Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Yuki Tsunoda was pleased to be able to bring home two points for his Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda team in the United States Grand Prix on Sunday, with the Japanese driver putting in a quietly impressive performance on his first visit to the Circuit of the Americas.

Tsunoda made up two places on the opening lap to run eighth, and although he dropped behind Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team’s Valtteri Bottas, he was able to maintain his position within the top ten with relative ease.

The Japanese racer was one of only two drivers to start the race on the soft tyre after making it through to Q3 on Saturday on that tyre, and he made good use of them in order to keep him in a good position until he made the switch to the harder compounds for the final two stints.

“It’s been a good day, I’ve managed to score some important points for the team in the Championship, so I’m really happy with that,” said Tsunoda.  “It was really tough out there as it was so hot!

“It wasn’t easy starting on the soft tyre, as I had a different strategy to everyone around me, but it meant that I had the advantage on the opening lap, and I tried to make the most of it. The pace today was quite good, so I’m pleased to be coming away with points.”

The penultimate round of the 2021 FIA World Endurance Championship and the first of two races at the Bahrain International Circuit occurs this Halloween weekend, with all four championships still to be claimed. 31 cars from Hypercars to LM GTE Ams will take to the Middle East circuit for the shorter rendition of the event to try and claim the 26 points being offered (win plus the bonus pole position point).

The Hypercar class drops down to three entries as Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus has withdrawn from the rest of the 2021 season. In terms of the championship, the #7 Toyota Gazoo Racing and winners of the 24 Hours of Le Mans; Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez, lead the way with 120 points, nine more than the sister Toyota. However, Alpine Elf Matmut are still mathematically in the championship battle. With the second round at Bahrain being an eight hour event, 39 points will be available next weekend. This means that so long as the #7 crew finish sixth or lower and the #8 Toyota car is third or lower with the Alpine ahead of them both, the championship decider will be a three-way battle in a week’s time.

None of the driver line ups in the Hypercar entries have changed ahead of this weekend.

With 65 points available to be scored over the next two weekends, LMP2 is too close to call. The #28 JOTA team of Stoffell Vandoorne, Sean Gelal and Tom Blomqvist lead the class with 88 points, but between them and the #34 Inter Europol Competition driven by Jakub Smiechowski and Alex Brundle fifth in class is only 12 points. Such a tight championship means it could be anyone’s to win come next weekend’s eight hour event.

The battle of Porsche vs Ferrari continues this weekend, with the duo of works cars the only four entrants in the LM GTE Pro class. Advantage sits with the Italian manufacturer in both the manufacturers and drivers’ championships, but the battle is tight in both. For the manufacturers’, Ferrari leads Porsche 203 to 187 with everything to race for in the two Bahrain rounds of the championship. To take the championship lead ahead of the final round of the championship, Porsche needs to take a one-two and pole position this weekend. The championship cannot be settled during the 6 Hours of Bahrain.

A week after the NASCAR Cup Series season ends at Phoenix Raceway, Kyle Busch will stay in the area to dabble in rallycross. On Wednesday, he announced he will compete in Nitro Rallycross for the first time on 13/14 November at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park, where he will drive the #GoNitro car in the Supercar class.

Busch is easily one of the most recognisable and talented names in NASCAR today. The two-time Cup champion is currently fourth in points with a pair of wins in his hunt for a third title, and he swept all five of his Xfinity Series starts in 2021 to help him become the first driver ever to record 100 race wins in the series. Across NASCAR’s three national series (Cup, Xfinity, Camping World Truck), he has 222 total wins in his career and has never had a winless season in seventeen years of full-time Cup racing.

While Busch has dominated stock cars, rallycross will be a new endeavour for him. Although a completely different vehicle, Busch has some experience in non-asphalt environments such as competing in dirt track super late models; in 2012, he won the Prelude to the Dream dirt race at Eldora Speedway.

“Anybody that knows me knows that I’m a true racer and I’ve always prided myself in the ability to get behind the wheel of any type of vehicle at any type of track and be competitive,” Busch said in a press release. “So I’m pumped for the opportunity to go wheel-to-wheel with some of the best rallycross drivers from around the world in Nitro Rallycross at Wild Horse Pass.”

Crew chief Adam Stevens will be on the sidelines for the upcoming NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway. NASCAR released its weekly penalty report on Tuesday, which indicated Stevens has been fined $20,000 and suspended for Martinsville due to improperly installed lug nuts on his #20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota piloted by Christopher Bell.

After Bell finished eighth in Sunday’s race at Kansas, the #20 was found to have violated Section 10.9.10.4 of the NASCAR rulebook: “Tires and Wheels: Lug nut(s) not properly installed.” Specifically, the #20 had two loose nuts; had only one been off, Stevens would have just received a $10,000 fine while three or more would result in disqualification and points penalties.

Stevens is currently in his first season as Bell’s crew chief after spending the last six years with team-mate Kyle Busch. Although the Stevens/Busch duo enjoyed a pair of championships in 2015 and 2019, a difficult 2020 campaign prompted changes to the JGR lineups that led to Stevens joining Bell while Ben Beshore became Busch’s new pit box leader. With two races remaining, Bell sits twelfth in points and scored his maiden Cup win at the Daytona Road Course in February.

This is the third time that Stevens has been suspended. In 2017, he and two pit crew members were barred for four races due to a loose wheel that came off entirely at Dover. Three years later, he missed the fall Richmond race for the same lug nut infraction as at Kansas.

While Stevens misses one race, penalties were not as kind to Xfinity Series operation Our Motorsports. The #23 car driven by Patrick Emerling lost a ballast during the Saturday Kansas race, a serious violation of Rule Section 12.5.2.7.4d: “Loss or separation of added ballast from the vehicle.” Consequently, crew chief Kenneth Roettger, car chief Robert Anderson, and mechanic Drew Beason have been suspended for the next four races.

Although he is retired from full-time racing, Dale Earnhardt Jr. still has a driving itch to scratch every once in a while. Since 2018, he has run one NASCAR Xfinity Series event each year, and the annual start will continue in 2022. In the latest episode of his podcast The Dale Jr. Download released Tuesday, Earnhardt confirmed he will enter the Xfinity race at Martinsville Speedway on 8 April 2022. He will drive for his JR Motorsports team with sponsorship from Unilever.

After retiring from Cup Series competition at the end of 2017, Earnhardt has conducted Xfinity one-offs for JRM. He finished fourth in his 2018 start at Richmond, followed by fifth at Darlington in 2019, fifth at Homestead in 2020, and fourteenth at Richmond last September. He is a two-time Xfinity champion with twenty-four career victories, the most recent coming at Richmond in 2016.

Earnhardt has never raced at Martinsville in the Xfinity Series, though this is due to the Virginia circuit not being on the calendar when he was a regular during his championship-winning seasons in 1998 and 1999. Martinsville was added to the Xfinity calendar in 2020 before expanding to two dates for 2021. He won at the half-mile track in the Cup Series in 2014; in thirty-five career Cup starts at Martinsville, he recorded the 2014 win, thirteen top fives, and eighteen top tens.

“When it gets down to it, what type of racing do I love to do? It’s short track racing,” said Earnhardt on the DJD. “It’s bumper to bumper, half mile, trading paint, and I’m gonna do a little bit of that next year.”

The episode release comes on the same day as Earnhardt participating in another short track event as he, Tony Stewart, and Clint Bowyer tested the Next Gen car at the quarter-mile Bowman Gray Stadium. The session was intended to see the seventh-generation vehicle’s capabilities in stadium short track racing, an environment in which it will début in 2022 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

The NASCAR Next Gen car will make its racing début with the 2022 Clash at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Since a stadium short track is new territory for NASCAR’s modern era (such races were held in the 1950s), NASCAR and Goodyear spent Tuesday conducting tyre and car tests at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Tony Stewart drove a Next Gen test car as part of the Goodyear session, while Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Clint Bowyer did so for the car itself.

Nicknamed “The Madhouse”, Bowman Gray hosted Cup races from 1958 to 1971, the final year before the start of what is considered the modern era. The track is an active American football stadium that is currently used by the Winston-Salem State University college football team, while the surrounding quarter-mile oval has seen series such as the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour and ARCA Menards Series East.

The Coliseum, also a college football stadium, previously hosted racing such as rallycross and motocross, but stock cars will be a new foray. Its temporary short track for the Clash will resemble Bowman Gray, hence the decision to use the venue for the test.

Stewart, the co-owner of Cup team Stewart-Haas Racing, turned laps in the Goodyear test. The three-time champion, who was most recently running the Camping World SRX Series and winning its inaugural championship, last drove in an official NASCAR-sanctioned event with the 2016 season finale, though he has driven in non-NASCAR demonstrations since.

“This is a track I’ve only been to one time and got to watch the races, so it was pretty cool to be on track here,” said Stewart after his run. “It was fun and to get a chance to drive the Next Gen car was cool too.

It was damage limitation for the Mclaren F1 Team at the American Grand Prix with Daniel Ricciardo finishing fifth and Lando Norris eighth, as the team just about managed to stay in third place in the Constructors’ standings.

It was a tough weekend for Mclaren, with championship rivals Scuderia Ferrari having a much stronger package all weekend. Ricciardo and Norris were both involved in an excellent opening lap battle with Carlos Sainz Jr, with Ricciardo coming out on top.

Ricciardo did brilliantly to defend Sainz all race, whereas Norris slightly fell off the pace. Ahead of Ricciardo however was Charles Leclerc, meaning that after finishing fourth and seventh, Ferrari closed the gap down to just 3.5 points to Mclaren.

Team Principal Andreas Seidl believes fifth and eighth was the best they could’ve achieved at the Circuit of the Americas and that the team will look at how they can extract any more performance heading into Mexico.

“P5 and P8 today here at COTA was pretty much everything that was on the table. We were fighting a very strong Ferrari team this weekend and did well to get ahead of at least one of them and retain P3 in the Constructors’ Championship. A strong race for Daniel today, getting past Carlos [Sainz] on the first lap and then soaking up enormous pressure all the way to the flag.

Daniel Ricciardo rounded off the American Grand Prix as top Mclaren F1 Team driver after finishing fifth at the Circuit of the Americas, team-mate Lando Norris finished eighth.

It was a strong Grand Prix by Ricciardo, the Australian had an excellent battle on the opening lap with team-mate Norris and Scuderia Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jr, with Ricciardo coming out on top.

The Honey Badger spent the rest of the race fending off Sainz behind in what was a strong defensive performance by Ricciardo, the Australian was extremely happy with how his race panned out.

“I’m really happy. We weren’t quicker than the Ferraris, so I’m happy to beat one of them. I had to defend pretty hard for a few laps there, so I’m happy to have held him off. It was a tricky race. I was fighting quite a bit to hold what I had, but I think on paper fifth is really good. It’s good points.

“We stole a little bit from Carlos [Sainz], and Valtteri [Bottas] got him at the end, so that was a bit of damage limitation. We’ll come back in Mexico and hopefully have a bit more to show against them. The fans were awesome, the crowd was sick, hopefully they enjoyed it.”   

In the final weekend of the F4 U.S. Championship, Noel Leon held onto his points lead and took the championship while Jason Alder and Nico Christodoulou won rounds 16 and 17 respectively at Circuit of the Americas.

Christodoulou was set to start on the pole for race one, but a penalty saw him start from the pit lane as Leon led the field to green. Alder, who started fourth, worked his way to the lead by the backstretch before a caution was thrown that brought the field back together. Alder maintained his lead after going through turn one three-wide, and from there pulled away to win.

Leon finished in second behind his title rival Alder, while 15-year-old Illinois native Christian Weir drove to an impressive third place to claim his second F4 U.S. podium in just four starts. After starting in the pit lane Christodoulou finished the race in sixth place, mathematically knocking him out of the championship hunt.

This left Leon, Alder and Mac Clark as the three title hopefuls heading into the final race, all starting together from third to fifth, with Christodoulou on the pole. The Canadian polesitter went on to win the race, with Leon second ahead of Clark. Alder was unable to work up the order like his fellow championship contenders, finishing sixth.

Leon finished with a 6.5 point gap to Clark in the championship, earning the Mexican the driver’s championship in his first season in F4 U.S. Velocity Racing Development, the team Leon drives for, also took home the team championship, wrapped up at the last event at Virginia International Raceway in September.

Scuderia Ferrari closed the gap down to just three and a half points to the Mclaren F1 Team in the fight for third place in the Constructors’ standings, after a strong performance at the American Grand Prix.

Charles Leclerc drove a lonely but excellent race at the Circuit of the Americas, to cross the line in a super fourth. Team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr had a much tougher Grand Prix, after battling with Mclaren’s Daniel Ricciardo for virtually the entire race. The Spaniard was in amongst the team’s rivals from the start, after an opening lap fight with not only Ricciardo but former team-mate Lando Norris as well.

Sainz would’ve moved ahead of Ricciardo had it not been for another slow pit-stop, Ferrari went for the undercut on the Australian which they failed to pull off. In the end it was seventh for Sainz, with Valtteri Bottas making his way past the Spaniard towards the end of the race. Despite this Ferrari racked up more points than Mclaren, who finished fifth and eighth.

Team Principal Mattia Binotto believes the team have made huge strides forward this season but is disappointed at the valuable points lost after Sainz’s slow stop. Despite this Binotto is confident that third place is still up for grabs.

“We leave Austin having demonstrated, both in qualifying and in the race, that we have made progress even on a track that, on paper, is not particularly suited to our car. However, there’s some disappointment, because we did not do as well as we could have done, with the mistake at Carlos’ second pit stop costing him two places. “

Charles Leclerc finished best of the rest at the American Grand Prix, after finishing an excellent fourth place at the Circuit of the Americas. Scuderia Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr finished a frustrating seventh.

It was a long and physical race for the Monegasque driver, who drove brilliantly all race to pull away from those behind. Leclerc didn’t quite have the pace to keep up with Lewis Hamilton and the two Red Bull Racing drivers, meaning it was a lonely afternoon to the flag.

Leclerc leaves America surprised by the strong pace his car demonstrated across the weekend, and believes there was nothing left on the table to challenge for a podium.

“What a race. It was definitely one of the most physical drives of my career. The rear was moving quite a lot and temperatures were high throughout. I am satisfied with my personal performance. I don’t think that I left much on the table today and I really pushed the car to its limit on every lap.Our pace was a positive surprise. Although we are mostly focusing on 2022, the few upgrades we have brought this year have allowed us to make some important steps forward.

“I would like to say a big thank you to everyone back home in Maranello at our factory as well as at the track for all the hard work they have put in. This weekend the result of their efforts has shown.Being back in the United States has been great and it’s been a real pleasure to race on this amazing track again. Next up is Mexico, which I am also very excited for. The track there should suit our car fairly well and we will push to continue on this positive trajectory.”

Toto Wolff believed Lewis Hamilton was on course to take victory in the United States Grand Prix on Sunday, but the Briton ended up finishing just short as Max Verstappen took the win instead.

Hamilton had pitted later than Red Bull Racing’s Verstappen, and with fresher tyres was closing the gap to his championship rival.  However, once he got within a couple of seconds of the Dutchman, the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team driver struggled with his tyre temperatures and was unable to make a move for the lead.

Wolff, the Team Principal at Mercedes, felt Red Bull deserved the victory at the Circuit of the Americas, but Mercedes gave it their all and fought right until the chequered flag.

“This really was a race of interesting strategic games and great battles,” said Wolff.  “We thought we had a sniff at the victory with Lewis and he put in a brilliant charge in the final laps, but in the end it wasn’t enough.

“In the first stint, the car wasn’t quick enough on the Medium and then Red Bull went for a super-aggressive first stop, before covering it the second time. We thought our offset strategy, going longer, would be enough at the end to get them, but the moment you get within touching distance of the car in front, it makes it very difficult to make a move.

Lewis Hamilton fell twelve points behind Max Verstappen in the Drivers’ Championship after finishing second to the Dutchman in Sunday’s United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas.

The Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team driver took the lead at the start heading into turn one, but with Red Bull Racing pulling Verstappen into the pits before him, he lost out to Verstappen when he made his first pit stop.

The same scenario played out in the second round of pit stops, and although Hamilton pitted eight laps after Verstappen to give him fresher tyres in the final laps, he was unable to bridge the gap in time to make an attempt to overtake.

“Firstly, congratulations to Max, he did a brilliant job today,” said Hamilton.  “And also, a big thank you to the amazing crowd we’ve had in Austin all weekend, to perform in front of such packed grandstands and passionate fans has been a real honour.

“I really thought for a second we might be able to win, I gave it absolutely everything out there. It was such a tough race, but unfortunately, we couldn’t convert it. Red Bull just had the upper hand, and we couldn’t match them.

Christian Horner was delighted to see Red Bull Racing claim their first victory in the United States since 2013 on Sunday as Max Verstappen took his eighth victory of the year ahead of title rival Lewis Hamilton at the Circuit of the Americas.

After losing the lead at the start to Hamilton, Verstappen and Red Bull made aggressive strategy calls to get ahead of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team driver, before holding onto the position in the closing laps despite the Briton having better performance from his tyres.

Horner, the Team Principal at Red Bull, says the team opted to get track position through the pit stops, a decision that ultimately paid dividends as Verstappen held on to win by just 1.333 seconds to extend his advantage in the Drivers’ Championship to twelve points.

“What an incredible victory and double podium for the Team!” said Horner.  “It’s our first US GP win since 2013 and what a way to do it. 

“At the beginning of the race we had really good pace on the mediums and Max was able to put pressure on Lewis, but we know that he is so strong at the end of the race and he went long which bought himself an advantage.

Max Verstappen superbly won the United States Grand Prix on Sunday, but the Dutchman acknowledged the pressure from Lewis Hamilton was there throughout the fifty-six laps as Red Bull Racing took an aggressive pit strategy that saw his rival close the gap in the closing laps.

From pole position, Verstappen lost the lead at turn one to his championship rival, but the Dutchman never let the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team driver get away at the front, and he pitted before Hamilton to regain the lead when the Briton hit the pits himself.

Verstappen then pitted eight laps before Hamilton in the second round of tyre changes, but despite the Briton having better tyres in the closing laps, he ran out of time to make an overtake on the Dutchman.

The advantage for Verstappen over Hamilton in the Drivers’ Championship is now twelve points as a result of the victory, and he was delighted to be able to take his first win in the United States in front of a huge crowd at the Circuit of the Americas.

“It was an exciting race and it feels incredible to win here in front of all the fans,” said Verstappen.  “The pressure was on for the whole race and not knowing how quickly Lewis would catch up.