Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Valentino Rossi has officially traded two wheels for four. On Thursday, the seven-time MotoGP champion announced he will race full-time in the GT World Challenge Europe for W Racing Team, driving an Audi R8 LMS with his iconic #46.

After ending his illustrious motorcycle racing career, Rossi tested with WRT at Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia in December. The team noted in a following statement that it was conducted “with a view to evaluate future cooperation possibilities”, which of course was realised with Thursday’s announcement.

WRT, a twenty-eight-time drivers and teams champion, is coming off another strong campaign as the 2021 overall champion in both categories.

“I am delighted to join Team WRT for a full Fanatec GTWCE powered by AWS programme,” Rossi stated. “Everybody knows that I have always been a great car racing fan and that I have always been interested in a racing on four wheels once my MotoGP career would come to an end. Now I am completely available to devote myself to a car racing programme at high level and with the right professional approach. Team WRT is the perfect fit I was looking for and I am anxious to start this new adventure in the GTWCE with them.”

As a full-time driver, Rossi will compete in both the Endurance and Sprint Cups. Of the ten tracks that the series will visit, Rossi has won in MotoGP at Imola (twice), Paul Ricard (once), Misano (thrice), Valencia (twice), and Barcelona (ten times). Imola, Paul Ricard, and Barcelona are Endurance Cup dates.

Rick Ware Racing is now an ally of Stewart-Haas Racing. Ryan Preece is now a member of Stewart-Haas Racing. Ryan Preece also does not have a full-time ride but his contract with SHR stipulates he can run two races for an ally.

It doesn’t take a detective to realise that Preece was going to join RWR for some Cup races in 2022, and all parties made that official on Thursday. Preece will drive the #15 Ford Mustang for “multiple races” including the Busch Light Clash at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on 6 February.

When Preece joined SHR last Thursday as a reserve and simulator driver, his deal also mentions he can run two Cup races, three Xfinity Series rounds, and seven in the Camping World Truck Series. The Truck slate was quickly confirmed to be with David Gilliland Racing, for whom he won in his series début at Nashville in June. The two Cup starts were to be at Dover International Speedway (1 May) and Charlotte Motor Speedway‘s Coca-Cola 600 (29 May), though it is possible that Ware increases his schedule if interested.

“Ryan is a great addition to the RWR lineup for 2022,” said team owner Rick Ware. “His talent on the racetrack has been shown through his achievements in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour and NASCAR Xfinity Series. Our alliance with SHR and Ford has allowed us to put a wheelman behind the wheel, starting at the quarter-mile showdown in LA.”

The Clash, which will be held on a quarter-mile short track within a football stadium, is a natural pick for Preece. He regularly competes in the Whelen Modifed Tour, a division that specialises in short tracks, and he won the 2013 championship.

2021 Porsche Sprint Challenge GB champion Theo Edgerton will make the move up to Porsche Carrera Cup GB with Joe Tandy Racing for the 2022 season.

17-year-old Edgerton started racing at the age of 10 in karts, entering his first championship in 2017 before moving in to the Ginetta Junior series in 2018. The 2019 season saw the Worcester-based driver gain his first podium in the Junior series as he moved up to the Porsche Sprint Challenge series for 2020, taking third place in the championship with one victory, five second place finishes and a further three final podium positions.

2021 brought further success as the young driver took eight overall victories, ten podiums, two pole positions and six fastest laps. Edgerton also made it to the final four finalists in the 2022/23 Porsche Carrera GB Junior shootout.

“We’re delighted to welcome Theo back to JTR, this time to race with us full time in Carrera Cup,” said team boss Nick Tandy. “After his rookie year in Sprint Challenge, Theo tested a 911 with us back in 2020 and we were immediately impressed with his attitude and capability to drive these high-powered cars.

“We watched with interest his dominant season in 2021 in his Cayman to become champion. With another year’s experience under his belt, we’re all looking forward to working together and getting our teeth into Carrera Cup GB and the new 911GT3 Cup race car.”

The NASCAR Cup Series and Formula One are the two highest levels in their respective disciplines but crossover is quite rare, especially among the most successful names. In fact, of the thirty-four who have won an F1 World Drivers Championship, only Mario Andretti has also raced in the Cup Series’ prestigious Daytona 500. Jacques Villeneuve is hoping to be the second.

Villeneuve, the 1997 F1 World Champion, spent Tuesday and Wednesday testing the Next Gen car at Daytona International Speedway for Team Hezeberg, a Dutch operation that is new for the 2022 Cup season. The team intends to primarily run the road courses during its maiden season with Loris Hezemans, the reigning Whelen Euro Series champion, piloting the #27 Ford Mustang. Until then, Villeneuve has served as the team’s test driver at sessions in Charlotte and Daytona; the former, held on the Roval layout in October, saw Villeneuve nearly lose control of the car before saving it, and he finished with the twelfth best time of twenty-one cars. Camping World Truck Series part-timer Chris Hacker served as his spotter, prompting Hacker to quip that “it’s safe to say I might be the one and only person that will make their spotting debut in the Cup Series with a new generation car for a F1 World Champion…”

After his F1 career ended in 2006, he jumped to stock cars. Despite originally planning to run for Cup Series Rookie of the Year honours in 2008, Villeneuve triggered a massive wreck in his Daytona 500 qualifying race and consequently lost his seat at Bill Davis Racing. Over the next five years, he put his open-wheel circuit experience to use as a road course ringer in the Cup and now-Xfinity Series. While he antagonised his share of drivers in the latter with his aggressive driving style, he scored six top tens, four top fives, and a pole in nine Xfinity starts. His last Cup start came at Sonoma in 2013, though mechanical issues relegated him to a finish of forty-first.

Villeneuve also sporadically competed in his native Canada’s NASCAR Pinty’s Series, notching a pair of top fives in four attempts. In 2019, he debuted in another NASCAR international league with the Euro Series for Cup team Go FAS Racing, where he finished eighth in EuroNASCAR PRO points with three podiums. He signed with FEED Racing in 2020, during which he recorded a runner-up at Vallelunga in a four-race schedule, before joining Academy/Caffi Motorsport for 2021. Villeneuve won the final two races at Vallelunga for his first racing triumphs since the 2008 1000km of Spa.

“(The Daytona 500) will be extremely special because it is also a standout race,” said Villeneuve. “It is a very special race to participate in, and it’s hard to get into show when you have to qualify on time or in the duels. So it makes it a bit more stressful, and making the show would already be something special.”

Dennis Hauger is a driver who knows how to win a championship, winning multiple titles in Karting before progressing into single seater racing, winning the Italian F4 Championship and this year the FIA Formula 3 Championship in his four years since progressing from karts which has lead to the Norwegian being earmarked as a star of the future by Red Bull, who have had Hauger signed to their driver academy since 2017.

Going into the FIA Formula 3 season, it was Dennis Hauger who was the firm favorite for the title for many, with the Norwegian moving to a team with the experience and results of PREMA and having an already decorated palmarès served as good reason for many making that decision which would ultimately prove to be correct.

For Hauger, this talk was just ‘white noise’ and the Norwegian had the maturity to keep a cool head and not to change his mindset ahead of the season. Obviously there are times when he might have opted out of a move thinking about the ‘bigger picture’ in terms of the championship but often, the inner ‘racer’ in Dennis urges him to go for the overtake.

“I didn’t really feel any pressure like that, there is always going to be some kind of pressure no matter what but not something that changed my mindset. I work with the team and take race by race but obviously we keep the championship in mind. But I’ve always gone for the moves I think is possible.”

Hauger also knows the importance of collaborating successfully with a team, something which is easy when you race with a team of the standard of PREMA who came into the season as double reigning team champions : “I think its important to keep going forward as a team and driver when it’s such a long season.” Connecting well with your team right from the beginning was imperative for Hauger, with such a short time in the season and having experienced a year with PREMA he now can understand why they have been so successful in virtually every Feeder Series championship.

Three-time DTM champion René Rast will line up alongside Kelvin van der Linde in the ABT Sportsline Audi for the upcoming season as he looks to add to his 2017, 2019, and 2020 titles.

The 35-year-old is the most successful Audi DTM driver of all time, along with his titles he too 24 race victories, 20 pole positions and 14 fastest laps.

“We already started approaching René at an early stage. We know his strengths as a rival in DTM. In Formula E, we got to know and appreciate him even better last season. We are extremely grateful to his management led by Dennis Rostek and to Audi Sport that it has worked out and that we can enter the battle for the 2022 title with a genuine dream team,” explained ABT’s Thomas Biermaier.

Frederic Elsner, director event & operations at DTM organiser ITR echoed Biermaier’s excitement at the upcoming season, “We are delighted that René Rast is back in the series after a one-year break from DTM. With him, the team is presenting an excellent, vastly experienced driver who became the champion right away in what was his first full DTM season in 2017.

“With his total of three titles, he will be the most successful driver in the field and will definitely be an asset to the series. René has always been a very talented and hard-working racing driver and a fighter and I expect that we can look forward to some action.”

Following on from a strong campaign in Ginetta GT5 Challenge, Will Aspin will move to the Pro-Am class in Porsche Carrera Cup GB for the upcoming season.

The 17-year-old will race with frontrunners Team Parker Racing as he looks to make an impact in the highly competitive series and add to their 14 championship titles in the past five years, titles in the Carrera Cup in the past five years, including two Teams’ honours, two Rookie crowns, and the overall title in 2020.

Aspin has been racing since the age of 11, starting in karts before moving to the Ginetta Junior Championship in 2019, taking part in three races. An entry in the Winter Championship that year paved the way for a full season in the championship for 2020, which rewarded him with seven top-ten finishes, including a best result of sixth place.

For 2021, the Florence-born racer moved up in to the Ginetta GT5 Challenge, taking three wins, ten additional podiums, four pole positions and securing third place in the Pro class championship. During last year Aspin gave a unique look behind the scenes of his season in his exclusive column for The Checkered Flag, you can catch up with his season here.

Aspin has already been behind the wheel of the new 992-style Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car that will make its debut in the Carrera Cup GB this season.

David Ragan is back for more NASCAR Cup Series racing, and this time it goes beyond the confines of Daytona International Speedway. On Wednesday, Rick Ware Racing announced Ragan will drive the #15 Ford Mustang on a “multi-race deal” beginning with the Daytona 500 on 20 February. Where his later starts will come was not immediately revealed.

Ragan was a mainstay in the Cup garage as he competed full-time from 2007 to 2019, during which he established himself as a respectable superspeedway racer with his two career wins coming at Daytona and Talladega. Save for a two-year stint in the Toyota camp, much of his career was spent in a Ford for the likes of now-RFK Racing and Front Row Motorsports. After retiring from regular racing, he remained involved with Ford as a simulator driver and giving input on the Next Gen car ahead of its début in 2022.

He also occasionally returned to the driver’s seat following retirement. Ragan ran the 2020 and 2021 Daytona 500s for FRM, with the former coming in a partnership between said team and RWR. A fourth in the first race is his best career 500 finish and RWR’s only top five to date, while he was caught in an early wreck in the second.

The Georgia native also sporadically raced in the Truck Series, running two races in 2020 for what is now David Gilliland Racing, owned by his former FRM team-mate.

“I have always loved racing at Daytona, and know that we will have a shot to lead laps and contend for the win this year,” Ragan commented. “The Daytona 500 is a special race with the best drivers in the world, and I cant wait to hit the track.”

Australian racer Calan Williams will move up to the FIA Formula 2 Championship in 2022 after signing to race with Italian outfit Trident Motorsport.

Williams has spent the past two seasons racing in FIA Formula 3 with Jenzer Motorsport and took a surprise podium finish at the Circuit Paul Ricard last year in what was by far his strongest weekend in the championship.

The twenty-one-year-old former Australian Formula 3 champion tested with Trident in the post-season test in Abu Dhabi last year and has now confirmed that he will be jumping full-time into Formula 2 this year.

“I’m extremely proud that a team so incredibly competitive and professional like Trident Motorsport welcomed me to its line-up,” said Williams.  “I worked very well with the team’s staff in the last few months and in the FIA Formula 2 Championship post-season test.

“I have a unique chance in front of me and I will give my 100 percent to use my full potential and show my skills on track. I’m really delighted that Trident Motorsport welcomed me to the team so warmly and believed in me!”

JHR Developments announced their return to the GB3 Championship on Wednesday, confirming that reigning British F4 champion Matthew Rees would be stepping up with the team for 2022.

JHR ran a partial campaign in 2020 with Max Marzorati, Carter Williams and Ayrton Simmons, but are setting up for a full-season entry after taking the British F4 Teams’ spoils in 2021.

Rees took the Rookie and overall Drivers’ titles with four wins and 11 total podiums, five poles from five at the start of the year helping him finish the season 25 points clear of Matias Zagazeta and 26 ahead of Chris Dittmann Racing GB3 graduate McKenzy Cresswell.

Now a BRDC Rising Star, alongside names such as James Baldwin, Oliver Bearman, Liam Lawson and FIA F2 champion Oscar Piastri, he will rejoin the JHR team that took him to the title for pre-season testing in the coming weeks.

GB3 moves into a new era in 2022, with the Tatuus MSV-022 bringing a halo, airbox, increased downforce and increased power to Britain’s premier single-seater series. 

Nico Hülkenberg believes it may still be tricky to follow in the 2022 Formula 1 cars despite a regulation change aimed at making it easier to be in the wake of another car.

Hülkenberg, who dropped off the full-time Formula 1 grid at the end of 2019 after losing his drive with the BWT Racing Point Formula One Team, has been in the simulator with the Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team, and has experienced how it felt to drive the 2022 machine.

And although the changes made to the aerodynamics of the new car were aimed at closing up the field and making it easier to overtake, the German still believes the cars will be almost as quick as their predecessors and will likely still be tricky to follow.

However, when the cars hit the track for pre-season testing next month, Hülkenberg is hopeful that he will be ‘positively surprised’ that following other cars will be easier than before.

“They aimed to [make the cars] a bit slower, more challenging to drive, to have more focus on drivers that can make a difference rather [than] car performance and aerodynamics dominating,” said Hülkenberg on his LinkedIn page as quoted by Motorsport.com.

Turkish racer Cem Bölükbaşı will make the jump up to the FIA Formula 2 championship in 2022 after signing with Charouz Racing System.

Bölükbaşı is a renowned sim racer who has turned real life racer in recent years, and he took two wins in the EuroFormula Open championship in 2021 with Van Amersfoort Racing on his way to fifth in the final standings.

The twenty-three-year-old only made his single seater debut when he competed in two Formula Renault Eurocup races in 2019 with M2 Competition, while his only other single seater experience is with BlackArts Racing in the F3 Asian Championship last year. 

His career has also seen him compete in a number of GT races in the GT4 European Series as well as a one-off appearance in the LMP3 class of the European Le Mans Series.

Bölükbaşı tested an old Formula 2 car for the first time last October in Brno Circuit in the Czech Republic, and has now signed up to join the Charouz team full-time in 2022.

Despite their popularity in the region, the Stadium Super Trucks have had a turbulent history when it comes to racing in Australia. A report on Wednesday by Speedcafe.com did little to change that, and in fact may have dealt a death blow to the series’ Oceanian presence: the series’ Australian counterpart, the Boost Mobile Super Trucks, is preparing to send its twelve trucks back to America on 19 January. The news comes following a breakdown in negotiations between series officials and the Repco Supercars Championship, which was mainly spurred by unhappiness from the former party regarding Supercars’ new owners providing a lack of support.

According to Speedcafe, the trucks usually receive a fee from Supercars that would assist in paying for expenses like travel. However, such aid would not materialise in 2022 as both sides could not reach a deal to continue.

“They have been very good to Australia and people love them and I think people will miss them,” stated series manager Nathan Cayzer. “It will just be interesting to see what they are going to replace them with. You hear them start up and it reminds you how great they are and why people love them.

“It’s really disappointing that they’re not going to be here but there’s not much we can do about that. You have just got to roll with the punches.”

The American-based SST has supported the Supercars since 2015, becoming a fan favourite for the unique idea of placing off-road trucks on pavement circuits. However, the trucks have had a contentious relationship behind the scenes, which included a pair of bans from sanctioning body Motorsport Australia in 2017 and 2018 respectively for SST head Robby Gordon hooning outside a Darwin nightclub and safety reasons after a wheel from a wrecked Matt Nolan hit a pedestrian bridge at Perth. After over a year, the second exile ended in late 2019, and Boost Mobile invested heavily into promoting SST by forming an Australian division with the help of 2017 champion Paul Morris. Paul Morris Motorsport oversaw series operations and Morris’ Norwell Motorplex in Queensland served as its headquarters.

Marcus Armstrong’s time with the Ferrari Driver Academy has come to an end as the line-up for the young driver programme of Scuderia Ferrari was revealed on Tuesday.

One-time FIA Formula 2 race winner Armstrong was the major casualty after four years in the programme, while Callum Ilott has been placed on a ‘gap year’ while he races in the NTT IndyCar Series with Juncos Hollinger Racing.

Ilott will not have the same support he has had in recent years due to racing in IndyCar full-time, with the Ferrari Driver Academy (FDA) feeling that the ride ‘falls outside the workable scope of the FDA as it would not be able to offer adequate support to the Englishman.’

Mick Schumacher is perhaps the biggest name on the 2022 list as he combines the role with his Formula 1 ride with the Uralkali Haas F1 Team, while former Formula 2 racer Robert Shwartzman also remains in the programme for another year despite not yet having any racing plans alongside his testing duties with Ferrari.

Arthur Leclerc and Oliver Bearman will both race for Prema Racing in FIA Formula 3 in 2022 with FDA backing, while Dino Beganovic will remain in Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine, also with Prema.

Maserati will become the first Italian manufacturer entrant to the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship when they join the grid in 2023.

The famous marque has announced it will join the grid for season nine of Formula E as part of its latest motorsport strategy decisions, with the series aligning to Maserati’s own innovations when it comes to electric cars.

Maserati have a line of one-hundred per cent electric cars either on the road or imminently being released including the Maserati Grecale, Maserati GranTurismo and GranCabrio and the Maserati MC20 super sportscar. 2023 will see the welcome return of Maserati to world motorsport, and the first time in over sixty years they will race in single seaters!

“We are very proud to be back where we belong as protagonists in the world of racing,” said Davide Grasso, the CEO of Maserati.  “We are powered by passion and innovative by nature.

“We have a long history of world-class excellence in competition and we are ready to drive performance in the future. In the race for more performance, luxury, and innovation, Folgore is irresistible and it is the purest expression of Maserati.