Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Lance Stroll felt the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team did not have the pace to score points in the Australian Grand Prix, even though the Canadian did his best to sneak into the top ten late in the race.

Stroll ran as high as ninth but fell down the order in the closing laps to end twelfth, while also taking a five-second time penalty for weaving down the main straight whilst defending from Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN’s Valtteri Bottas, although that didn’t affect his finishing position.

He was thankful to his team for fixing his car ahead of Qualifying after crashing in final practice, and he hopes they can unlock some pace from the AMR22 ahead of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix so they can bring themselves off the bottom of the Constructors’ Championship standings.

“We did not quite have the pace for points today, although we were able to defend a position inside the top 10 for a while late on,” said Stroll.  “I think we had the right idea with our strategy by running the majority of the race on the Hard tyre, but we will look over the data and see what else we can learn.

“The five-second penalty was frustrating, even though it did not change our final race position. I caught Valtteri [Bottas] after the Virtual Safety Car and made up a place so it was frustrating to receive a penalty for weaving.

Luke Browning dominated the first race of the 2022 GB3 Championship at Oulton Park from pole on Saturday afternoon.

Tom Lebbon received a five-place grid penalty after qualifying for impeding Zak Taylor, while Joel Granfors received the same punishment for a collision with Branden Oxley, dropping from second to seventh.

Lebbon’s travails continued immediately as he got a slow start which scrambled the yellow flags on the start line, but worse was to come.

Callum Voisin and Javier Sagrera made contact exiting the Shell Oils hairpin, Sagrera seeming to squeeze his Carlin team-mate towards the grass and breaking his own suspension in the process.

Voisin, with front wing damage and possible bent suspension, then clipped Alex Connor at the Hislop’s chicane later in the lap, pitting for a new front wing at the first opportunity.

The updated lean, mean, half green Mercedes machine of Team Abba Racing is officially back with a vengeance for the first British GT round of 2022 this weekend, as father/son duo Richard and Sam Neary take the fastest lap of Free Practice Two by just 0.004s. In GT4 the Toyota Gazoo Racing UK (run by Speedworks Motorsport) of Tom Edgar and Jack Mitchell dominated by taking an early lead in the session which it held throughout the entire hour, with a tenth to spare ahead of the second quickest entry from Valluga Racing.

GT3: Mercedes account for three of the top six entries.

Team Abba Racing took the top spot in the GT3 rankings with around a third of the session to go leaping just ahead of the Balfe Motorsport new for 2022 Audi R8 LMS Evo II GT3 #22 of Shaun Balfe and Adam Carroll. If the pace shown by this car when it leapt to the top of the table halfway through the session is anything to go by then we’re certainly in for a great challenge from this effort this season, as the fastest Pro-Am entry in the session.

Third quickest in this session was the RAM Racing Mercedes AMG GT3 #6 of Jules Gounon and Ian Loggie. Finishing second in the last practice session, we’ve got early consistency coming from this pair, and Gounon is already showing the pace for which he’s known elsewhere in Sportscar racing here in the British GT paddock. The Lamborghini Huracan GT4 Evo #72 of returning driver pairing for this season for Barwell Motorsport of Adam Balon and Sandy Mitchell was fourth quickest, just under four tenths of a second behind the pace setters, giving a great show of what this capable pair are setting out to achieve in qualifying this afternoon.

Fifth quickest overall saw the highest ranking McLaren 720S GT3 entry in the session, courtesy of Team Rocket RJN who have graduated their #2 car to the top flight for this season. James Kell who also graduates from GT4 with the team is paired with super-sub Graham Davidson for this weekend as usual teammate Simon Watts is unfortunately on the sidelines having tested positive for Covid. The 2 Seas Motorsport #4 Mercedes of James Cottingham and Lewis Williamson took sixth quickest, with the unmissably retro-themed red and yellow livery completing the triad of the Mercedes club sandwich of the session.

GT4: Toyota Gazoo Racing UK pips Valluga Racing Porsche to top spot

Having shown some impressive pace in the previous practice session, the newly numbered #48 of Toyota Gazoo Racing UK has shown this morning what this car is capable of having had time over previous seasons to develop. With a new driver pairing this year of Tom Edgar and Jack Mitchell, the Silver entry took an early lead in the session which they held onto for the entire hour.

Alex Connor makes his return to the GB3 Championship at Oulton Park this weekend, but engine issues meant he was unable to show his true pace in qualifying on Saturday morning.

He starts the first race of the season in 20th, owing to a single, unrepresentative lap time set on a hot morning in Cheshire.

The Checkered Flag spoke to the Arden Motorsport driver ahead of Race 1.

“I did one somewhat fast lap [in qualifying] and I don’t think I met the 102 per cent [threshold] I need to be on reverse-grid pole, which is a bit annoying but it is what it is,” he said.

“The guys have done a great job so far changing the engine and hopefully I’ll be out for Race 1.

Luke Browning took pole for the first GB3 Championship race of the season at Oulton Park on Saturday, with his second-fastest time also putting him at the front for Race 2.

The Carlin trio of Callum Voisin, Roberto Faria and Javier Sagrera completed the first representative laps, before Zak Taylor and Browning showed their hands.

McKenzy Cresswell moved towards the top before Browning fired in a 1:29.570 to go almost four seconds clear of the pack, who began to move towards the pace they showed in midweek testing.

Faria and Joel Granfors shot up the order after a few minutes, while Nick Gilkes also improved.

Only 14 of the 21 drivers had set a time in the first three minutes of the session, the lower order setting unrepresentative lap times initially before moving closer to the leaders.

The RAM Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 of GT4 graduates John Furguson and Jamie Caroline has topped the first official session of the 2022 Intelligent Money British GT Championship season. The duo, who stepped up from the Speedworks Motorsport run Toyota Gazoo Racing UK Toyota GT Supra GT4 this year, struck hard and struck early to set the fastest time on just the seventh lap of the one hour session.

In GT4 it was series debutants R Racing who made the running, again with an early effort from Jamie Day who took the Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT4 to the top of the class before handing over to team mate Josh Miller for the bulk of the session.

GT3: RAM Racing 1-2 with new GT3 drivers to the fore.

The two RAM Racing Mercedes had a great start to their British GT Championship year, winning the bragging rights in their respective classes in opening practice ahead of the opening round at Oulton Park. Topping the time sheets was the #15 Mercedes-AMG of Furguson and Caroline, thanks to an early effort from the latter as the crew made their GT3 Silver/Am debut. Jamie’s 1:33.129 outpaced the best offering from team mate and newly minted Mercedes-AMG factory driver Jules Gounon who makes his series debut alongside Ian Loggie in the #6 machine, by a small but respectable margin of 0.176 seconds.

The #6 machine claimed the top spot in GT3 Pro/Am.

Marcus Clutton‘s early offering in the Enduro Motorsport run McLaren 720S GT3 he shares with Morgan Tillbrook was enough to secure third place ahead of the Porsche 911 991.2 GT3-R of Nick Jones and pro driver Scott Malvern. The former British F3 racer set the fastest for the Team Parker Racing run machine. Both cars are entered into GT3 Pro/Am, as are the #4 2Seas Motorsport Mercedes and the #72 Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini.

Carlin have delivered four of the last five GB3 Drivers’ Champions, so would be forgiven for being confident going into 2022.

They have an all-new driver line-up for 2022, with Callum Voisin, Javier Sagrera and Roberto Faria in blue for their first, second and third GB3 seasons respectively.

The Checkered Flag spoke to Team Principal, Trevor Carlin ahead of the first qualifying session of the season at Oulton Park.

“Every year’s a new story, a new journey with new drivers,” Carlin said.

“We’ve got a lovely driver line-up with three really quick lads at different stages of their careers so hopefully they’ll get it all together and we’ll run towards the front. It’s nice to have three quick guys.”

M-Sport has competed in rallying for decades, including the World Rally Championship since the late 1990s as Ford‘s factory team with multiple victories and titles. However, the Wilson family, who has owned the team since its founding in 1979, is now looking to tackle the world of rally raid.

With aspirations to compete in the legendary Dakar Rally, M-Sport announced a partnership with Neil Woolridge Motorsport, who also fields Ford vehicles in its rally raid endeavours. As part of their new alliance, M-Sport will oversee NWM’s operations in Europe and work together to develop the NWM Ford Ranger T1+ for competitive and customer purposes.

Neil Woolridge Motorsport intends to race the T1 in the South African Rally Raid Championship, which introduces the Class FIA T1+ as its main category for 2022, to gauge its capabilities. The T1+ Ranger is larger than the T1 by 300mm with 350mm long-travel suspension and 37-inch tyres. Neil’s sons Lance and Gareth Woolridge will pilot the Rangers.

The Wilsons, led by managing director Malcolm Wilson and his son Matthew, visited the Woolridges in South Africa to test the Ranger. Matthew, who works as team director and has WRC experience, drove the Ranger T1+ alongside Lance, an Extreme E driver.

“M-Sport and NWM have a shared vision, we feel that our respective outfits complement each other in a way that would create an unrivalled rally raid outfit,” said Malcolm Wilson. “The NWM Ranger has definite potential, it is built on a very solid foundation, Matthew tested the car during our visit and was very positive about his experience. It’s fair to say I’m not one to stray away from a challenge, it’s what I love about motorsport and it’s no secret we have some work to do to contend for the prestigious Dakar Rally. That said, I am confident that M-Sport and NWM have the tools and know-how to push the Ford Ranger T1+ to new heights.”

Jost Capito says he is pleased that his Williams Racing team has achieved a top ten finish in only the third round of the 2022 Formula 1 season, and he says the whole team deserve it for the hard work they’ve been doing to give the drivers a competitive FW44.

Alexander Albon scored a tenth-place finish in the Australian Grand Prix in just his third start with the team to ensure Williams scored one point, although Nicholas Latifi did not have the same kind of performance as he ended down in sixteenth.

Capito, the CEO and Team Principal at Williams, says Albon’s race performance proved that anything is possible, and nothing is over until the chequered flag, and it should give the team motivation going forward.

“To get a point early in the season is good for the team and I’m extremely happy for everyone – the team deserved this,” said Capito.  “We’ve had a difficult start to the season, and even yesterday was difficult, but that’s the good thing about racing – things can change on the Sunday and it’s not over until it’s over.

“If you keep pushing and always stay motivated, keep the team alive and believing in itself, then fortunes can change.” 

Alexander Albon scored his first point as a Williams Racing driver in the Australian Grand Prix, with the Thai driver putting in a tremendous stint on one set of tyres before ducking into the pits on the final lap to deny Zhou Guanyu tenth place.

Albon’s pace on the hard compound tyre was strong throughout the race, and the gamble to leave the pit stop to the last possible moment paid off as he came out of the pit lane just ahead of Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN’s Zhou, and he held off the Chinese driver until the chequered flag.

The former Red Bull Racing driver said to leave Albert Park with a point was ‘extremely rewarding’ and it moves Williams off the bottom of the Constructors’ Championship ahead of the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team.

“I am very pleased with how today went,” said Albon.  “We came in this morning, looked at our race predictions starting from last and felt pretty sad, so to end Sunday with a point is extremely rewarding.

“It was a race where we took risks and really allowed our tyres to get into a nice window, and from then they just felt better and better. I was putting in what felt like continuous qualifying laps for the last 25 laps of the race!

Jody Egginton said the Australian Grand Prix was far from straight-forward for Scuderia AlphaTauri, with the team able to score only two points thanks to Pierre Gasly’s ninth place at Albert Park.

Gasly found his race compromised when he pitted just moments before the safety car was deployed, which allowed others to jump him as they were able to pit behind the safety car and lose less time.  He fell to fourteenth but climbed back up to eighth, only to make a small mistake that allowed Valtteri Bottas through.

Team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was unable to bring himself into contention for points, struggling throughout the fifty-eight-lap race to fifteenth, and Egginton, the Technical Director at the Faenza-based team, says a lot of work will need to be done to make themselves competitive in future races.

“Today’s race was not straight forward with, similar to the last race, Pierre losing track position with the safety car, meaning he had a lot to do to recover into a points-scoring position,” said Egginton. “These battles took a lot out of his front left tyre and, unfortunately, a small mistake meant we lost a position to Bottas in the closing laps, finishing P9.

“Yuki has had a tough day struggling for pace on both compounds, so we need to understand the factors behind this as he was reasonably happy with his car during the Friday and Saturday sessions.

Pierre Gasly was pleased to leave Albert Park with two points to his name after fighting back through the field from fourteenth to take ninth place after losing out due to the timing of the safety car.

The Scuderia AlphaTauri driver had made up a couple of places off the grid and was running at the back end of the top ten when he pitted just moments before the safety car was deployed.  This meant his early hard work was undone as he fell to fourteenth as other’s made a pit stop behind the safety car.

But he did not let the disappointment distract him from the job in hand as he made some good moves to get back up to eighth, although a late race mistake allowed Valtteri Bottas to get ahead, leaving him ninth at the chequered flag.

“I’ll take those two points today!” said Gasly.  “It’s been quite an unfortunate race for me, I managed to pass two cars at the start, but then I got unlucky pitting right before the safety car and dropped to P14.

“I was pretty mad at the time, but I stayed focussed and managed to come back through to P9. I had a nice battle with Lance [Stroll] which I enjoyed, it was pretty intense on a track like this, but in the end I got the best of him.”

Frédéric Vasseur, the Team Principal of Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN, says the fact they got both cars into the top eleven in last Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix proves the Hinwil-based outfit after heading in the right direction with their C42-Ferrari in 2022.

Valtteri Bottas scored four points at Albert Park after taking eighth place, while Zhou Guanyu only just missed out on the top ten, ending the day in eleventh after seeing Alexander Albon use an unusual pit strategy to claim the final point on offer.

It means Alfa Romeo have already equalled their points tally from 2021 in just three races, and Vasseur feels there is a lot more still to come heading into the first European round, the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, later this month.

However, he knows it could have been even better had Alfa Romeo had some better luck in Australia, with Zhou in particular hindered by the timing of the safety car that lost him some valuable places and track position compared to some of his rivals.

“Bringing home four points with another top ten finish is really good, especially to bounce back after the off-race in Jeddah,” said Vasseur.  

Valtteri Bottas may have seen his run of Q3 appearances end on Saturday at Albert Park, but the Finn responded from that disappointment by taking eighth place for his second top ten finish of 2022.

The Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN driver admitted to enjoying his race in the first Australian Grand Prix since 2019, and he felt the C42-Ferrari was a much better car on the long runs than it had been in Qualifying where he was eliminated in Q2, which ended his run of one hundred and three appearances in the top ten shootout. 

He believed the choice to run a thinner wing hindered him in Qualifying, but it all came together on race day, and he was able to move up through the field from twelfth on the grid.

“I really enjoyed the race today, it was a good performance with close racing and battles from beginning to end,” said Bottas.  

“Of course, the most important thing is that we brought home some points, and that is due to a good job done by everyone in the team: I am happy with the calls that were made and how we raced – and, definitely, the thinner wing that penalized us yesterday turned out to be the right choice and helped us make progress.”

Hi everyone, my name is Callum Voisin and this year I will be racing with Carlin in the British GB3 Championship. As this is the first column I have written, I thought it may be good to let you know a little about myself.

I have just turned 16, am British, but was born and raised in Switzerland. Motorsports in Switzerland is heavily discouraged, a legacy of the Le Mans crash in 1955 after which Swiss voters banned competitive motorsport. It has relaxed a little since, but as a result, there isn’t really a motorsports culture so most budding karters or drivers tend to start in neighbouring countries, which in my case was France. Luckily, I live close to the border so started at a small French kart circuit, MK Karting, where I took my first steps in a Rotax kart when I was 10.

After a couple of years competing in the French regional championships, I changed my licence for a British one and started karting in the UK. Along the way, I’ve picked up a few things including the English Minimax Champion 2019, Clay Pigeon club champion 2019 and 2020, represented Team UK at the 2019 Rotax World finals and came third in the British Junior Max Championship 2020. I’ve also raced in the Belgium National League and the Rotax European Championships Winter Cup, all with Coles kart team. I would have done more international karting in 2020 in Europe but that little thing called COVID got in the way of that!

Last year was my first year in cars in the Ginetta Junior Championships with my brother’s old team R-Racing. After some solid pre-season testing it started so well with five outright victories in the first eight races. However, it was a season also dogged with controversy and, I’m sorry to say, its fair share of politics so didn’t end as I would have wanted. But anyway, that’s in the past and I’m proud of the seven victories – equal highest of the season – and multiple other podiums, including winning the triple at Brands Hatch.

The controversy led me to question whether I should continue in Ginetta Juniors so with the support of EDGE management I tested both an F4 and a GB3 car mid-season, both of which I loved. This experience led me to decide on a switch to single seaters, so, in some respects the challenges I faced last year led me directly to choose GB3 for 2022 rather than stay in saloons.