Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Lorenzo Fluxá will remain in Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine in 2022 and will race with race-winning outfit R-ace GP.

The seventeen-year-old Spaniard has been competing with R-ace GP in the Formula Regional Asian Championship in recent weeks and picked up a best finish of second place in race two of the first weekend in Abu Dhabi, and he will now race with the squad in FRECA.

Fluxá failed to score any points in his rookie FRECA season in 2021 whilst racing for Van Amersfoort Racing, but the young Spaniard is hopeful of a much better 2022 campaign, particularly on the back of a competitive FRAC campaign.

“I’m really looking forward to racing with R-ace GP this year,” said Fluxá, who joins the already confirmed Gabriel Bortoleto at the French squad.  

“For the last couple of years the team has had great results in the championship and I can’t wait to start working with them and achieve as much success as we can.”

Nicolás Baptiste has become FA Racing’s first confirmed driver for the 2022 Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine season, while Monolite Racing have also confirmed their first driver in Pietro Armanni.

Sixteen-year-old Colombian Baptiste has stepped up to FRECA after a season and a half racing in Formula 4, and he is excited for the year ahead with Fernando Alonso’s team having tested with FA Racing at the end of last year.

Baptiste ran with the team in tests at the Red Bull Ring, Spa-Francorchamps, Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Circuit Paul Ricard and the Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello.

“I’m really happy to join FA Racing for my first year in the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine,” said Baptiste. “I worked well with the team during testing and can’t wait for the season to get going!”

FA Racing’s Paul Antony has welcomed the young Colombian to the team, which is expected to be a three-car effort for the 2022 season.

Formula 1 has announced that a five-year extension has been given to Circuit of The Americas (COTA), home to the United States Grand Prix, in a deal which will see COTA on the calendar until at least 2026.

After not featuring in 2020 due to the pandemic, fans returned in their thousands last season, to witness an epic duel between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton. At the event last season COTA saw record breaking crowds over the three days. The weekend of the Grand Prix was also announced as the highest grossing weekend in Austin for 2021.

Formula 1 first visited COTA in 2012 and with its absence in 2020, the 2022 United States Grand Prix will be COTA’s tenth time hosting the championship. Incredibly the number of fans which attended last year’s race was nearly four times the amount that attended in 2012. The Netflix Formula 1 series ‘Drive To Survive’, has played a huge role in the sports growth on the other side of the Atlantic.

Bobby Epstein, Founding Partner at Circuit of The Americas, is extremely grateful to all the fans, who make the United States Grand Prix the special event that it is.

“The Formula 1 United States Grand Prix has become one of the biggest and greatest events in the world. We are extremely proud it has found a home in Texas – at Circuit of The Americas – and are grateful to the millions of fans who visited us over our first decade.

On Friday morning whilst the UK were preparing for Storm Eunice’s imminent arrival, the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team were busy completing their shakedown at Silverstone, after launching the W13 in the morning.

Both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell took part in the 100km shakedown and filming day, in what were incredibly wet and windy conditions. Russell even went a step further after his run in the W13 and told Motorsport.com “I’d say it’s the windiest day I’ve ever experienced in my whole motorsport career.”.

Russell continued, “It was absolutely crazy, but we managed to keep the car on the black stuff. To be honest we just went through the program of just running it, making sure I’m comfortable – which I am and I’m pleased about.

“The car handled I’d say largely as we expected but equally with these conditions, in the wet, and with the wind, there’s not a huge amount you can take from it. So far we’re in a good place and I think we’re in a good window ahead of Barcelona.”

It was Russell who in fact kicked off the shakedown for the team, before Seven-Time World Champion Lewis Hamilton got behind the wheel of the W13. Both the drivers and the team will be hoping for considerably less blustery conditions when pre-season testing takes place on February 23-25 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN have announced a brand-new partnership with leading watch company Rebellion Timepieces, in a multi-year deal between the two.

The Swiss luxury watch brand famously known on the motosport scene, possess many traits which Alfa Romeo values, as the Swiss F1 team continues to find every tenth of a second possible to move ahead of their competitors. The partnership will see Rebellion Timepieces branding on both Valtteri Bottas’ and Guanyi Zhou’s suits, as well as on the brand-new for 2022, C42.

Frédéric Vasseur, Team Principal of Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN, is very happy to be welcoming a brand like Rebellion into the team, in what will be an exciting Swiss partnership.

“We are delighted to welcome Rebellion Timepieces to the Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN family. Rebellion is a brand steeped in motorsport and, just like our team, one that is proudly independent: they are not afraid to go against the grain, to go where others fear and to push the boundaries of what is possible – these are all values with which we identify. Rebellion’s pursuit of excellence is not unlike our mission as we aim to beat the clock every time we head out on track. We are excited to work with them.”

Alexandre Pesci, chairman of Rebellion Corporation, is pleased that the luxury watch brand are now partnered with the historic Swiss team.

Last Wednesday it was announced that Hard Rock, one of the most globally recognised companies, is the first founding partner of the new for 2022 Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix, in a multi-year partnership.

Hard Rock is the existing naming rights partner of Hard Rock Stadium, home of the Miami Dolphins NFL team, University of Miami football team and the Miami Open, whose home campus will host F1 for the first time on May 6-8, 2022.

As a founding partner, Hard Rock will have the opportunity to interact and engage with fans, with the Hard Rock Beach Club, which spans the area by turns 11, 12 and 13. The Beach Club will give customers a uniquely South Florida environment to enjoy all of the racing action, including a nearly 24,000 square-foot beach, resort-style pools and two levels of luxury cabanas plus special musical performances.

Jeremy Walls, Senior Vice President, Chief Revenue Officer of Hard Rock Stadium and the Miami Grand Prix, is absolutely thrilled that the company is a founding partner of the event.

“We are excited to have Hard Rock’s global iconic brand as a founding partner of the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix.  The Hard Rock Beach Club will be a unique experience on the MIA campus, featuring international musical artists, and a high-energy Miami vibe with beach cabanas and resort-style pools.”

BWT Alpine F1 Team have announced Otmar Szafnauer as their new Team Principal last Thursday, as well as the appointment of Bruno Famin as the Executive Director of Alpine Racing in Viry-Châtillon and Davide Brivio as Director of Racing Expansion Projects. This series of management changes come as part of a review launched in November 2021, with the purpose of enhancing team operations in light of 2022’s new technical regulations. 

“With Otmar and Bruno joining the team, we move to a new level for 2022. Otmar will bring his unique experience in motorsports and his uncompromising desire to win, while Bruno’s proven track record in building technologies that make a difference in competition and their subsequent transference to road cars is critical for our project as a sports team and as a brand,” said Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi.

“Over the past year I have seen Davide’s talent to identify the best in people, and to make them perform as well as they can. I am delighted to utilize this unique skill across all existing Alpine assets and new ones we are just starting to explore. Our band of racers is complete and ready to bring the team towards its ambitious objectives in 2022.”

Szafnauer previously led Force India, Racing Point and, most recently, Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team. Known for his ability to extract high performance with limited resources and help teams reach their true potential, Szafnauer hopes to help Alpine achieve its goals in the sport.

“I am thrilled to join BWT Alpine F1 Team and ready to get to work with everyone to achieve our challenge: bring the team to fight for the Championship within the next 100 races. My attention is focused on preparing for the start of the season in Bahrain. As one of the three car manufacturers involved in Formula 1, Alpine is fully armed to achieve its ambition, I can’t wait to start the journey!”

Ahead of their official launch for 2022, Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN have announced a brand new partnership with global, live-clean lifestyle essentials brand Modere.

Modere is an omnichannel, consumer products company that develops and markets beauty and personal care products that are clinically validated, U.S. EPA Safer Choice-approved, EWG Verified™, NSF Certified, gray-water appropriate and formulated without the use of thousands of controversial chemicals and compounds. The brand will have its logo featured on the C42, which will be officially launched on the 27th February at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Frédéric Vasseur, Team Principal of Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN, believes his team and Modere possess similar traits.

“Modere is a company with a culture rooted in innovation – something that applies to Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN as well. We are pleased to welcome a like-minded company to our family and we’re looking forward to their support during what promises to be an exciting season of racing.”

Asma Ishaq, Chief Executive Officer of Modere, recognises that as well as Modere, Alfa Romeo also have a serious outlook on environmental responsibilities.

Unsurprisingly, Hendrick Motorsports does not want Chase Elliott to leave via free agency after the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season. On Sunday, hours before the Daytona 500, the team announced Elliott has signed a five-year contract extension that will keep him with the team through 2027.

Elliott has been employed by Hendrick since he was fifteen years old and a first-year high school student in 2011. After racing at the regional level with a limited Camping World Truck Series schedule in 2013 (during which he won his first NASCAR national series race), he moved up to the now-Xfinity Series a year later. Driving for Hendrick farm team JR Motorsports, he became the first rookie in series history to win the championship.

In 2015, he began a limited Cup slate before being promoted to a full-time run in 2016 as the heir to the legendary #24 vacated by the retiring Jeff Gordon. He switched to #9 in 2018, and since has become one of the sport’s biggest names as a thirteen-time race winner and 2020 series champion. He assumed the de facto mantle of Cup Series fan favourite after Hendrick driver Dale Earnhardt Jr.‘s retirement as he has won the Most Popular Driver Award every year since 2018.

“I feel so fortunate to be in this position,” commented Elliott. “I have a great team with leadership from Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) and the support of the best car owner and racing organisation in the world. For me, there’s a lot of pride in driving for Hendrick Motorsports and having the opportunity to win races and compete for championships. We are capable of accomplishing a lot more and it starts today.”

He will start the Daytona 500 in eleventh. Elliott won the pole for the race in his first two tries in 2016 and 2017, though victory in the prestigious event has eluded him as his best finish is second in 2021, which he could have won if the caution flag had not frozen his momentum. His lone Cup win at Daytona came on the infield road course in 2020, while he has an Xfinity victory there in 2016.

Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN are now one of the only teams to have not officially launched their 2022 challenger, they have however completed a successful shakedown ahead of pre-season testing.

The shakedown of the C42 took place last Tuesday at the Fiorano Circuit, with the recently signed Valtteri Bottas first to go behind the wheel, before 2022 rookie Guanyu Zhou. Team Principal, Frédéric Vasseur and Technical Director, Jan Monchaux, were both in attendance.

The test took place in pouring rain but this wasn’t going to stop Alfa Romeo from completing their preliminary tests. The team also ran a beautiful camouflage livery, to not give too much away to their opponents ahead of the new season. The team’s official launch takes place on the 27th February at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

2022 is a big year for Alfa Romeo after a shocking 2021, a new car and a new driver line-up though gives the Swiss team plenty of reasons to feel optimistic ahead of the new era of Formula 1.

Just over a week ago, Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team, became the third team to unveil their 2022 Formula 1 challenger. The team presented their car, the AMR22, at a launch event held at their UK headquarters, Gaydon, UK.

The following day, Aston Martin conducted their traditional shakedown test at the home of the British Grand Prix, Silverstone. The world finally caught a glimpse of what the new era of F1 is going to look like, it’s safe to say it’s radically different!

Aston Martin became the first team of 2022 to run a shakedown, giving them plenty of time to work on any problems ahead of the pre-season test and season opener. Identifying any problems early was something massively important for the team, as explained by the team’s Chief Technical Officer Andrew Green at the launch. Lance Stroll was the first to tryout the AMR22, before Sebastian Vettel got his first experience of the new era.

Ahead of the upcoming 2022 Formula 1 season, McLaren Racing have announced a multi-year partnership with instant delivery platform Gopuff, who are now an official partner of the racing team.

Gopuff are an American based instant grocery and household essentials delivery service, who are hoping their partnership with McLaren will further enhance their rapid European expansion.

The relationship will give fans the opportunity to win experiences and rewards via the Gopuff App throughout the year, with a key focus on races in the UK, US and France. The Gopuff logo will also feature on McLaren’s 2022 challenger, the MCL36.

CEO of McLaren Racing, Zak Brown, is incredibly pleased with the new partnership.

“We are delighted to announce our partnership with Gopuff ahead of the 2022 season. Gopuff is the pioneer of the instant delivery category in the US, which has seen rapid global expansion over the past year along with remarkable growth in Europe. We look forward to collaborating on campaigns and going racing together”.

Carlin Buzz Racing have announced that Brad Benavides will join the team for the 2022 FIA Formula 3 Championship season.

The American-Spanish driver competed in Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine in the first half of 2021, switching to Euroformula Open with Carlin for the final nine races of the season.

Euroformula proved to be more fertile ground for Benavides, who took eight top-ten finishes in his nine races in the championship.

He began his single-seater career in the series in 2018, switching to Formula Renault Eurocup for the following year.

He made some karting appearances in 2020 before returning to the newly-formed FRECA for 2021, later switching back to Euroformula.

For the second night in a row, a driver has won in his first start for a new team after a wreck on the final lap at Daytona International Speedway. In the NASCAR Xfinity Series‘ case, the winner was new full-timer Austin Hill, giving him the early advantage in the Rookie of the Year battle, while the crash was a scary accident that sent Myatt Snider into the backstretch catchfence.

Hill, now an Xfinity regular for Richard Childress Racing, qualified second next to reigning champion and now-Kaulig Racing driver Daniel Hemric, and the two would trade the lead throughout the opening stage with Hemric winning out. The lone caution of the stage came when Drew Dollar made contact with Jeremy Clements on the backstretch, causing him to slam into the outside wall in a near-identical manner as his wreck in the ARCA Menards Series race earlier on Saturday. A.J. Allmendinger, Riley Herbst, Hill, Noah Gragson, Ty Gibbs, Justin Allgaier, Ryan Sieg, Brandon Brown, and Sam Mayer rounded out the top ten.

Dollar, who was making his Xfinity début, garnered criticism from fans who pointed out his aggressive driving style in ARCA has often resulted in incidents. Clements was especially vocal as he tweeted, “That’s what happens when you have guys that buy rides that shouldn’t be out there.”

Stage #2 ran completely green with Brown, the most recent superspeedway winner at Talladega in October, leading. Gragson claimed the lead on lap 49 with help from Sieg, holding the spot for ten laps before an attempted block on Hemric caused him to briefly lose control. Although Gragson saved the car, he lost the lead to Hemric who scored the stage victory. The rest of the top ten consisted of Sieg, Mayer, Allmendinger, Allgaier, Brown, Gibbs, Josh Berry, Brandon Jones, and Herbst.

Hemric continued to lead as the final stage commenced. Mayer lost his rear bumper on lap 84 to warrant a debris caution, which was followed by an even larger reason for a yellow flag when the ensuing restart on lap 91 saw C.J. McLaughlin get loose exiting turn four and spin into the pack. Ten drivers were ultimately involved with other victims including Hemric, Anthony Alfredo, Jesse Iwuji, Joey Gase, Shane Lee, Tommy Joe Martins, Brett Moffitt, Kyle Weatherman, and Josh Williams.

Much like how its owner Lewis Hamilton probably sees the upcoming Formula One season as a campaign of vengeance, Team X44 is striving to do the same after falling short in the 2021 Extreme E Championship. After leading Friday’s practice session and barely missing out on setting the fastest time in single-car qualifying (though hindered by a time penalty), the team dominated the second qualifying round’s heat race to put the #44 entry in the catbird seat for Sunday’s events.

X44’s Sébastien Loeb began the first heat and led the way on his lap with Sara Price (Chip Ganassi Racing) and Nasser Al-Attiyah (ABT CUPRA XE) in tow. However, in a right-hand turn leading to the eighteenth waypoint, Al-Attiyah attempted an aggressive overtake on Dakar Rally rival Carlos Sainz that caused him to go off course and ride on his left-side wheels. While trying to recover, he slammed into Sainz’s left side, causing substantial damage to the CUPRA car and resulting in Al-Attiyah being relegated to fourth and last of the cars that started the heat. The incident also meant X44’s only other opponent was the Ganassi entry; although CGR’s Kyle LeDuc set a faster time than X44’s Cristina Gutiérrez, he could not catch her for the heat win.

With a runner-up in the first round and the heat win, X44 accumulated the most Intermediate Classificiation points yet again with nineteen of a possible twenty. The team has dominated qualifying since Extreme E’s inception, winning at least a round of qualifying in all five 2021 rounds and sweeping both on three instances.

“We knew it would be difficult, but luckily we found a good line and we both drove well, so I am very happy,” commented Loeb. “It could be a totally different terrain tomorrow with a lot of dust so the starting position will be important, but we are feeling confident.”

In the second heat, Andretti United XE‘s Timmy Hansen edged out McLaren XE‘s Tanner Foust to lead the opening lap, a rather fitting 1–2 run for the two teams as Andretti United is co-owned by McLaren CEO Zak Brown (though Brown has stressed that his current Extreme E involvement is wholly in McLaren). Rosberg X Racing, who led single-car qualifying, was third with Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky prior to the driver switch.