Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Josef Newgarden says his desire to race in Formula 1 has dropped in recent years as the championship is aimed more for manufacturers than it is individual drivers.

As a Team Penske driver in the NTT IndyCar Series, Newgarden has twice won the Drivers’ title and will be bidding for a third when the championship gets underway next month around the Streets of St Petersburg, and he has often been linked with a move to Formula 1.

However, the thirty-one-year-old says the focus is put on the cars rather than the drivers, which for him puts doubts in his mind about his desire to race in the Formula 1.

“For me the allure of F1 I think is the gravity of the cars,” Newgarden is quoted as saying by Autoweek during the IndyCar pre-season media days event.

“When I think about F1, I think about a manufacturers championship, trying to build the quickest cars that you can within – I should say within an unreasonable budget. That’s what was exciting about it.

Ben Hodgkinson will make his long-awaited switch to Red Bull Powertrains on 24 May after an agreement was reached between Red Bull and the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team surrounding his release from his contract with the German marque.

Red Bull Powertrains have taken over the running of the Honda power units in 2022 after the Japanese manufacturer withdrew from Formula 1 at the end of 2021, and they started a recruitment programme that included Hodgkinson, who comes in as the new technical director. 

He is just one of what is expected to be several hundred new recruits as Red Bull adapt to life as a power unit supplier for the first time, while they will also be helped by Honda engineers, who will stay with them to ensure a smooth handover.

Initially it was unclear to when Mercedes would allow Hodgkinson to join their rivals, but after talks between the two teams during the off-season, a date of 24 May has been agreed for him to start his role with Red Bull Powertrains.

“Mercedes F1 and Red Bull F1 today reached an agreement regarding the appointment of Ben Hodgkinson,” said a statement that was released by both Red Bull and Mercedes.

Sebastian Montoya will move up to Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine in 2022 with Prema Racing having raced for the team last year in Formula 4.

The son of former Formula 1 race winner and two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Juan-Pablo Montoya will be looking to show what he can do in Formula 3 machinery in 2022, with the FRECA campaign coming after he races in the Formula Regional Asian Championship.

And Montoya will be looking to claim podium finishes and even race wins early in his rookie campaign, with the sixteen-year-old aiming high in his third year in single seaters after two years in Formula 4.

“I am super happy to continue my relationship PREMA,” said Montoya. “The have really helped me to improve as a person and driver.

“With all that we have been through the last 2 years, this new challenge will not be easy but we will manage it as always. Our objective is to keep chasing more silverware.”

After a tumultuous 2021, Raphaël Lessard has landed back on his feet in the NASCAR national series world. On Thursday, SQR Development announced he will drive the #87 Toyota Supra in “select” Xfinity Series races for 2022, marking his first foray into NASCAR’s second tier. Specific races were not immediately announced, but the team previously expressed intent of débuting at Richmond Raceway on 2 April.

Lessard, a 20-year-old Canadian, was a regular in the Camping World Truck Series in 2020 as he finished twelfth in points for Kyle Busch Motorsports. Although he won at Talladega to become just the fifth race winner born outside the United States in Truck Series history, it was too little too late for him as he had missed the playoffs and was eventually ousted from his KBM ride at season’s end.

He moved to GMS Racing for what was initially a part-time 2021 schedule before he found enough sponsorship that would last him the full season. Unfortunately for Lessard, he was only able to run the first seven races before said funding dried up, leaving him without a seat yet again. His brief stint with GMS saw two top tens and a third at the Bristol Dirt Race.

While he did not race again in a U.S. NASCAR series, he spent August back home in Canada by competing in the Pinty’s Series, where he swept the first two races of the season at Sunset Speedway. He has three career wins in the division.

Created in December, SQR Development is run by former driver J.C. Stout, who previously raced as an owner/driver under the Stellar Quest Racing banner in the 2000s. The team’s chassis was purchased from Joe Gibbs Racing (a KBM partner) while Pro Motor Engines will supply motors.

Fresh off his first NASCAR Xfinity Series championship, Daniel Hemric will make his return to the Cup Series in the season-opening Daytona 500. On Friday, Kaulig Racing announced he will drive the #16 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in the Great American Race, which will be his first Cup start since 2019. The entry is locked into the race with a charter.

Hemric joins Kaulig for 2022 after spending 2021 with Joe Gibbs Racing, during which he failed to win a race but consistency propelled him into the Championship Round. A dramatic overtime finish enabled him to score his maiden NASCAR race victory and the title, making him only the second NASCAR national series champion with just one career win alongside 1950 Grand National Series (now Cup) winner Bill Rexford.

Prior to becoming an Xfinity regular, Hemric ran the full 2019 Cup Series in the #8 for Richard Childress Racing a year after making two starts for the team. He finished thirty-fourth in his Daytona 500 début after being parked for driving under a red flag following a crash. Hemric scored two top tens, including a fifth at Talladega, and a pole at Kansas as he placed twenty-fifth in points. However, with Tyler Reddick having just won his second consecutive Xfinity Series title, RCR elected to place him in the #8.

While Hemric will run the full 2022 Xfinity slate in the #11, he will also share the #16 Cup car with A.J. Allmendinger and Noah Gragson; both drivers are also Xfinity full-timers, with Allmendinger being his Kaulig team-mate while Gragson competes for fellow Chevrolet team JR Motorsports. Gragson is already entered in the 500 in the #62 for Beard Motorsports. The trio also made the Championship Four in 2021. Justin Haley, whom Hemric replaces in the #11, is now a Cup weekly racer in Kaulig’s #31.

Been waiting a long time to get back to this stage,” Hemric tweeted. “Thanks to @MattKaulig (team owner Matt Kaulig) and @C_Rice1 (president Chris Rice) for this opportunity. What a privilege it is to be in the Great America [sic] Race!”

Kyle Sieg‘s NASCAR Xfinity Series excursion will be expanded in 2022 to include more races. On Thursday, his family’s RSS Racing team announced Sieg will pilot the #28 Ford Mustang on a part-time basis beginning with the season opener at Daytona International Speedway.

“We are excited to announce that @KyleSieg39 will pilot the #28 Ford Mustang for RSS Racing in multiple Xfinity races in 2022 beginning at Daytona Speedway,” read a tweet from the team.

Sieg made his Xfinity début at Dover in 2021 for DGM Racing, where he finished thirty-fourth. He moved to RSS for the finale at Phoenix, placing twenty-seventh. The second start came in RSS’ #39 primarily driven by older brother Ryan as Phoenix featured qualifying, which did not guarantee the team’s part-time #38 a spot in the race.

#28 is certainly not an unfamiliar number for the 20-year-old as he made eleven starts with it in the ARCA Menards Series in 2021. He recorded eight top tens, three top fives, and a best run of fourth at Phoenix. His first race in the series came in 2020 for Cook-Finley Racing, and he would run three races for the team with a top ten in his maiden start of tenth at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.

Ryan is the team’s lone full-time driver, and he finished fourteenth in the 2021 standings. RSS also added C.J. McLaughlin and Parker Retzlaff who will share the #38.

B.J. McLeod Motorsports has watched Matt Mills‘ career with great interest, and will continue to do so in 2022 as he rejoins the team for a sixth season in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

Mills made his Xfinity Series début in 2017 for BJMM. After sporadic starts for JD Motorsports and NextGen Motorsports that year and in 2018, he rejoined BJMM for the rest of the latter and has remained with the team since. While he has never run every race in a given season, he has become a regular by entering nearly all rounds since 2019, making twenty-nine, thirty-one, and thirty of thirty-three starts in the three years during that timespan. He scored his lone top ten in 2019 at Daytona when he finished tenth.

In 2021, he placed twenty-ninth in points with a best run of fourteenth at Michigan. Much of his starts for McLeod have come in the #5, but he has also flipped to other numbers like the #78 and #99.

“Matt has been an important part of the growth of our race team the last several years,” McLeod stated. “He stuck with us through some growing pains and has helped make our organization better. I believe his commitment and hard work, with the addition of some key personnel will lead to success for Matt and the entire team.”

Nicknamed “Red Five” as a nod to Star Wars and his #5, Mills is a devout fan of the popular space opera franchise and has made his fandom known even on the track. He wears helmets with a Star Wars flair, which includes Aurebesh writing, and has a TV pod on his car’s roof painted to resemble R2-D2. His pit sign is designed to be a combination of the Rebel Alliance’s Starbird emblem and BJMM’s skull logo. When he ran his first Cup Series race at Kansas last April in the #55 for BJMM, where he finished thirty-eighth, he nicknamed it “Red Fifty-Five”.

The Superstar Racing Experience, a short track spec racing series founded by NASCAR legends Tony Stewart and Ray Evernham, proved to be a hit during the inaugural season in 2021. However, it was perhaps too successful right out of the gate for the two to properly oversee on their own. While certainly a good problem to have, the duo has found a solution: on Thursday, SRX announced former Speedway Motorsports (SMI) Chief Racing Development Officer Don Hawk has been hired as CEO.

Hawk worked at SMI, owner of eleven tracks including nine on the 2022 NASCAR schedule, from 2007 to 2021, which included serving as Vice President of Business Affairs and Chief Racing Development Officer. He departed the company at the end of 2021 to focus on Hawk Sports Management LLC, a talent agency he founded in 2000. Prior to SMI, Hawk was also the Director of Regional Racing Development for NASCAR.

His first major position in racing was as the manager of Alan Kulwicki Racing in 1992, whose eponymous owner went on to win the Cup championship. A year later, he moved to Dale Earnhardt, Inc. as president.

According to a report from the Associated Press, SRX stated the CEO’s role is to supervise “all series strategy, operations, and business development, including media, sales and marketing, personnel, track relationships, local events, competition, driver and crew chief relations, rules, safety, and international expansion.”

“I love racing and I love business, that’s all I’ve ever done my entire life. Car business and race car business before and after college,” Hawk told the AP. “I can’t retire. I enjoy this too much.”

Jamie Chadwick might have spent much of her career in sports and open-wheel cars, but she will be more than familiar with off-road terrain when she represents Team Great Britain at the Race of Champions in Sweden on 5/6 February. Joining her will be two-time ROC winner and fellow formula-savvy driver-turned-commentator David Coulthard.

Chadwick is the only driver to win a championship in W Series history, claiming the title in 2019 and 2021 (2020 was cancelled due to COVID-19). Driving for Veloce Racing, her 2021 campaign featured four wins including a sweep of the final races at Circuit of the Americas. She is also a member of Williams Racing‘s driver development programme.

While the 2022 ROC will be held on a snow/ice surface in Pite Havsbad, a far cry from Chadwick’s résumé dominated by asphalt, she is certainly no stranger to non-paved racing. She and Veloce also teamed up to contest the inaugural Extreme E Championship, running all but two rounds that she had to miss due to W Series obligations, alongside Stéphane Sarrazin and Lance Woolridge. She and Sarrazin scored a runner-up finish and the team’s lone podium of the year at the Ocean X-Prix.

“I’m super excited to make my Race Of Champions début in Sweden,” said Chadwick. “It’s an event I’ve always loved watching so I can’t wait to experience it for the first time. It’s going to be an honor to represent Great Britain with an icon like David Coulthard.”

Coulthard won thirteen races during his fifteen-year Formula One career before becoming an analyst for series like F1 and Formula E. He made his ROC début in 2004.

Double race-winner Mikkel Grundtvig will compete with Fortec Motorsports again in the 2022 GB3 Championship.

He took two race wins in the reverse-grid races at Donington Park in 2021, signing off the Tatuus BF3-020 era by winning the final race before the Championship introduces the MSV-022 this year.

Further podiums came at Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in August, with team-mate Roberto Faria winning Race 3, and Oulton Park in September.

Grundtvig won races in Danish and French F4 in 2019 after graduating from karting and a race-winning Renault F4 Danish Championship campaign.

The 19-year-old took his class title in the Danish Endurance Championship in 2020, winning three of the seven races in a Lamborghini Huracan Super Trofeo.

Ryan Vargas will spend another season in the NASCAR Xfinity Series with JD Motorsports, the team announced Wednesday. It will be his second full slate.

A former NASCAR Drive for Diversity programme member, Vargas joined JDM for a part-time Xfinity schedule in 2019 and 2020. The latter year saw him run the final six races of the year, during which he scored his first career top ten at Texas when he finished eighth.

Vargas graduated to a full Xfinity schedule in 2021 in JDM’s #6. However, growing pains were inevitable and occurred as a string of finishes outside the top twenty prompted the team to switch him to the #4 driven by Landon Cassill, which was higher in owner points. He was also replaced at Circuit of the Americas, Road America, Watkins Glen, and Indianapolis—all road courses—by ringers, though he remained involved as a mechanic.

Prior to the Xfinity Series, Vargas ran the full 2018 season in what is now the ARCA Menards Series East for D4D team Rev Racing. He recorded six top tens en route to a sixth-place points finish.

“I’m very excited for this opportunity to race for JD Motorsports again in a full-time capacity,” Vargas stated. “Johnny (Davis, team owner) and his entire team have believed in me since day one and have become almost an extended family at this point, and I’m ready to hit the track and put everything I have into this campaign. I spent many years as a fan of this organisation; watching the red cars fight against the big dogs; and I hope to bring that same excitement to the track and show the NASCAR fan base what this team is all about.”

Callum Voisin became the first confirmed driver for the 2022 GB3 Championship in November, joining inaugural Teams’ Champions Carlin.

The 15-year-old Swiss-British driver took seven wins and four further podiums in Ginetta Junior on the way to sixth in his maiden car racing campaign with R Racing.

Despite a 70-point deduction at Snetterton for a camtiming irregularity, Voisin did enough on the British Touring Car Championship support programme to draw Carlin’s attention and admiration from across the paddock.

That brought an F4 British Championship test with the Farnham outfit in summer, and the rest is history.

The Checkered Flag caught up with Voisin four days after he was announced at Carlin.

The time of team launches is properly upon us and, as always, every team wants to create the biggest splash with theirs. Teams spend huge amounts of money and time on creating the flashiest and most impressive launch events that they can to wow the fans and the world’s media. It seems like McLaren really wants to go all in with this, as McLaren’s Formula 1, IndyCar and Extreme E teams and the McLaren Shadow eSports team will have their 2022 launches on the same day as part of a huge multi-team launch event!

The launch will take place on February 11 at 7 pm GMT and will be broadcast on McLaren’s social media channels as well as on Sky Sports F1. The broadcast will take place from the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, United Kingdom and it will feature the reveal of the McLaren MCL36, the first McLaren Formula 1 car to be designed under the new 2022 regulations. Personnel from the McLaren F1 Team, Arrow McLaren SP IndyCar team, McLaren Extreme E team and McLaren Shadow will be present as well.

This decision to launch the 2022 campaign of 4 different teams (including an eSports team) that are under the McLaren banner during the same event is an unprecedented move. It’ll definitely make the event one of the ones fans will be most looking forward to over the next month before the seasons in both real and virtual racing start. As this is Zak Brown‘s era of McLaren, we can also probably expect to see some fun content too during the course of the launch! Whatever happens in the year ahead, this huge multi-team event is solid proof that McLaren is deadly serious about its huge ambitions across the entire spectrum of motorsports.

Dan Fallows will move to the Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team on April 2 after the Silverstone-based team and Red Bull Racing came to an agreement over his release.

Fallows has been part of the Red Bull family since 2006 and has most recently been in the role of Chief Engineer – Aerodynamics.  However, Aston Martin announced last year that they had signed Fallows as their new Technical Director despite him being under contract until 2023 with the Milton Keynes-based outfit.

However, the two teams have come to an agreement, with Fallows remaining with Red Bull until the beginning of April before moving to Aston Martin.

“We are pleased to have reached an agreement with Red Bull which releases Dan early from his contract and are looking forward to him joining the team,” said Martin Whitmarsh, the Group Chief Executive Officer of Aston Martin Performance Technologies.

Christian Horner, the Team Principal of Red Bull, has thanked Fallows for his years of service and has wished him well for his new role with Aston Martin.

The Jaguar TCS Racing team have announced that French drivers Norman Nato and Tom Dillmann will act as their reserve drivers for the 2021/22 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship season, which gets underway later this month in Saudi Arabia.

Dillmann remains as test driver for a second year after joining ahead of the 2020/21 season, while Nato has joined after leaving the ROKiT Venturi Racing team at the conclusion of last season despite having won the final E-Prix in Berlin.

Nato says he is excited to be joining Jaguar, and he is looking forward to supporting regular drivers Sam Bird and Mitch Evans, who have both been long-time friends and on-track rivals with the twenty-nine-year-old.

“I’m excited to be joining Jaguar TCS Racing,” said Nato.  “I’m determined to help the team fight for points, podiums and reach their top performance. I have a lot to learn and discover but I will be ready anytime the team needs me, inside or outside of the Jaguar I-TYPE 5.

“I consider Mitch and Sam as two really good friends, having raced with Mitch in GP2 and I’ve known Sam for many years, and I look forward to supporting them and the team in season eight.”