Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

2021 World Champion Max Verstappen has signed a huge five-year contract extension with Oracle Red Bull Racing, which will see him at the team until at least 2028. The announcement comes with the first round of the new season just a few weeks away.

The new deal is believed to see Verstappen earn an almost identical amount to Lewis Hamilton, the pair of course earn a significant amount more than the majority of the field.

Verstappen is delighted to have signed a new contract at Red Bull.

“I really enjoy being part of the Oracle Red Bull Racing Team, so choosing to stay to the 2028 season was an easy decision.  I love this Team and last year was simply incredible, our goal since we came together in 2016 was to win the championship and we have done that, so now it’s about keeping the number one on the car long-term.”

Oracle Red Bull Racing CEO and Team Principal Christian Horner, is equally pleased to have the Dutchman onboard for the foreseeable future.

The 2022 Motorsport UK British Rallycross Championship 5 Nations Trophy calendar has finally been completed with exciting new rounds in France and Belgium.
 
5 Nations BRX will join the French Rallycross Championship with Supercar competitors at former European Rallycross Championship venue Dreux, located to the west of Paris, on October 15-16, making it the penultimate event in the now 11-round 5 Nations BRX headline Supercar schedule.
 
Meanwhile, the Supernational, Retro Rallycross, BMW Mini, All4 Mini and RX150 two-wheel-drive categories from within the 5 Nations BRX structure will travel to another former Euro RX venue, Glosso Circuit at Arendonk in Belgium on August 6-7, joining a round of the Belgian Rallycross Championship. The Belgian venue has recently undergone significant work in an effort to improve the facility and circuit.
 
Both Dreux and Glosso are popular circuits on the continent, while the French Rallycross Championship’s Supercar category is known for its strength and depth. Both agreements with the new venues mark another step in the growth of 5 Nations BRX, which in 2022 will also return to Mondello Park in Ireland, joining the Irish Rallycross Championship on June 4-5, along with traditional events at both Lydden Hill in England and Pembrey in Wales.

“The French Rallycross Championship has long been regarded as one of the best national rallycross series in the world, and we can’t wait to take 5 Nations BRX to France for the first time in October where we will see some of the very fastest Supercar drivers in Europe go head-to-head.” said Hannah Rynston, 5 Nations BRX Championship Co-ordinator. “It’s also exciting to take competitors from here in the UK back to Belgium for the first time since 2016. The Belgian Championship has focused on two-wheel-drive rallycross in recent years, so it’s the perfect opportunity for us to take some of our two-wheel-drive classes to a new circuit for 5 Nations BRX, which like Dreux, is steeped in history.”
 
Jean-Jacques Bénezet, Rallycross France Championship Co-ordinator commented “What an honour for the French Rallycross Championship to join our strengths with 5 Nations BRX to offer the passionate French public an event like this at Dreux in October. Seeing so many foreign drivers coming to drive against the best drivers of our championship is going to be a highlight of this season and we are all looking forward to it!”

FACH AUTO TECH have confirmed they will be entering three cars to the upcoming Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup season with Lorcan Hanafin and Alexander Fach and Jukka Honkavuori lining up for the Swiss team.

“With this young, talented and yet experienced team, we have the best conditions to achieve top results. Of course, young drivers still have a lot to learn, but they can motivate each other and share experiences”, said team principal Alex Fach.

Honkavuori is the most experience of the trio, having clinched his first win in the Porsche GT3 Cup Finland in 2014. In 2019 he made his Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup debut at Monza with the MRS-GT team before competing for them again in the following two seasons in both the Supercup and Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland.

“I am very happy to be part of the team. I already know them from the Carrera Cup, and we get on very well,” says the 30-year-old Finn. “The level in the Supercup is very high, everything has to fit together down to the smallest detail if you want to be on the podium – and that’s exactly my goal! I am very confident that we can make that happen and can’t wait to get started.”

Porsche Carrera Cup GB frontrunner Lorcan Hanafin announced his Carrera Cup Deutschland programme earlier this year and will now add the Supercup to his schedule for the year as he looks to make the most of gaining experience across European circuits.

2021 Porsche Carrera Cup North America runner-up Kay van Berlo is set to return to the series for 2022 with the Kelly Moss team in a renewed bid for championship glory.

Last year saw the first season of the Porsche Carrera Cup North America, sanctioned by International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) which in turn replaced both Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA & Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada.

van Berlo was locked in to a title battle with eventual championship winner and team mate, Sebastien Priaulx and JDX Racing’s Parker Thompson.The Dutchman took three pole positions, four fastest laps and seven victories throughout the year.

“I’m super excited to continue working with the team, last year with them was definitely one of my best years in racing,” van Berlo said. “I also enjoyed it a lot on a personal level. All of the mechanics, engineers, Kelly Moss employees at the track and at the base are great. It’s really amazing to get to spend another year with them.”

Following ten years of international karting championship he move in to sports car racing in 2018, with first season in the European Le Mans series LMP3 class, followed by a season in the Asian Le Mans Series LMP3 class, and then a year in Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland.

PREMA Racing’s Jehan Daruvala topped the first FIA Formula 2 testing session of the new season, with a time that was half a second clear from the second fastest runner of the day, Calan Williams.

Daruvala’s team-mate and last year’s FIA Formula 3 champion, Dennis Hauger set the third fastest time of the day after twenty-five laps around the Bahrain International Circuit. Kiwi Liam Lawson set the fourth fastest time of the day with his new team Carlin and after setting the fastest time of the morning session.

Logan Sargeant set the fifth fastest time following his graduation from F3 last year with Felipe Drugovich just behind him in sixth place ahead of his first season with Dutch racing outfit MP Motorsport.

Rounding out the top ten was Marcus Armstrong in seventh, Enzo Fittipaldi in eighth, Jüri Vips in ninth and Roy Nissany in tenth. The youngest driver on the grid, Theo Pourchaire clocked the eleventh fastest time with Ralph Boschung in twelfth after thirty eight laps – the most out of the whole field.

Japanese driver Marino Sato finished thirteenth, just over two seconds off Daruvala’s quickest time with the Brit Jake Hughes in fourteenth after twenty-five laps. Fifteenth to twenty-second consisted of Ayumu Iwasa, Olli Caldwell, Frederik Vesti, Jack Doohan, Clement Novalak, Richard Verschoor, Amaury Cordeel and Cem Bolukbasi, respectively.

Seb Morris will return to the TOCA package this year with the announcement that he is joining Team Parker Racing to take part in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB.

Long-term BTCC fans will be familiar with his name after he took the 2011 Ginetta Junior championship title before pursuing a single seater route, racing in national and European series. In 2006, following a season in the Formula 1 support series GP3, Morris returned to sports car racing and joined Team Parker Racing in the British GT Championship.

In his first year alongside Rick Parfitt Jr, the duo collected third-place in the championship along with a prize drive at the Rolex 24 at Daytona from the Sunoco Whelen Challenge. 2017 saw championship glory in British GT with the team before moving to GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup with Derek Pierce, collecting two podium finishes in 2018 and 2019.

Since then Morris was part of the Bentley Motorsport works team racing at the 24 Hours of Spa, Bathurst 12 Hours, and Kyalami 9 Hours before the manufacturer withdrew from GT racing last season. Morris moved to Leipert Motorsport for the 24H Series and Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe, as well as the World Finals, where he claimed a sixth-place finish.

The 26-year-old will join Kiern Jewiss at Team Parker Racing for the Porsche Carrera Cup GB and will become a Pro class title favourite, drawing on his prior sports car experience and knowledge of the circuits on the TOCA package from previous years.

Make that two NASCAR Cup Series team owners that will contribute to supporting Ukraine in its defence against Russia. On Wednesday, hours after Richard Childress announced he will send a million rounds of ammunition to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Rick Hendrick said he and his Hendrick Automotive company have donated $20,000 to a Ukrainian relief fund run by Christian humanitarian group Samaritan’s Purse. Additional donations will be made depending on how Hendrick Motorsports performs on race day, as he will donate an additional $2,000 for each lap that his team’s four cars lead.

According to Jenna Fryer of the Associated Press, Samaritan’s Purse will appear on Kyle Larson‘s #5 car for Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Larson enters as the defending winner, having led 103 of 267 laps in the 2021 event. He added another 95 laps in the fall’s South Point 400 for 198 of 534 total laps led at Las Vegas during his championship season.

Hendrick team-mates William Byron and Chase Elliott respectively led 25 and 22 laps in the 2021 Pennzoil 400; along with Alex Bowman, all four drivers placed in the top ten. With 150 combined laps, a donation for that race’s effort would have been $300,000. In the South Point 400, all but Bowman led at least one lap as Byron contributed seven and Elliott one. Across their entire Cup careers, Larson has the most laps led in Las Vegas with 224, followed by Elliott (178), Byron (71), and Bowman (five).

“Like the rest of the world, our family has watched the worsening crisis in Ukraine with shock and sadness,” Hendrick told the AP. “We’ve been especially struck by the needless suffering inflicted on innocent children.

“NASCAR provides us with an incredibly powerful platform, and I believe we have a moral obligation to use it to help people in need. We hope to encourage others to support Ukraine, whether it be through Samaritan’s Purse or one of the other organisations.”

Two rookies topped the times at the end of the first day of FIA Formula 3 Championship testing at the Bahrain International Circuit on Wednesday.

Zane Maloney (Trident) and William Alatalo (Jenzer Motorsport) set the fastest times over the two sessions, ahead of Jak Crawford who moves from Hitech GP to Prema Racing for 2022.

The afternoon session brought quicker times in Sakhir, with the top six moving into the 1:47s after FIA Formula 2 testing rubbered the track in further.

The starting grid for the first round in Bahrain (18-20 March) should feature 30 drivers, but Day 1 of testing took place without Juan Manuel Correa, the American ironically sitting out the first on-track action of the year after an inconclusive COVID-19 test.

Drivers were slow to set representative times in the morning, as the field, including 15 first-year drivers, got accustomed to a circuit many of them will never have visited before.

Superstar Racing Experience founder and inaugural champion Tony Stewart is hoping to go back-to-back. On Wednesday, SRX announced Stewart will seek to defend his title in 2022, while Matt Kenseth and Hailie Deegan will conduct part-time schedules. All three drivers come from NASCAR backgrounds.

Stewart, a three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion and 2020 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee, co-founded SRX with Ray Evernham. During the first season in 2021, he won both dirt races at Knoxville Raceway and Eldora Speedway with podium finishes in all but one race (a seventh at IRP) en route to the championship.

Kenseth will race at the Nashville Fairgrounds (9 July), I-55 Raceway (16 July), and Sharon Speedway (23 July). All three comprise the final three rounds of the 2022 season. The 2003 Cup champion, his car will be #17 and sport a yellow-trimmed livery that is modelled after his DeWalt-sponsored Cup car. After exiting full-time NASCAR competition at the end of 2020, he has mostly settled down with occasional grassroots competition before resurfacing in NASCAR as a FOX Sports guest analyst for last Sunday’s Cup race at Fontana. Stewart also worked in the same capacity with FOX for the Daytona 500.

He remarked on social media, “My 2022 ‘work’ schedule is picking up!”

Deegan will race at Stafford Motor Speedway on 2 July and I-55. She is in her second full season of Camping World Truck Series competition; after finishing seventeenth in points as a rookie with a top ten at Gateway, she placed seventeenth in the 2022 season opener at Daytona. She ran three SRX races in 2021 at Knoxville, Slinger, and Nashville with a runner-up finish to Stewart in the first race. Sharing a car with Tony Kanaan, the unified effort was sixth in points.

Russia and Belarus continue to be ostracised by much of the world in response to their invasion of Ukraine. As the motorsport associations of countries like the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Finland announce drivers with licences from those two nations will be prohibited from racing there, the Russian Automobile Federation is defending itself and accusing the FIA’s Tuesday ruling of being discriminatory.

In the wake of the invasion, the FIA’s World Motor Sport Council met on Tuesday and decided to allow drivers holding Russian and Belarusian licences to compete under neutral flags. On the other hand, the two countries are not allowed to send national teams to events like the FIA Motorsport Games, while FIA officials from the nations will potentially be ordered to resign from their positions and commissions. Races in Russia and Belarus, like the former’s Russian Grand Prix in Sochi, have also been moved or cancelled entirely.

On Wednesday, the Russian Automobile Federation released a statement that accused the ruling of being “discriminatory and contrary” of the FIA statutes. In particular, the RAF claimed it violates Article 1.2 of the statute which reads, “The FIA shall promote the protection of human rights and human dignity, and refrain from manifesting discrimination on account of race, skin colour, gender, sexual orientation, ethnic or social origin, language, religion, philosophical or political opinion, family situation or disability in the course of its activities and from taking any action in this respect.”

Despite disagreeing with the verdict, RAF president Viktor Nikolayevich Kiryanov along with other officials from the association will comply with stepping away from their posts for the time being.

“The Russian Automobile Federation believes that all sports organisations, including the RAF and the FIA, need to take a neutral position on these issues, focus on sporting achievements and not use them as an instrument of political pressure,” continued the RAF announcement. “In the current situation, the priority for the RAF is to ensure the possibility of participation of Russian athletes in motorsport competition at the international level. This is what was emphasized in his speech at the meeting by RAF President Viktor Nikolayevich Kiryanov, who addressed the members of the World Council with a request not to deprive the Russian Automobile Federation of sports powers and to allow Russian athletes to participate in competitions under a neutral flag. At the same time, being the titular member of the World Council, elected at the FIA ​​General Assembly, he confirmed his readiness to temporarily resign, as well as recall RAF representatives from all FIA commissions.

With many motorsport authorities like the FIA implementing sanctions on Russia and ally Belarus for their invasion of Ukraine, NASCAR Hall of Fame team owner Richard Childress will aid Ukraine through more direct means. On Tuesday, AMMO, Inc. announced it will donate one million rounds of ammunition to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The company has also “formally offer[ed] to manufacture ammunition to donate to the Ukraine Armed Forces as they fight for their country’s continued independence.”

In a Wednesday interview with Fox & Friends, Childress explained AMMO, Inc. will be focusing on 7.62 mm caliber ammunition as it is Ukraine’s primary need. While the company is working with government agencies, the transport will be primarily through a private firm.

Childress is a noted gun rights advocate, having served as vice president of the National Rifle Association from 2017 to 2019, and was in line to assume the presidency before being passed over for Oliver North. He joined AMMO, Inc.’s board of directors in January.

Perhaps aligning with his views on the topic, firearms companies have sponsored his Richard Childress Racing cars. For example, arms manufacturer Daniel Defense sponsored the #3 Xfinity Series car in 2017 after Childress became acquainted with its CEO through the NRA. Bass Pro Shops, a longtime partner of the team and co-sponsor of the Bristol Night Race with the NRA, has long sold guns even following tragedies like school shootings and increased polarisation in the gun control debate.

AMMO, Inc. develops ammunition and runs online firearm marketplace GunBroker.com. GunBroker has sponsored cars across NASCAR’s three national series, and Jason White has run full seasons in the Camping World Truck Series under the GunBroker Racing banner. For the 2021 Xfinity Series race at Charlotte, AMMO, Inc. and GunBroker sponsored the #23 Xfinity machine of Our Motorsports driven by Childress’ grandson Ty Dillon.

The Porsche Sprint Cup Challenge Middle East will once again support the upcoming Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, giving Formula 1 fans a chance to see the sports car series in action at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit on 25-27 March.

Joining the FIA Formula 2 Championship, the Porsche series returns after a successful debut at the Kingdom’s inaugural Formula 1 weekend last December. 

The series was formed in 2009 by the late great Austrian racing veteran Walter Lechner and was previously known as the Porsche GT3 Challenge Middle East before switching to its current name in 2020. The series has staged nearly 150 races in the Middle East since it began and is now run by Robert Lechner.

Commenting on the announcement, Martin Whitaker, CEO of the Saudi Motorsport Company said, “We are delighted to confirm the return of the Porsche Sprint Cup Challenge Middle East to the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix programme.

“As the premier sports car racing series in the region, its inclusion on our schedule alongside Formula 2 ensures that the second F1 race weekend in Saudi Arabia will once again showcase the greatest racing action on the planet each and every day. We can’t wait to welcome the world once more to Jeddah in March.” 

On 2 March 2022, Motorsport UK – the organisation that governs motor racing in the United Kingdom – has released a statement regarding the immediate suspension of Russian and Belarusian drivers, teams and flags from British racing events. This announcement comes just one day after a meeting was held by the FIA governing body to discuss the current events occurring in Ukraine.

Motorsport has already been impacted by the situation between Russia and Ukraine, with many Russian drivers being uncertain about their seats in 2022, as well as Russian sponsors being pulled from car liveries. The Formula 1 Russian Grand Prix also suspended its plans for a 2022 event earlier this week.

The chair of Motorsport UK, David Richards CBE, has commented on the matter, “The entire Motorsport UK community condemns the acts of war by Russia and Belarus in Ukraine and expresses its solidarity and support towards all those affected by the ongoing conflict.”

“We stand united with the people of Ukraine and the motorsport community following the invasion and the unacceptable actions that have unfolded. This is a time for the international motorsport community to act and show support for the people of Ukraine and our colleagues at the Federation Automobile d’Ukraine (FAU).”

The measures Motorsport UK have put into place mean Russian and Belarusian drivers, teams, sponsors, colour schemes and national symbols will not be permitted within British motorsport events. Below are the criteria that was released in Motorsport UK’s statement:

Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team implemented the Accelerate 25 programme in December 2020 with the intention of enhancing the diversity of the team, with the objective to have over 25 percent of new team members come from under-represented groups over the programme’s five year span. After one year since the programme’s inception, Mercedes reviewed their progress and found that 35 percent of permanent and fixed-term team members that joined in 2021 represent these groups– an advancement the team is pleased with. 

Overall, the percentage of female employees increased from 12 to 14 percent while minority ethnic groups saw an increase from 3 to 6 percent. Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team Principal and CEO Toto Wolff said that this progress is only the beginning for the team’s long-term vision. 

“To see a small but significant increase in our numbers of team members from under-represented groups is a sign that we are making progress, however we remain acutely conscious that this is a long-term commitment and look forward to building on those initial steps.” 

Several initiatives were implemented through the Accelerate 25 programme, many with the aim of improving awareness within the team and allowing for further understanding as related to the programme’s objectives. These initiatives include the formation of a  Diversity, Equality and Inclusion Forum made up of 25 team volunteers from a variety of under-represented groups, a team-wide inclusion workshop, several internal networking events, the improvement of employee benefits and more. 

A key partnership with Mulberry Schools Trust has allowed the team to encourage more students to cultivate their passion for STEM through the Mulberry STEM Academy. The specialized programme gave 24 Year 10 students and 24 Year 12 students the opportunity to learn and receive guidance from the team. 

The 2022 FIA Formula 3 Championship roars back into life this week (2 March – 4 March) as pre-season testing begins at the Bahrain International Circuit.

The 30-car grid will feature 18 nationalities, three F3 race-winners and six podium-finishers, with plenty of promising and proven talents looking to follow in the footsteps of Robert Shwartzman, Oscar Piastri and Dennis Hauger and take the title.

Notably, the last three Drivers’ champions have come from the Prema Racing stable, and the Italian outfit took the 2019 and 2020 Teams’ Championship, only usurped last year by Trident.

Prema were dominant in 2019 and 2020, only missing out on the Teams’ title by four points after 20 races.

It would be logical, then, to look there first when discussing where the 2022 Drivers’ champion might come from. The returning Arthur Leclerc and Jak Crawford will be joined by Italian and ADAC F4 champion Ollie Bearman, with the Ferrari Driver Academy prospect looking to keep the second-year drivers on their toes.