Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Sebastian Vettel has praised Mick Schumacher for doing an ‘incredible job’ with a poor car in 2021, with the German crediting his countryman for giving the Uralkali Haas F1 Team something to cheer about in what was a terrible year for them.

Schumacher, the 2020 FIA Formula 2 champion, moved into Formula 1 for 2021 with Haas but endured a car that was difficult to drive and was not developed at all as the team focused purely in putting their resources into developing the 2022 car.

However, despite being the slowest car on the grid – sometimes by a big margin – Schumacher was able to put the VF-21 into Q2 in Qualifying twice in France and Turkey, a massive achievement in relation to what car he was driving.

And this has not been unnoticed by Vettel, who has been acting as some kind of mentor to Schumacher, and he has giving praise to the Haas driver for his level of performance.

“Well, I think it’s difficult to judge because the car has been so far off,” Vettel is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com. 

The #48 Ally Racing Cadillac will return to IMSA in 2022. On Tuesday, Action Express Racing announced the entry will run next year’s four Michelin Endurance Cup races—the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona on 29/30 January, Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring (19 March), Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen (26 June), and Motul Petit Le Mans (1 October)—with Jimmie Johnson, Kamui Kobayashi, and Mike Rockenfeller once again in the roster. Former touring car star José María López will join the trio.

Upon Johnson’s retirement from a decorated NASCAR Cup Series career at the end of 2020, he made the jump to IMSA in addition to a part-time NTT IndyCar Series schedule with plans to run the latter’s full slate in 2022. As part of his itinerary in the former, he and NASCAR sponsor Ally ran the 2021 Rolex 24 with Kobayashi, Rockenfeller, and fellow IndyCar driver Simon Pagenaud. Rockenfeller is the 2013 DTM champion with overall triumphs in the 2010 24 Hours of Daytona and Le Mans, while ex-Formula One racer Kobayashi has enjoyed tremendous success in the FIA World Endurance Championship and won the Rolex 24’s overall in 2019 and 2020. In Johnson’s first Rolex 24 since 2011, he spent less time in the car than his team-mates, but the quartet finished runner-up overall.

At Sebring, the #48 received a penalty after one of Pagenaud’s stints ran over the four-hour time limit, resulting in a last-place finish in the DPi class. The penalty spoiled what had been a tumultuous day for Johnson, who rebounded from a spin-filled weekend to take the lead.

Watkins Glen, where Johnson is perhaps more recognised for flying into the styrofoam barriers in a 2000 NASCAR Xfinity Series race, saw the #48 finish fifth. Rockenfeller did not race with the team at The Glen or Petit Le Mans. The latter, held at Road Atlanta, ended with a fourth-place finish.

Pagenaud departs the team as he will likely race for Meyer Shank Racing, whom he joins in IndyCar. In his place, AXR has enlisted López, the FIA World Touring Car Champion from 2014 to 2016 and 2019/20 World Endurance Champion for Toyota Gazoo Racing alongside Kobayashi. López has never raced in the Rolex 24, while he ran the 2007 12 Hours of Sebring in the GT2 class.

George Russell has been praised by Jost Capito, the Team Principal and CEO of the Williams F1 Team, ahead of his move to the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team in 2022.

Russell has been a part of the Williams set-up since the 2019 season and has often shown himself to be amongst the best drivers on the grid, despite the car at his disposal not being a frontrunning one.

It took until the Hungarian Grand Prix of 2021 for Russell to finally score points for Williams (he did score points during his one-off appearance for Mercedes when he replaced Lewis Hamilton in the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix), but his performances before and after that merited more reward.

His Qualifying performances often outshone the car, with Russell making numerous Q2 and Q3 appearances throughout 2021.  His best effort, however, was at Spa-Francorchamps when, in difficult wet conditions, he put his Williams onto the front row of the grid, only being denied pole position by Max Verstappen.

The podium that followed on Sunday may have been lucky as the weather prevented any green flag running, but the points (albeit only half points were rewarded) had certainly been earned on Saturday.

Jost Capito says both Alexander Albon and Nicholas Latifi will be treated exactly the same in 2022 within the Williams F1 Team, with neither driver being given preferential status.

Albon joins Williams in place of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team bound George Russell after sitting out the 2021 season as the Red Bull Racing reserve driver, with the Anglo-Thai driver having competed in thirty-eight races between 2019 and 2020.

Latifi is staying at Williams for a third consecutive season and scored his first points in the sport in the Hungarian Grand Prix, which he followed up by finishing inside the top ten again in Belgium.

Capito, the Team Principal and CEO at Williams, says it is good to have two drivers with equal opportunities within the team as it should help the team move forward.

“Of course, it’s good for both,” Capito is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com. “I think for Alex, it’s great to have this second chance to come back and lead the team to move forward.

Valtteri Bottas feels the 2022 cars are currently lacking a little bit of downforce, but he does not believe they will be significantly different to drive than the 2021 machines.

The Finn, who will race for Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN next year after five seasons with the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team, has experienced the simulators for both teams across this year, running the 2022 car for Mercedes earlier this year and the one from Alfa Romeo after the conclusion to 2021 campaign.

However, he does not see a major shift in driveability, and he expects the downforce levels to be recovered sooner rather than later.

“At least at that point, it felt like the cars are a bit off in terms of downforce,” Bottas is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com.  “But the overall feeling, at least in the sim, wasn’t that dissimilar in either of the simulators.

“We can’t simulate following other cars and stuff like that, but it’s not crazy different. Maybe still a bit less downforce but, like I said, that will change.”

Nick Yelloly says the 2022 car from the Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team feels ‘very, very good’, and he cannot wait to see it hit the track in pre-season testing next February.

Yelloly is the Test and Development driver at Aston Martin and has been an integral part of the development of the successor to the AMR21, with the first simulator sessions for next years car taking place back in March.

Since then, the British driver says the team has made big gains when it comes to performance, and he is optimistic they can have a much better season next year compared to what they achieved in 2021.

“We covered off set-up options, some aspects of next year’s car and some specific direction in set-up so I could get a feeling of how they compared to running in the simulator,” Yelloly is quoted as saying by PlanetF1.  “We have been working on the 2022 car for a long time, with our first running in the sim back in March.

“Obviously when we get the new car on the track, that will be the main point. But in general, the car feels very, very good and we test each new idea out on the simulator before even thinking about any build process.

Jost Capito, the Team Principal and CEO at the Williams F1 Team, says the development of the team in 2021 was what he was hoping for, but their points tally and place in the Constructors’ Championship far exceeded all expectations.

Williams failed to score a point in 2020 having only scored a single point in 2019, and with car development restricted due to regulations and COVID-19, there was little optimism coming from the team ahead of the 2021 season.

However, they scored double points finishes in the Hungarian and Belgian Grand Prix, with the latter containing a podium finish for George Russell, albeit in relatively controversial circumstances as there was no green flag running at Spa-Francorchamps due to the weather conditions.

Russell also scored top ten finishes in the Italian and Russian Grand Prix and ended fifteenth in the Drivers’ Championship with sixteen points to his name, while Nicholas Latifi’s efforts in Hungary and Belgium saw him score seven points and place seventeenth. 

The team ended eighth in the Constructors’ Championship, ten points ahead of the Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN team, while the Uralkali Haas F1 Team failed to score a point all season long.

Frédéric Vasseur has revealed that he would have had contract talks with Kimi Räikkönen had the Finn not opted to retire from Formula 1 at the end of the 2021 season.

Räikkönen announced that he would be leaving Formula 1 midway through the year, but Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN Team Principal Vasseur would have been happy to discuss an extension to his contract had he not taken the decision to step down.

Whilst there were no guarantees that a contract extension would have been confirmed even with the talks, Vasseur says they would have covered all angles with Räikkönen had they gone ahead, and he did not rule out the Finn staying for a fourth season with Alfa Romeo.

“For sure, we would have discussed the point to understand the motivation and so for me it’s…you don’t have to do the year too much,” Vasseur is quoted as saying by GPFans.com.  “It’s true that now it’s a bit different compared to before when we were doing 16 races or 17. Next year you have 23.

“You have 10 races at the end in 12 weeks or something like this, and that travelling around the world that you need really to have someone fully in.  I think it’s quite human as a reaction that at one stage you want also to turn the page and move on with the family and so on.”

Sebastian Vettel has admitted that the thought of retirement has crossed his mind, but for now at least, the fire is still burning inside him to compete and fight in Formula 1.

The four-time World Champion currently races for the Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team and scored a superb podium finish for them in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in 2021, only his second top three finish in two seasons, with his last win coming back in the 2019 Singapore Grand Prix whilst racing for Scuderia Ferrari.

It is also eight years since the German won the last of his four titles, with Vettel winning his final championship in 2013 with Red Bull Racing, the year before the turbo hybrid era started in 2014.

Vettel says he will leave Formula 1 when the time is ready and the ambition to race at the highest level diminishes, but for now, he is satisfied to be on the grid and is hoping to make a step forward with Aston Martin in 2022.

“Of course, sometimes you ask yourself the question of meaning. I’d be lying if I said the thought hadn’t crossed my mind yet,” said Vettel to F1-Insider.com. “But I don’t go on just to convey messages. Then I wouldn’t be true to myself and I wouldn’t be as good.

Pierre Gasly wants to put himself in a position so when a top line drive becomes available in Formula 1 that he is first in line for it.

The Frenchman, currently racing impressively for Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda, has shown himself to be a top line driver with the team since he was dropped from the Red Bull Racing line-up midway through the 2019 season.

He took a podium in the 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix with Scuderia Toro Rosso, the former guise of AlphaTauri, before taking an emotional first win in Formula 1 in 2020 in Italy. 

In 2021, Gasly was the main points scorer for AlphaTauri and took his third career podium with a third place in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, while his performances in Qualifying have been strong.  He took multiple top ten positions in Qualifying, including a front row start for the Qatar Grand Prix, and he ended ninth in the Drivers’ Championship, just five points behind Daniel Ricciardo.

But looking ahead, Gasly wants to be that next person drafted into a top team should a position become available, whether it is back with Red Bull or elsewhere.

The Checkered Flag looks back at the 2021 Formula 1 season and rates the ten best drivers of the year that saw twenty-two races across four continents between March and December.

10 – Fernando Alonso – Alpine F1 Team

There were many doubts about Fernando Alonso following the announcement of his return to Formula 1 after two years away, but those doubts were put to bed in 2021 as he showed he had lost none of his speed or ability behind the wheel.

Racing for the Alpine F1 Team driver, he aided team-mate Esteban Ocon to win the Hungarian Grand Prix by holding off the challenge of Lewis Hamilton for lap after lap, leaving the Briton with not enough time to catch the Frenchman before the chequered flag fell.

Alonso showed his form again and again, his start in the Silverstone Sprint Qualifying race highlighted just how good he continues to be, and once he got up to speed with the A521, he was one to watch in pretty much every race.  And his reward was a podium finish in the Qatar Grand Prix and tenth place in the Drivers’ Championship.

Best Result: Third – Qatar Grand Prix

Bayley Currey wrapped up the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series season with JD Motorsports, and he is back for more. On Monday, JDM announced Currey has rejoined the team for 2022, with number and sponsorship TBA.

Currey spent 2020 and much of 2021 with Mike Harmon Racing, and scored his first career top ten at Phoenix in the spring when he finished seventh (also the highest finish in MHR history). Despite initially committing to the full 2021 season for the team, his schedule was gradually eased back as the playoffs approached due to a lack of funding. He ran his final race for MHR at Bristol in September, and had been signed up for JDM’s #15 the week prior at Richmond after the departure of Colby Howard.

With the exception of the Charlotte Roval where the team entrusted Kris Wright with the car as a road course ringer, Currey ran seven of the final eight oval races in JDM’s #15. He notched three top twenties (which he had not achieved since his Phoenix top ten) with thirteenth at Las Vegas, seventeenth at Texas, and sixteenth at Kansas.

“I’m very excited and thankful to be back with JD Motorsports with Gary Keller in 2022,” Currey stated. “Mr. (Johnny) Davis took a chance on me and gave me an opportunity late in the season last year. The relationship progressed and eventually turned into a full-time ride this year. Throughout the offseason, we have been putting in a ton of work to get our fleet of cars ready to compete for 2022.”

Currey’s 2021 slate also included a Cup Series start at Atlanta in July for Rick Ware Racing, where he placed thirty-second, and five Camping World Truck Series races for Niece Motorsports with a best run of twelfth at Kansas.

Otmar Szafnauer says the Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team had been worried even before the 2021 Formula 1 season began that their form from the year before would not continue, with a rule change aimed at reducing downforce affecting them more than any other team.

The two teams to suffer predominantly were Aston Martin and the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team, the two outfits that had been running low rake cars in Formula 1, but it affected the Silverstone-based team more and saw them drop from fourth to seventh in the Constructors’ Championship.

Szafnauer, the Team Principal and CEO at Aston Martin, says the change in regulations cost the team upwards of seven tenths of a second per lap, and as a result had a massive impact on their standing on the grid in 2021.

“What’s happened this year confirmed our pre-season worries that the unilateral aerodynamic changes that were made late in the season had a massive effect on us and Mercedes,” Szafnauer is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com.

“Because the midfield was so tight, the lap time that we lost – seven, eight, nine-tenths of a second per lap, depending on what track we were at – moved us from the third-fastest car to about the sixth, seventh-fastest car.

Sergio Pérez admits Max Verstappen is a very ‘complete’ driver, and his 2021 season has already made him a ‘legend’ in Formula 1 despite still being only twenty-four years of age.

Verstappen took ten victories, ten pole positions and six fastest laps on his way to the title, while his record of finishing on the podium in eighteen of the twenty-two races was a new Formula 1 record.

Pérez was team-mate to Verstappen at Red Bull Racing as the Dutchman claimed his maiden World Drivers’ Championship in 2021, and the Mexican feels he has very few shortfalls in his driving, if any.

“He’s really good. He’s really at one with the car. He’s very good in qualifying, he’s really good at the races,” said Perez to Motorsport.com.

“He’s very complete, experienced. I mean, the season he has done I think it’s been legend, you know, it’s really impressive, and big praise to him. He’s really at one with the car.”

Sergio Pérez says having Max Verstappen as a team-mate meant he needed to push his own driving to another level whilst also dealing with a lot more pressure and expectation of racing for a front-running team.

Pérez joined Red Bull Racing ahead of the 2021 season in place of Alexander Albon having left perennial midfield runners BWT Racing Point Formula One Team (now Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team).  He secured his second career win in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in June and finished on the podium on four other occasions as he ended fourth in the Drivers’ Championship.

The Mexican admitted it has been an intense season on so many levels for him, with a lot of work being done behind the scenes in a bid to improve his performance and aid Verstappen on his bid to become 2021 World Champion.

“Very intense,” said Pérez to Motorsport.com about his 2021 season. “It’s been extremely intensive. A lot of work has been done behind the scenes, a lot of pressure.

“When you are at Red Bull Racing the pressure is on and everyone is watching you, what you do and you guys are obviously a lot harder to a Red Bull driver, which is very understandable.