Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

As Formula 1 returns to the Albert Park Circuit in 2022 after two seasons without an Australian Grand Prix, changes have been made to the street circuit to foster better racing and a more challenging experience for drivers. 

The F1 Australian Grand Prix Youtube channel is documenting the development of the track as it underwent construction through a series titled “The Evolution of Albert Park.” The series provides insight into the improvements being made and the limitations of the current layout.

In episode two of the series, McLaren Formula One Driver Daniel Ricciardo said, “It has been a difficult circuit to overtake, I think, just because it’s kind of narrow, it’s very fast, and the faster we go in F1, normally, the trickier it is to follow through a corner sequence. I think by changing some of these apexes, creating a little bit more of a wider apex, allowing more room to make a diving overtake or even just change your line to get out of the dirty air, I think that’ll help.”

The primary goals of the project are to create more overtaking opportunities, and allow for more competitive racing. The resulting layout will be faster, with two fewer turns and an overall shorter lap. 

The CEO of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation, Andrew Westacott said in the second episode, “The changes we’re making geometrically now are going to make for more aggressive driving, it’s going to reduce lap times by about five seconds per lap.”

It is often joked that if you want to be a successful racing driver, you should be named Seb. Red Bull took this to another level by supporting multiple drivers with the name over the years with the likes of Bourdais, Buemi, and Ogier, and perhaps most notably nine-time World Rally Champion Sébastien Loeb and four-time Formula One titlist Sebastian Vettel. Sunday’s Race of Champions individual tournament pitted the two against each other for the Champion of Champions crown, and Loeb would ultimately claim the victory.

Loeb’s run to the final began with victory over one half of Saturday’s Nations Cup winners and ex-WRC rival Petter Solberg, while Vettel beat Finland’s Emma Kimiläinen. Vettel then faced American Colton Herta, who advanced after beating fellow IndyCar driver and Team Latin America’s Helio Castroneves and Great Britain’s Jamie Chadwick who had won over Vettel’s German team-mate Mick Schumacher. Herta, who defeated Vettel in the Nations Cup, fell short in the ROC as Vettel set the faster aggregate times.

Meanwhile, Loeb’s took down Oliver Solberg to sweep the Nations Cup champion team, and took on Mattias Ekström after Ekström dealt with fellow Swede Johan Kristoffersson. Team Nordic’s Tom Kristensen handled USA’s Jimmie Johnson to challenge Vettel in the semi-finals but lost. Loeb triumphed over Ekstrom to move on.

In the best-of-five final, Loeb struck first. Although Vettel got a win of his own. Loeb pulled away to score the 3–1 victory. Loeb is now a four-time ROC champion after previously winning in 2003, 2006, and 2011, which ties him with French team-mate Didier Auriol for the most in the event’s history; Loeb also won the Nations Cup in 2004 alongside Jean Alesi.

It is perhaps fitting that Loeb took home the crown due to his rallying background. The 2022 ROC was the first to conducted on a snow and ice track, located in Pite Havsbad, Sweden.

The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is officially a NASCAR Cup Series circuit. Saturday saw thirty-six drivers take to the temporary quarter-mile short track for practice and qualifying ahead of the Busch Light Clash on Sunday.

Living up to the race sponsor, Kyle Busch was the quickest in qualifying, though it does not guarantee he will start on the pole for the Clash as the starting grid is set by four heat races. Tyler Reddick, Justin Haley, and Joey Logano followed and will have the poles for their respective heats.

Qualifying order was set based on an inverse of the 2021 owner points, with the field being split into two groups of eighteen each; a similar format was used for practice earlier in the day, albeit with three groups. Kurt Busch was the first driver to take a qualifying lap around the track, setting what would be the thirty-second fastest time. B.J. McLeod briefly stole the show when he had the fastest time as the seventh driver out, though he was quickly beaten by fellow initial user A.J. Allmendinger. Landon Cassill, Cole Custer, and Haley also enjoyed time as the top dogs. By the end, Haley topped the chart for Group 1.

Rookie Harrison Burton was the first of Group 2 to set a time. After Reddick set a blazing time that shot him to the provisional pole (over a tenth of a second faster than Haley), a caution briefly came out for debris in turn four. Busch surpassed Reddick by .024 to secure the top spot.

“It’s pretty cool,” said Busch. “It’s just different with the opportunity to do something like this. NASCAR took a lot of flak on what this was going to look like and what it was going to be. But we’re having a great time.”

The Stadium Super Trucks‘ future in Australia might not be as bleak as it seemed a month ago. Australian racing magazine Auto Action spoke with newly appointed Repco Supercars Championship CEO Shane Howard, who expressed interest in bringing back the trucks as early as 2023 should things work out, while also giving his side of the story behind SST’s demise in the country.

While an American-born league, SST has been a hit in Australia since debuting there in 2015. However, its future seemed grim when in January, the twelve trucks stationed in the country were sent back to the United States, leading to doubt surrounding the Boost Mobile Super Trucks; the BMST formed in 2020 as an Australian championship separate from its American counterpart. According to a Speedcafe report, series officials were unhappy with Supercars supposedly failing to see the trucks’ importance as a support class despite their popularity. When talks to continue having the trucks at Supercars race weekends for 2022 fell through, they returned to America.

Boost Mobile CEO Peter Adderton, who had bid for ownership of Supercars but lost to Race Australia Consolidated Enterprises (RACE), has been critical of the new leadership. He told Speedcafe, “It concerns me that the new owners of Supercars don’t see those things as valuable as fans. They were part of the entertainment of what made the weekend great.”

Howard, who took over as Supercars CEO in mid-January, argued otherwise and said to Auto Action that the series “supported Stadium Super Trucks for a long time. To be honest, we were their biggest supporter.”

Instead of tension between SST and Supercars, Howard suggested the trucks’ departure came due to import laws. Australia is a member of the ATA Carnet system, which stipulates items like vehicles could be transported abroad but only for a limited period of up to a year. For racing vehicles, the carnet law requires them to also be sold locally, which can come with a luxury car tax if it is worth over $70,000, or they would have to be sent to their original location. A Stadium Super Truck is the property of Robby Gordon Motorsports and is not for sale so its price and therefore its car tax eligibility are not publicly known, though its American roots make it subject to carnets.

For the first time in its history, the Race of Champions took place on a snow/ice track. Also for the first time, a father/son duo won the Nations Cup.

Saturday’s battle of the nationalities in Sweden saw the triumph of a fellow Nordic team as Team Norway‘s Petter Solberg and his son Oliver Solberg took victory in the Nations Cup. The two defeated Team USA‘s Jimmie Johnson and Colton Herta in the final. Petter beat Johnson after the latter’s Polaris RZR PRO XP suffered mechanical trouble, followed by Oliver triumphing over Herta; although Johnson was able to get a win against Oliver, the older Solberg finished the deal by beating Herta for the 3–1 series win. The win is Petter’s second in the Nations Cup after claiming the 2014 Cup for Team Nordic alongside Tom Kristensen, while Oliver wins in his maiden ROC.

“I got my motivation when I saw Sébastien Loeb winning the Monte Carlo Rally last month and I thought, ‘It can’t be so difficult,'” commented Petter. “I was so ready for this race, and to do it together with Oliver is a big dream.

“The Race of Champions has been so special for many years. It’s so much fun to be with all these guys: everyone has had so much success in their careers yet they are so friendly. Oliver has been flying around like a yo-yo all week because he’s been so excited. When you are 20, that’s how it is.”

Team USA, which featured an all-IndyCar lineup, kicked off the Nations Cup by edging out another IndyCar driver in Hélio Castroneves and his Latin American team-mate Benito Guerra Jr.; the teams split the series 2–2, but USA had the faster overall time. Johnson, a seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion with off-road experience in his early career, and Herta then took down fan favourite Team Germany‘s Formula One duo Sebastian Vettel and Mick Schumacher in the same fashion in the quarter-final. Germany had advanced after staving off a challenge from Team eROC All Stars‘ Lucas Blakeley and Jarno Opmeer, the former beating Vettel in a stunning upset but it was not enough to pull off the victory as they fell 3–1.

Lewis Hamilton has returned to social media for the first time since the controversial Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, where what would’ve been an Eighth Driver’s Title was taken from him in dramatic fashion.

There had been a growing fear that the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team driver would not be returning for 2022, however this rumour appears to be completely false. Mercedes still haven’t officially announced if Hamilton will be returning, it’s safe to say though that the Seven-Time World Champion will be on the grid for the upcoming season based on his post.

The rumour of Hamilton not returning for 2022 was caused by the highly-debated season finale, with an F1 Commission meeting set to take place on the 14th February to discuss the events that took place at the Yas Marina Circuit, and more specifically the decisions made by Race Director Michael Masi.

Hamilton’s return to social media, featuring a photo of himself at the Grand Canyon, comes fifty-six days after his last post which was posted after Qualifying in Abu Dhabi. His social media return has already sent shockwaves across the globe, with all eyes now set on what will be an unmissable season-opener at Bahrain.

The previously named Aston Martin Cognizant F1 Team, have announced a brand-new partnership with global integrated energy and chemicals company Aramco, in what is a strategic long-term deal between the pair.

Aramco who were the United States Grand Prix official sponsor, as well as a key sponsor for Formula One, have partnered with Aston Martin to drive the development of highly efficient internal combustion engines, high-performance sustainable fuels, advanced lubricants and the deployment of non-metallic materials in vehicles. 

The deal between the two also gives Aramco official team sponsorship rights, a licensing agreement, as well as exclusive branding and endorsement rights for Aramco fuels and lubricants. The team will also now be known as the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team. The pair’s partnership will also include research and development into fuel-efficient engine technologies for road vehicles, and the development of more efficient hybrid engines in motorsport.

Chairman of the team Lawrence Stroll, is very pleased to be welcoming the Saudi Arabian oil giants onboard.

“We are in the sport to win so I am delighted to welcome an incredible partner of the stature of Aramco, who I have learnt from this process has a tremendous amount of intellectual property and technical capability, which I know will greatly assist our team to achieve our goals of winning Formula One world championships.

Rosberg X Racing aims to defend the Extreme E Championship in 2022, and the German team hopes to do so with a pair of Swedish drivers. On Friday, RXR announced Johan Kristoffersson will return to the team for the upcoming season, and will be paired with Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky.

Åhlin-Kottulinsky moves over from JBXE, where she was team-mates with owner Jenson Button and Kevin Hansen. The entry finished third in the team championship with four podiums and a pair of runner-up placements. Prior to the 2021 season, she assisted tyre supplier Continental Tire in testing the CrossContact for Extreme E cars.

She is the only woman to win races in the TCR Scandinavia Touring Car Championship, and she finished second in the championship in 2021. To end the 2021 season, Åhlin-Kottulinsky ran and won the Nitro Rallycross SxS (Side by Side) race at the Florida International Rally & Motorsports Park.

“I am incredibly honoured and excited to join RXR and support the team in defending their Championship title,” said Åhlin-Kottulinsky. “To have the chance to work with the winning team from Season 1 is truly a great opportunity, and I can’t wait to get started. I’m really looking forward to working and learning from Nico (Rosberg, team owner) and Johan, two world champions and drivers that I have huge respect for and admire for their incredible record behind the wheel.”

Two spots ahead of JBXE, RXR’s Kristoffersson and Molly Taylor scored three victories en route to the inaugural series championship. Kristoffersson’s 2021 also saw him win the World Rallycross Championship for a record fourth time.

For the 2022 Extreme E Championship, ABT CUPRA XE is bringing together a duo of Dakar Rally greats. In addition to retaining 2001 champion Jutta Kleinschmidt, the team added four-time winner Nasser Al-Attiyah who will make his series début.

Al-Attiyah is less than a month removed from winning his fourth Dakar, which put him in a tie with Ari Vatanen for the second most Car wins. Alongside his previous victories in 2001, 2015, and 2019, the Qatari is the only Middle Eastern driver with more than one win in the legendary rally raid. Beyond Dakar, he is a sixteen-time Middle East Rally Champion, four-time FIA Cross Country Rally World Champion, and has also won titles in WRC-2 and the Production World Rally Championships.

He replaces Mattias Ekström, who ran the full inaugural Extreme E season as ABT CUPRA’s male driver. Ekström competed against Al-Attiyah in the Cars category at Dakar, finishing ninth overall.

“I’m already a bit excited and believe that this will be a great experience for me,” said Al-Attiyah. “Extreme E is an exciting series with the ambition to contribute to a better future.

“I am proud to be a part of the team now. Expectations are high. With the experience of ABT CUPRA XE and Jutta by my side, we are determined to race for victories. I can’t wait to sit in the car and have fun.”

The M-Sport Ford World Rally Team continues its work to nurture new rally talents. Now they have revealed former Hyundai’s 2C Competition driver and 2019 WRC2 Champion Pierre-Louis Loubet will contest selected rounds in FIA World Rally Championship this year.

The Frenchman will drive seven round in the Ford Puma Rally1, starting in Croatia before taking on more rounds with Portugal, Sardinia, Estonia, Greece, Spain and probably Finland or a to be confirmed round.

“To be part of the team this year is so amazing. The team showed its performance on Monte-Carlo, the Puma looks like a beast, it’s really great,” Loubet said.

“When you are a driver, you want to be in the best car, you want the best possible way to show your potential which is what I need for this season. It’s a crucial season for me and, I know with M-Sport, I will have everything I need to do well.”

For M-Sport, this means a chance for more data and test days with another driver in the team. Taking part in full-season campaigns in the factory team are Craig Breen, Adrien Fourmaux and Gus Greensmith meanwhile current championship leader Sébastien Loeb, Lorenzo Bertelli and Loubet will be doing selected events.

New fan and replica team apparel is on the way from McLaren Racing and partner Castore. Announced today, the collection will mirror pieces from their all-new official team apparel, and is set to be released on mclarenstore.com on Friday 11 February. The range will be expanded throughout the 2022 season with additional items. 

Castore is a premium sportswear brand based in Liverpool, England that focuses on innovation and the optimisation of athletic performance. The brand has collaborated with several athletes and sporting organisations, and is partnering with McLaren ahead of the 2022 season.  

Castore Co-Founder Tom Beahon said of the partnership, “With an ethos of ‘Better Never Stops’, Castore was created to push the boundaries of technical sportswear and do what it takes to push athletes and teams forward. This ambition is clearly echoed by our partner McLaren Racing. F1 is the perfect place for Castore to showcase our beliefs and we are thrilled to be taking these bold next steps in automotive alongside a brand and partner that shares our demand for excellence and unwavering commitment to innovation.”

The collection will include driver fanwear shirts for both Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo, featuring corresponding LN4 and DR3 tags and team logo, as well as a fanwear hoody. The replica pieces will reflect the kits Norris and Ricciardo will wear during the upcoming season. 

McLaren Racing’s Director of Licensing, ecommerce & esports Lindsey Eckhouse said of the collection, “We’re delighted to be working with Castore to launch our new fanwear and replica team kit for the 2022 F1 season. Castore have truly embraced McLaren’s appreciation of bold and brave design, creating a range that we believe our fans are going to love.”

Winning races is a sure-fire way to get a good ride, and Christian Eckes proved that on Thursday when ThorSport Racing announced he will drive the #98 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro full-time in the 2022 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. AHI Facility Services will sponsor his truck for the season opener at Daytona International Speedway on 18 February.

After running the full 2020 Truck season for Kyle Busch Motorsports, Eckes was relegated to part-time duty in ThorSport’s #98 which he shared with Grant Enfinger. Running ten races, he broke through at Las Vegas’ Victoria’s Voice Foundation 200 where he scored his maiden series win. As Enfinger moves to GMS Racing for 2022, the #98 became open for Eckes’ taking.

“I am extremely excited to be back with ThorSport Racing and ready to kick the year off at Daytona with AHI Facility Services on the #98 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro,” said Eckes. “This is an amazing opportunity and I’m more than ready to show that I belong.”

Eckes began racing in the Trucks in 2018 on a part-time basis for KBM. At the time, he was mainly competing in the ARCA Menards Series, winning the 2019 championship for Venturini Motorsports.

His ThorSport team-mates include reigning champion Ben Rhodes and three-time champ Matt Crafton. The team has also fieded a fourth truck, the #13, that has not revealed a 2022 driver; Johnny Sauter drove the truck in 2021 but moves to G2G Racing for 2022.

Williams Racing have announced the exciting signing of 2021 GB3 Champion Zak O’Sullivan, who will not only be joining the team’s prestigious Driver Academy but will also be making the step up to the FIA Formula 3 Championship with Carlin for the upcoming season.

There is absolutely no doubt that Williams have signed a future star, O’Sullivan completely dominated GB3 in 2021, claiming seven victories and fourteen podiums on his way to taking the championship, an incredible 164 points ahead of his closest challenger. O’Sullivan who is only sixteen-years-old, has made it to the final four of the Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award, it’s easy to see why! The winner of the award which aims to find the best British junior drivers, will be announced this Sunday.

As part of the Williams Academy, O’Sullivan will spend plenty of time with the team both at the factory in Oxfordshire, where he will conduct simulator work, and also trackside with the team. Whilst at the factory O’Sullivan will also provide feedback towards developing the team’s Formula One car. Alongside this O’Sullivan will receive plenty of support across a range of areas, to help the young driver propel into stardom.

O’Sullivan feels incredibly grateful to have been chosen for such an illustrious position, where he is now very much looking forward to the future.

“I’m honoured to have been selected as a Williams Racing Academy Driver. This is an incredible opportunity and I can’t thank Jost, Sven and the whole team enough for their faith in me. Williams Racing is one of the most successful and respected teams in Formula One and have nurtured some of the greatest talents in the sport.

The Uralkali Haas F1 Team officially launched a brand-new era of Formula One into life, after unveiling the livery of their VF-22 for the upcoming season. The car itself isn’t believed to be the finished product, that will be seen for the first-time at the upcoming pre-season test at Barcelona.

The images released from the livery launch show just how drastically different the cars are for the 2022 season, after a haul of technical regulation changes. The images clearly show a much simpler front-wing but a dramatically shaped rear-wing. This season will also see brand-new 18-inch rims and low profile tyres from Pirelli, which are designed to reduce overheating, hopefully allowing drivers to push harder for significantly longer.

The livery itself is practically identical to the one Haas ran in 2021, with some very minor tweaks. The Haas and Uralkali logos are still the main features on the car, including the white, blue and red coloured stripe!

Haas are in desperate need of a good season after their shocking 2021 season, which they completely sacrificed in order to put as much time towards the 2022 car as possible. Should Haas continue to be at the back this season, then questions will surely begin to be asked. Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin will both be hopeful that this season will see them featuring consistently in the midfield.

Haas Team Principal Guenther Steiner is very excited to see what the VF-22 is capable of, with all expectations being that the team will return to the midfield this year.

For the first time since 2017, Kaz Grala will make substantial NASCAR Camping World Truck Series starts. On Thursday, Young’s Motorsports announced Grala will share the #02 Chevrolet Silverado RST with Jesse Little. Little will run twelve races while Grala has eleven.

The 2022 season will begin with Little running the season opener at Daytona International Speedway on 18 February. From there, he will race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Martinsville Speedway, Darlington Raceway, both Kansas Speedway races, Texas Motor Speedway, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Nashville Superspeedway, Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, Kansas Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway, and Phoenix Raceway.

Grala’s schedule kicks off at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on 4 March. He will then be in the #02 at Circuit of the Americas, Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt, World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, Sonoma Raceway, Knoxville Raceway, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Pocono Raceway, Richmond Raceway, Talladega Superspeedway, and Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Notably, Grala will be running every road course race and both dirt rounds. While he has no NASCAR dirt starts, he has proven himself to be a capable road racer: he finished seventh in his Cup Series début on the Daytona Road Course in 2020 as a substitute driver, while his best Xfinity Series finish is fourth at Road America that year. All three of his Truck starts in 2021, in Young’s #02, were as a road ringer while regular driver Kris Wright was running the Xfinity road courses. He finished runner-up to Todd Gilliland at COTA.

With Wright moving to Niece Motorsports for 2022, Young’s added Little and Grala to take his spot. Little moves to Young’s after spending the past two seasons in the Xfinity Series.