid Rally1 cars entered for the three manufacturers. Toyota Gazoo Racing will field the usual three Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 cars for he current drivers’ championship points leader Kalle Rovanperä from Finland, the Briton Elfyn Evans and the Finn Esapekka Lappi, who is competing in his third rally of the season replacing the eight-time world champion Sébastien Ogier.

Hyundai Motorsport will also be fielding three Hyundai i20 N Rally1 cars for the full-time drivers of Ott Tänak from Estonia and Thierry Neuville from Belgium. The Spaniard Dani Sordo, who has won in Sardinia before will be replacing Oliver Solberg for the second rally in a row, however Solberg will be missing this rally completely as he is also not entered in the support class.

M-Sport Ford World Rally Team are fielding four Ford Puma Rally1 cars for the Irishman Craig Breen, the Frenchman Adrien Fourmaux and the Britoin Gus Greensmith with the Frenchman Pierre-Louis Loubet being entered as an additional car.

Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly, is excited to begin the season’s European-leg with this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix, coming off a bittersweet result at the Miami Grand Prix. The team had achieved their best Qualifying result of the season at the brand new venue, but both cars failed to score any points, with Gasly unable to finish the race due to damage related to incidents with Fernando Alonso and Lando Norris. 

“I am looking forward to starting the European part of the season and even if the result in Miami was not what we were looking for, there were some positives to take away from that weekend. We got both cars into Q3, 7th and 9th, making it the best Qualifying so far this season.

“The race was difficult because, from very early on, I had a big hole in the floor, losing quite a bit of downforce, but even so I could fight for seventh or eighth place with the Alpines, which was encouraging. It was going quite well in fact, until my contact with Fernando. That ruined my race, and it was very disappointing, as we’d had a solid weekend up to that point.”

Gasly believed that the performance put on by the team that weekend was worthy of points, if not for the unlucky circumstances he faced. With several positive takeaways, Gasly is confident in AlphaTauri’s ability to bring home points in Barcelona and the races ahead. 

“We deserved some points, so it was a shame, but the performance is clearly there and there’s no reason why we can’t have some good results in the upcoming races.”

The Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team go into this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix on the back of a confusing Miami Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton and George Russell appeared to have plenty of pace on Friday at Miami but struggled during the remainder of the weekend, leaving Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff scratching his head.

Hamilton in the end finished sixth whereas Russell finished fifth after recovering from a twelfth-place starting position. Ahead of this weekend’s event, Wolff analysed the previous round.

“With the third quickest car underneath us, we extracted the maximum points possible in Miami. Considering George’s start position, it was a great recovery drive, helped by when the Safety Car was deployed. But the timing was unfortunate for Lewis who was strong all weekend and on course to score P5 without the neutralisation of the race. I’ve no doubt that over the course of the season, a little luck will eventually go his way.
 
“During Friday practice, the car showed flashes of its true potential. We continued experimenting with set-up, fitted some new components and that’s provided us answers and indications of which direction to go in.”

An advantage for Mercedes this weekend is that the official shakedown test took place at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in February, meaning that the team already have plenty of data on how to set-up the car at the venue.
 
“A huge amount of hard work has been going on in the factories to unpick the data from Miami and turn it into improvements for Barcelona. Having run there in winter testing, albeit with a car that has evolved a lot since then, it will be a good place to correlate the information we have on the current car and we’re hopeful that we’ll make another step forward.” continued Wolff.
 
“The track itself is a good all-rounder, so it really puts every aspect of the car to the test. It’s never been a great track for overtaking so it’ll be interesting to see how these new-shape 2022 F1 cars impact the on-track spectacle in Spain.

With the season almost reaching the quarter mark, Wolff is aware that there is still everything to play for as Mercedes continue to get back to the top-step.
 
“In basketball terms, we head to Barcelona at the end of the first quarter of the game. We know that once we translate the learnings we’ve made into track performance, there’s still a lot of the game left to play…”

The Haas F1 Team go into this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix on the back of a disappointing Miami Grand Prix, where Kevin Magnussen retired and Mick Schumacher finished at the back of the field.

Haas Team Principal Guenther Steiner, was disappointed with the team’s performance at the Miami International Autodrome.

“It was quite disappointing in both qualifying and the race, but we need to keep positive. The positives are the car is good, we just need to get it on the right set-up, getting the tires to work properly and the car is right there. As you could see during the race in Miami, we made up positions until the safety car came out and then we fell back. That’s what you have to focus on – staying confident that we have a good machine and that we will make the points that we want to make.”

This weekend presents the American team an opportunity to race at a track which they’ve already tested this year’s car on. The official shakedown test took place at the Spanish circuit in February, giving at least Schumacher some prior knowledge of the track.

Magnussen didn’t take part in the test as Nikita Mazepin was still with the team at that point. Steiner is hoping the team can start the weekend on the right foot.

Kevin Magnussen heads into this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix following a late retirement in Miami last-time out, as the Dane sets himself the target of getting back into the points this weekend.

The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is one that every driver knows especially well, it’s also the only other track on the calendar where teams and drivers will have data on how the new cars will perform. The official shakedown test took place at the Spanish circuit in February, meaning the Haas F1 Team will have plenty of data at their disposal.

Magnussen is looking forward to the weekend at a circuit which he thinks will suit Haas’ car, he also isn’t letting the fact he didn’t run in the test faze him.

“Barcelona is probably the Formula 1 track I know the best out of all of them. I don’t think it’s going to be such a big disadvantage not having driven there in testing. The car is performing well, it’s been very good at four of the five tracks we’ve been at, so I think it’s going to do well there too.

“Our car is pretty good all-round – it’s been good in wet conditions, dry conditions and intermediate. It’s like always, you need to get the car into the window, and I think we’ve done a decent job of that this year.”

According to a report from the First Place Telegram group, Nikita Mazepin is expected to make the jump from Formula One to rally raiding beginning with the Silk Way Rally on 6–16 July. Although not yet confirmed, a source close to race organisers revealed the likelihood of his entry is “close to 100 percent.” Should things work out, he will likely race in the T4 SSV category for Snag Racing Team.

Mazepin lost his Haas F1 ride after just one season following his country’s invasion of Ukraine in February. Penalties from the FIA have limited his racing plans for at least 2022; while he could compete internationally under a neutral flag, Russian nationals have faced a multitude of sanctions (Mazepin and his father have been sanctioned by the European Union) to the point where he could feasibly only race within Russia or ally Belarus.

With no other options, he turned to Sergey Karyakin for an opportunity in the desert. Karyakin, who won the 2017 Dakar Rally‘s Quad category, and Snag Racing Team have since provided coaching and testing for Mazepin. In mid-April, he proclaimed his interest in racing in the Silk Way Rally and potentially Dakar.

Snag Racing fields Can-Am UTVs in the T4 SSV division. Karyakin, who won an SSV stage in the 2019 Dakar Rally, retired from the 2022 event after seven stages.

“Of course, it will not be easy for Nikita Mazepin in this race,” commented rider Anastasia Nifontova during a Silk Way Rally press conference on Tuesday. “Moving from the two-dimensional space of circuit competitions to the three-dimensional space of rally raids rarely succeeds the first time.”

The top of the scoring pylon at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway reads a lot like the 2020 Indy 500, with Scott Dixon leading the way in the early session and Takuma Sato ending the day fastest.

The first session of the day was for veterans only, and on his eleventh of twenty-five lap, Dixon set a speed of 227.119 mph. He was followed closely by Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Marcus Ericsson in second.

Dreyer & Reinbold Racing saw both of their cars in the top ten, the fastest of which was Sage Karam in third. Santino Ferrucci was sixth fastest, a fantastic way to start the month of May for the team.

Fourth fastest was Conor Daly, feeding off of the momentum of his top ten finish in the GMR Grand Prix, with Marco Andretti fifth leading the way for Andretti Autosport. Seventh was 2021 Indy 500 Rookie of the Year Scott McLaughlin, leading the way for Team Penske, with Alex Palou eighth and Pato O’Ward ninth.

Rounding out the top ten was JR Hildebrand for A.J. Foyt Enterprises, with his teammates Kyle Kirkwood eleventh (fastest of all rookies) and Dalton Kellett thirteenth in a very impressive first outing for the four-time champion’s team.

This weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix will present teams an opportunity to see how much progress they’ve made with this season’s car, as the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya was also the host of February’s official shakedown test.

Pirelli will also get a chance to see how much progress they’ve made with the new tyres, as the Spanish venue has plenty of previous running on the new larger tyres.

The tyre manufacturer have brought the hardest range to the this weekend’s Grand Prix, consisting of the C1, C2 and C3 compounds. This decision was made with the circuit being known for putting incredible demand on the tyres, especially at Turns Three and Nine.

Track evolution won’t be an issue this weekend as the circuit is regularly used, perhaps even one of the most used in the world. The temperature though will most likely play a factor as the conditions will be considerably hotter than they were during the test in Winter.

Lewis Hamilton won last year’s race on a two-stop strategy, something which Pirelli’s Motorsport Director, Mario Isola is expecting to see again this weekend.

Nyck de Vries will feature at the Spanish Grand Prix this weekend, as the Dutchman prepares to take Alex Albon’s spot at Williams Racing for Free Practice 1.

The reigning Formula E World Champion will be fulfilling one of the two mandated young driver sessions this season, giving the team a new insight into how they can improve their car.

De Vries is extremely grateful for the opportunity.

“Firstly, I’d really like to thank Williams for the opportunity to run in FP1. It’s great for me to get to know the team and drive the FW44, and also to get myself out on track during a Formula One weekend. Preparation for the test is going well so far and the team have been incredibly supportive of me. I’m very much looking forward to the whole experience in Spain now!”

Sven Smeets, Sporting Director at Williams is aware of just how talented De Vries is, Smeets is hoping the Dutch driver will “maximise” his session in the FW44.

Williams Racing come into the Spanish Grand Prix on the back of a mixed Miami Grand Prix, after Alex Albon scored yet more points, whereas Nicholas Latifi continued to disappoint.

Williams have enjoyed some strong results over the recent Grand Prix’s, largely thanks to Albon. This weekend though at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, will see Nyck de Vries behind the wheel of Albon’s FW44 for Free Practice 1.

Williams Head of Vehicle Performance Dave Robson, is excited to have someone of De Vries calibre behind-the-wheel, as it gives the whole team a new insight into where they can improve. Robson also discussed how much the car has changed in just a few months.

“The contrast between the new circuit in Miami and the familiarity of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya couldn’t be starker. The drivers and engineers know the quirks and subtleties of this track very well and, whilst the car balance and tyre behaviour will be different to February, we have a good idea of what to expect and the areas that we will need to work on.

“The car has changed quite a lot since February and the much hotter track conditions will present very different problems. We showed some encouraging race pace at the last few events and our efforts are now focused on bringing the same level of performance to Qualifying. If we can do this successfully then we will be in a much stronger position going forwards.