Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

James Hedley has stepped up to the GB3 Championship from the F4 British Championship for 2022, and has made a solid start to life at a higher level.

He arrived at Silverstone 13th in the standings after the opening round at Oulton Park, having topped testing sessions on both Thursday and Friday.

The Elite Motorsport driver spoke to The Checkered Flag after securing fifth and sixth-place grid slots for the first two races.

“I’m a bit disappointed after yesterday to be honest, but after Oulton Park it’s a good improvement.

“Just a few things didn’t quite come together, which made all the difference but we did a good job considering. We can race from there.”

Joel Granfors took a double-pole position as the GB3 Championship visited Silverstone for the second round of the season.

He and McKenzy Cresswell traded the top times early in the session, with lap times immediately several seconds under last year’s lap record.

Several drivers returned to the pits early in the session, while Matthew Rees and Alex Connor moved into the midfield with their first laps.

Bryce Aron, Luke Browning, James Hedley, Tom Lebbon and Nick Gilkes took their time in setting a lap, taking until the halfway point of the session to do so.

Roberto Faria only set one lap in the first half of the session, that being 20 seconds off the pace set by Granfors.

George Russell led the way in second practice for the Miami Grand Prix, with the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team driver setting the pace ahead of Scuderia Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

Times continued to tumble as driver adapted to the new Miami International Autodrome track, with the running not helped by two red flags, one for the crash of Carlos Sainz Jr. and the other for Nicholas Latifi grinding to a halt with an apparent technical issue.

Sainz lost control of his Ferrari at turn thirteen and spun into the barriers, damaging his car and bringing out the red flags for the first time, while Latifi stopped his Williams Racing machine that required a second stoppage while his car was recovered to a safe place.

After his morning crash, Valtteri Bottas was unable to take to the track as his Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN mechanics could not fix his car in time, while reigning World Champion Max Verstappen was restricted to only one lap as he suffered with issues with his Oracle Red Bull Racing machine.

Verstappen only completed fourteen laps in the morning session and will therefore be going into the rest of the weekend on the back foot, the Dutchman yet to have found a rhythm around the FIA Formula 1 World Championship’s newest venue.

Championship leader Charles Leclerc opened up the Miami Grand Prix weekend with the fastest time in first practice, the Monegasque racer edging out George Russell by just 0.071 seconds.

All twenty drivers took to the Miami International Autodrome to get first laps under their belts on Friday morning, with Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi the first driver to exit the pit lane once the green light was illuminated.

Everyone went out early and did multiple laps to understand the newest track on the Formula 1 calendar, although Mick Schumacher was late out for the Haas F1 Team.  And as drivers became acclimatised to the track, lap times began to tumble.

But come the end of the session, Leclerc was at the top of the timesheets, the Scuderia Ferrari driver posting a time of 1:31.098 to beat Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team’s Russell by under a tenth of a second.

Mercedes are trialling out a new front and rear wing this weekend in a bid to fix the issues they’ve had with porpoising so far in 2022, and the fix appears to be a step in the right direction, although both Russell and team-mate Lewis Hamilton were still noticeably bouncing down the straights.

The NORRA Mexican 1000 is like a cousin to the SCORE International Baja 1000. Nicknamed the “Happiest Race on Earth”, the five-day adventure from Ensenada to San José del Cabo was anything but happy for those like Rhys Millen and the Mason family, yet it certainly was for Steve Menzies and Matt Sutherland. Although Mark Post was the first to reach the final destination with Menzies right behind, Menzies had the faster overall time to take the Cars victory. Sutherland dominated the Bikes and staved off a stiff challenge from Daniel Bartolucci for the win there.

Menzies’ Mason Motorsports truck recorded a total time of eighteen hours, thirty-six minutes, forty-two seconds. His son Bryce, a decorated desert racer, only piloted approximately 300 of the 1,294.4 miles as the elder Menzies did the rest. Bryce, who has long regarded his father as his inspiration, described the victory as the “best win I think I’ve ever had in my racing career so far. Just to witness this, being in the heli, chasing down the whole coast. I won’t forget this for the rest of my life. We’ve been fighting for this peninsula run, whether it’s Baja 1000 or NORRA, for twelve years now. To come down here and pull off a win with this guy behind the wheel is special.”

“It’s such a great sport and a great event,” said Steve Menzies after the fifth and final day. “Today was so much fun. We were up on the cliffs watching the ocean, oh my god, that was so unbelievable. Had a great time. […] I’ve tried to talk Bryce into riding with me, but he gets a little nervous.”

The Cars category was dominated by Millen and Menzies early on as they combined to win four of the first five special stages. The exception was the fourth on Tuesday (Day #2; each day consisted of two stages), when the Masons led by Dave Sr. and Jr. claimed the run from El Huerfanito to Agua de Higuera; however, the Masons retired two days later when Martin Christensen clipped a rock which destroyed the right rear and transmission. Post entered the conversation when he won SS2 on Day #3 before leap-frogging Millen, who suffered a broken rear radius rod after a loose rock was kicked up by one of his tyres, with another second-stage triumph the next day. As Kristen Matlock swept the final day’s stages to become the Mexican 1000’s first UTV stage winner, Post beat Menzies to San José del Cabo but both his SS2 and overall times were too far back to surpass him; Post’s overall was 18:55:32, approximately eighteen minutes and fifty seconds behind Menzies.

Although they began and finished in the same location as their four-wheeled counterparts, the Bikes ran a different route that deviated on Day #2 as they went to Guerrero Negro rather than Bahía de los Ángeles before meeting up again in Loreto. Sutherland set the tone early by winning two of the first day’s three stages with Bartolucci in tow. Although Bartolucci closed the gap with two victories in the final three stages, Sutherland won the last for a total of five stage triumphs and the overall. He set a time of 22:10:08, over half an hour better than Bartolucci’s 22:42:05.

Glickenhaus Racing beat Toyota Gazoo Racing and Alpine Elf Team to pole position for the FIA World Endurance Championship 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps to claim their first WEC pole and the first overall pole position of the series taken by an American-flagged team.

It was a close fight in the Hypercar class, with the entire top four separated by three tenths of a second. An incredible 2:02.771 set by Olivier Pla gave the privateer team their first WEC pole position, starting them at the front of the grid for tomorrow’s six-hour event. The biggest gap between cars in the class was between Pla and Matthieu Vaxiviere onboard the Alpine for pole and second. This marks Pla’s first pole position since the 2018 6 Hours of Shanghai.

Although they showed the strongest pace in class in final practice, Toyota had to settle for third and fourth on the grid, Brendon Hartley being outpaced by the sister car, Kamui Kobayashi by 0.050s.

Showing the team has great pace, pole sitters from the 1,000 Miles of Sebring, AF Corse took pole again in LMP2. Once again the Pro/Am team out-qualified their pro line-up rivals with Alessio Rovera setting a 2:04.246. The margin was incredibly small, with pole being claimed by 0.044s over Robin Frijns in the WRT. Completing the top three, Filipe Alburquerque‘s 2:04.452 continues the WRT versus United Autosports battle this season is gifting. LMP2 showed to be a highly competitive class as the top five were covered by just three tenths of a second.

It was Porsche on top again in GTE Pro, but unlike the usual #92 pole it was the turn of the #91. Beating Michael Christensen by 0.180s, Ginamaria Bruni lead the Porsche GT Team one-two at the chequered flag. All of the GTE drivers mentioned that the track evolution thanks to the support Porsche Carerra Cup races that are taking place this weekend really change the dynamics and grip levels of the track, which made the first few laps around the track in the session incredibly important.

Otmar Szafnauer, Team Principal of the BWT Alpine F1 Team is ecstatic heading into this weekend’s inaugural Miami Grand Prix, with Szafnauer believing that Miami is “an excellent place to showcase Formula 1“.

Szafnauer who is Romanian-American, can’t wait for the Miami fans to get a glimpse of Formula 1. This weekend represents the inaugural Miami Grand Prix, becoming the second American race on the calendar. Formula 1 has expanded rapidly in the United States over the last few years, with many believing that the Netflix Formula 1 series ‘Drive to Survive’, has helped increase the American audience.

The Alpine Team Principal remembers watching his first-ever race in America and how it drove him into wanting a motorsport career, he believes that America holds many exciting opportunities for the sport.

“It’s absolutely fantastic that Formula 1 is going to Miami. It’s an excellent place to showcase Formula 1 for the first time, so we’re all looking forward to putting the cars on track there and driving the circuit. Formula 1 has always been popular in America. I remember watching my first race in Detroit in the 1980s, which inspired me to pursue a career in motorsport.

“It’s fantastic that now Formula 1 is expanding in America and inspiring new fans, discovering new cities and introducing a fresh audience to an established global sport. This year we have two races in America, next year it’s three and beyond that, who knows. There are many opportunities and that’s exciting for our sport.”

With Robert Kubica racing in the FIA World Endurance Championship this weekend at Spa-Francorchamps, Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN have called up British racer Callum Ilott to be their official reserve driver for this weekend’s Miami Grand Prix.

Ilott was part of Alfa Romeo’s reserve driver rota in 2021 but failed to gain a FIA Formula 1 World Championship race seat for 2022, with the Briton having switched his attentions to racing in the NTT IndyCar Series with Juncos Hollinger Racing.

Frédéric Vasseur, the Team Principal at Alfa Romeo, says it was an easy decision to welcome Ilott back into the team for this weekend’s race in Miami having been impressed by his performances both in and out of the car in 2021, even though he does not know the 2022 car at all.

“Callum is part of the team and he was with us last year,” Vasseur said to Motorsport.com. “He knows perfectly the team. The car not, for sure, but he knows the team. And we are all close to him. He did a good job with us in the past.

“He’s here race-by-race. He has his own commitments, and I don’t want to disturb him. But the fact that he was here in the U.S. it also made sense for him.

The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix was a very frustrating one for the BWT Alpine F1 Team, after Fernando Alonso retired from the race and Esteban Ocon finished fourteenth following a penalty at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari.

Imola was a weekend to forget for Alonso, who was forced into retirement just a few laps into the Grand Prix. Opening lap contact with Mick Schumacher saw the Spaniard pick-up substantial side-pod damage, resulting in retirement. Alonso is aware that it’s a long season, but is hoping that his bad luck ends soon.

“We came away from Imola without any points and a retirement. It was unfortunate and it summarises our bad luck at the moment. I was happy with my qualifying on Friday but then we suffered with high tyre degradation during Sprint Qualifying, and then my race was ended early due to the contact with Mick at the start. It’s not how we wanted it to go after four rounds, but it’s still early and last year when we left Imola we only had one point. It’s a long season!”

This weekend represents a new opportunity for the Double World Champion, as the sport returns to America for the inaugural Miami Grand Prix. Alonso is a big fan of racing Stateside and is intrigued to see the newly-built Miami International Autodrome in the flesh. The experienced driver isn’t too sure if the circuit will produce good racing, with each Grand Prix so far this season providing varied levels of excitement.

“I enjoy racing in America and we’ve seen in recent years how big Formula 1 is becoming over there. Miami is another new one and I’m curious to see how the circuit is in real life. I think we’ve seen that after four races the racing has seen mixed results. There were quite a few overtakes in Bahrain and Saudi. Whilst in Australia and Imola, it was difficult to overtake as expected.

Scuderia AlphaTauri go into the first-ever Miami Grand Prix following a mixed Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, with Pierre Gasly finishing outside the points whilst Yuki Tsunoda finished an impressive seventh.

It was a weekend to forget for Gasly, who struggled during Qualifying and then got himself caught up in a collision during the Sprint Qualifying. The race itself saw the Frenchman stuck in a frustrating DRS-train. Ahead of the Miami Grand Prix, Gasly reflected on the last round.

“Looking back at Imola, Friday practice went okay, but then we didn’t do a very good job of managing the tyres on the drying track in Qualifying, so we ended up near the back. From then on, we were on the back foot and then there was the collision in the Sprint that meant starting at the back again on Sunday. In the race, I was in a DRS train with Lewis behind me and a Williams in front, so it was a bit annoying. 

“I have to admit I’ve never had much luck in the Sprint races, and I’ve often been involved in some unlucky situations.  We couldn’t overtake and that was it. We had some updates, but it was hard to assess them because of the conditions on track, so I’m looking forward to going to Miami to have a normal weekend with three free practice sessions, which will allow us to really do some testing and draw some conclusions.“

This weekend represents the inaugural Miami Grand Prix at the newly-built Miami International Autodrome, which Gasly has lapped plenty of times in the simulator in the build-up to the weekend. This weekend marks the first American race of the season with Formula 1‘ trip to the Circuit of the Americas coming much later in the year. Gasly explained how he continues to be amazed at the energy the American fans produce, going as far as calling it a “special atmosphere’.

Dave Robson says it will be a busy weekend for everyone within the Williams Racing team as they get to learn and understand the best way to set-up their FW44 for the inaugural Miami Grand Prix.

The Miami International Autodrome makes its debut on the FIA Formula 1 World Championship calendar this weekend, and the Williams team will be looking to fight for a top ten finish, something they achieved with Alexander Albon the Australian Grand Prix but missed out of marginally in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix last time out.

Robson, the Head of Vehicle Performance at the Grove-based team, says although both Albon and team-mate Nicholas Latifi will learn the track quickly, the job behind the scenes to perfect the set-up will be more time consuming.

“A new circuit always a presents an exciting challenge to the drivers and engineers,” said Robson. “Although the drivers will learn the circuit very quickly, the behaviour of the tyres, the initial ageing of the asphalt and the local conditions will ensure that there is a lot for the engineers to optimise throughout the weekend.

“The Miami International Autodrome is a new circuit, which features several long straights, two fast corner sequences and one low-speed twisty section. This is all within a 5.4km anti-clockwise layout.

Alexander Albon believes the fans in Miami are in for a great weekend of racing as the FIA Formula 1 World Championship makes its track debut at the Miami International Autodrome for round five of the 2022 season.

The Thai driver has scored Williams Racing’s only point of the season to date thanks to a tenth-place finish in the Australian Grand Prix, while last time out he came close to adding to his tally as he finished the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in eleventh, just a few seconds down on Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team’s Lance Stroll.

Albon is expecting the Miami track to be a very technical one thanks to the different array of corners it presents, but he cannot wait to get out on track for first practice on Friday.

“It’s very exciting to be heading to Miami; it’s a brand-new track and a home race for Dorilton,” said Albon. “I’ve driven the track in the simulator and my initial feeling is that it’s going to be very technical with a lot of different style corners.

“The venue itself looks incredible, and I’m sure fans are in for a great weekend.”

After having two weeks to let the disappointment of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix pass, Scuderia Ferrari are ready to bounce back at the inaugural Miami Grand Prix, where Charles Leclerc will be looking to extend his championship lead.

With Carlos Sainz Jr retiring on the first-lap and Leclerc spinning out of a podium position, it was not the return home that Ferrari would’ve been expecting. This weekend represents a whole-new challenge though, at the brand-new Miami International Autodrome. With it being a new circuit there is plenty of unknowns ahead of the Grand Prix, meaning that being as prepared as possible is crucial to a successful weekend.

For drivers the best way of learning a new track ahead of the Grand Prix is in the simulator. Ferrari’s Head of Driving Simulator, Enrico Sampo, explained how the simulator helps drivers prepare for a Grand Prix.

“The driving simulator is a key element in preparing for a race. The work starts several weeks before an event, looking at the previous year’s race if possible. Then, a test driver undertakes several sessions to get an understanding of tyre behaviour, to predict car balance, to check the behaviour of special components and lastly, to test different set-up options.

“A few days before the event, the race drivers and their group of engineers tackle a session on the simulator to provide their input to the preparation and car set-up. With a new circuit like Miami, Charles and Carlos will also use the simulator to learn the track and to go through the various race weekend procedures.”

As was expected after the second practice session, Toyota Gazoo Racing locked out the top two positions on the timing board for final practice of the FIA World Endurance Championship 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. The LMP2s were still in the mix with the other Hypercar entries, but Toyota disappeared into a class of their own.

A second split the two Toyotas from the rest of the field, but it was Kamui Kobayashi who had the edge on Brendon Hartley with a 2:03.225. The pair both broke into the 2m03s lap times for the first time this weekend and are the only two to have done so. Hartley was two tenths off, but importantly eight tenths clear for third-placed Prema ORLEN Team. The next closest Hypercar to the Toyota pair was fourth-placed Alpine Elf Matmut, 1.5s off the pace. A resurgent WRT from free practice two capped off the top five, only three thousandths of a second off the Alpine.

An incident for Pipo Derani in the #708 Glickenhaus Racing saw him spin off into the gravel trap at Stavelot and bring out the only full course yellow of the session. He had to be lifted off the track and taken back to the pits, losing the team some track time in the last 60 minutes of practice. However, there seemed to not be too much if any damage to the Glickenhaus as, no sooner was it back into the pits, it was back out on track. It could do no better than 15th overall, 2.3s off the pace set by Kobayashi.

Prema had just over half a second advantage on the closest LMP2 car, but the fight between WRT and United Autosports in sixth was less than a tenth. Team Penske also stayed in the fight for the top half of LMP2, taking seventh on the overall timing board, fourth in class. They were outpaced by the #38 JOTA in the hands of Will Stevens. Pro/Am fastest once again was the AF Corse crew, finishing ninth in the overall standings ahead of the #10 Vector Sport that, after having a difficult start to the weekend, is starting to find more pace.

Michael Christensen was the man to beat in GTE Pro, leading the sister car across the line for a one-two lock out at the front of the class. The #92 Porsche GT Team has led every practice session of the weekend in class, placing it as a favourite for qualifying later this afternoon. Once again, the pattern that has been emerging from the practice sessions saw the sister Porsche around four tenths off the class leader, but in a tight battle with the AF Corse Ferraris.

Keeping up the trend from the FIA World Endurance Championship 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps yesterday, it was an LMP2 on top of the timing board at the end of Free Practice 2, keeping the Hypercars at bay by 0.021s. Team Penske were the ones to beat, with Glickenhaus Racing once again leading the top category.

The session started with the seeming return of the status quo: Toyota Gazoo Racing on top and setting the pace ahead of the Alpine Elf Team and Glickenhaus entries, but it wasn’t long until the LMP2s were back on top. Felipe Nasr set the fastest lap of the session with a 2:04.443 clearing the then-leading Toyota #8 by two tenths of a second. This was the advantage Team Penske would hold onto over the Toyota with only the Glickenhaus in the hands of Olivier Pla splitting the pair with a lap two thousandths of a second slower than the LMP2.

United Autosports featured in the top of the timing screen again as Oliver Jarvis set a 2:04.821 to go fourth fastest overall, the fastest of the two United Autosports entries. Their competitors from yesterday, 2021 champions WRT, were down in 16th overall, 2.2 seconds off the pace set by Team Penske. The reason for this loss of pace is unknown, but if it continues into final practice the team will have a challenge on their hands for qualifying.

Prema ORLEN Team were fifth overall, as the second Toyota finished four tenths off the sister car in sixth. The second United Autosports followed them for seventh, with the JOTA pair and final Hypercar – Alpine – rounding off the top ten. Being the best placed Pro/Am LMP2 and showing strong pace again was the AF Corse LMP2 car, taking 11th overall, just over a second off Nasr’s pace.

Kevin Estre led the way in GTE Pro once again, but the Ferrari entries that had been assumed to struggle this weekend because of Balance of Performance weightings split the German manufacturer’s two entries. Estre’s 2:14.366 looked to be in a class of its own, six tenths up on the chasing Pro pack, but second through fourth were split by two tenths of a second. With both the AF Corse’s outpacing the Corvette Racing by at least half a second, the Italian outfit does look to be in a bit more contention that had previously been expected.