Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Meyer Shank Racing are forming an Indianapolis 500-winning super team for 2022, as two-time Indy 500 winner and 2016 IndyCar Series champion Simon Pagenaud joins the team to pilot the number 60 car in place of the departing Jack Harvey.

The Frenchman joins the team after seven seasons with Team Penske, marking the first season in the team’s five-year history that they will run multiple cars for the full season. This meteoric rise was aided by Pagenaud’s not-so-new teammate Helio Castroneves, who won the 2021 Indianapolis 500.

“Next year will be a big year for MSR and I think we have a very strong lineup of drivers between Simon and Helio,” said Team Owner Mike Shank.

“We have built this program every year, growing with our partners and working to have all the ingredients we need to be competitive. Our Indianapolis 500 win was a big breakthrough, and we are looking forward to having a consistently competitive program that will have the chance to fight for wins and podiums no matter where we go and I think this lineup will help us do that.”

Castroneves and Pagenaud create one of the most experienced team lineups on the grid, with 61 pole positions, 40 wins and 121 podiums between them. The two also have great chemistry already, having spent five full seasons and six Indianapolis 500s as teammates at Penske from 2015 to 2020.

Frédéric Vasseur was pleased to see his Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN team score four points during Sunday’s Russian Grand Prix, only the fourth top ten finish for the outfit in 2021.

Kimi Räikkönen scored the teams’ best finish of the year to date with an eighth-place finish at the Sochi Autodrom to bring Alfa Romeo’s points tally for the season to seven.  They remain ninth in the Constructors’ Championship with seven races remaining.

Vasseur, the Team Principal of the Hinwal-based squad, felt the team brought Räikkönen into the pits at the right time when the rain began to fall towards the end of the race, and it brought the veteran Finn into the points-paying positions.

However, he was disappointed that Antonio Giovinazzi was unable to take home a top ten finish in the second C41-Ferrari, with the Italian struggling throughout the race without having use of his radio.

“The race ended up being very exciting and we head home with a good haul of points,” said Vasseur.  “Despite a difficult Saturday, we entered the race with some quiet optimism as we knew we would be in a position to fight.

Kimi Räikkönen ended Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN’s points drought in Sunday’s Russian Grand Prix, with the veteran Finn claiming eighth place after choosing the right time to change to the intermediate tyres.

Räikkönen, who missed the Dutch and Italian Grand Prix weekends after a positive COVID-19 test, ran inside the top ten in the early laps but appeared to be heading for another pointless day at the Sochi Autodrom, only for the rain to come late in the day to jumble up the order.

The 2007 Formula 1 World Champion fought hard all day, staying in touch with those inside the points, and he was rewarded for his persistence with an eighth-place finish, although he lost seventh on the final lap to the recovering Lando Norris.  It was only the fourth time in 2021 that Alfa Romeo have scored points.

“It was a good result we fought hard for,” said Räikkönen.  “We could keep up with our rivals in the dry but passing them was not easy, especially in the DRS trains.

“In the end, we made the right call on the tyres: I thought it was getting too wet and we chose to box, which really helped us in the end. We did the best we could and we have some points to show for it.”

Marcin Budkowski felt it was a ‘bittersweet’ Sunday for the Alpine F1 Team in the Russian Grand Prix after Fernando Alonso took a top six finish but was denied a potential podium by a late-race rain shower.

Alonso was battling Red Bull Racing’s Sergio Pérez for the final step of the podium, but a decision to pit three laps from the end for the intermediate tyre saw him fall away from the fight for the top three as the likes of Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz Jr., Daniel Ricciardo and Valtteri Bottas all stopped the lap before and gained a significant amount of time in the process.

Both Alonso and team-mate Esteban Ocon lost positions as a result of their delayed pit stops (both drivers stopped on lap fifty of fifty-three), but with neither Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda nor the Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team scoring points, Budkowski said it was still a relatively good day for the Enstone-based outfit despite the missed podium opportunity.

“A bittersweet feeling today; we took home eight points, but we missed an opportunity to finish on the podium,” said Budkowski, the Executive Director at Alpine.  “We decided to start the cars on different strategies, with Fernando starting on Hard tyres with the objective of stopping later in the race and potentially benefit from safety cars or any rain coming.

“Both drivers had a good first stint, with Esteban stopping earlier on the Mediums. Unfortunately, he ran out of grip in the later stages of the race on the Hard tyres. Fernando managed his tyres well and had very good pace right until the rain started to fall.

Fernando Alonso felt his performance during the Russian Grand Prix merited a podium, but the Spaniard was forced to settle for sixth after pitting a lap later than other drivers for intermediate tyres, a decision that gave his rivals the advantage.

The Alpine F1 Team driver was battling Red Bull Racing’s Sergio Pérez for the final step on the podium when the rain began to fall in the closing stages at the Sochi Autodrom, and he headed to the pits with three laps remaining to switch to the intermediate compound.

However, the likes of Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz Jr., Daniel Ricciardo and Valtteri Bottas all benefitted from pitting the lap before, with the time lost by Alonso in driving around the damp-to-wet track on slick tyres costing him the chance of a first Alpine podium finish.

“We finished sixth, but I think third place is more of a true reflection of our finishing position today,” reckoned Alonso.  “It all came down to luck in the end with the rain coming so late on.

“It was like a flip of a coin. Some cars stopped one lap earlier and I was in third position when it really started to rain. It was impossible to predict. Nevertheless, sixth is a good result for us and we deserved it.

Michael Belov took his second victory of the 2021 Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine season in a processional race around the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia, while Grégoire Saucy moved closer to securing the title with another podium finish.

G4 Racing’s Belov, who start from pole position, held onto the lead at the start having taken top spot in Qualifying on Sunday morning, and despite being shadowed for much of the race by race one winner Franco Colapinto, he went on to take the win.

Colapinto withstood a first lap attack from Saucy to maintain second, with the MP Motorsport driver able to stay with Belov up front whilst easily keeping the ART Grand Prix driver behind him.

Saucy’s third place, coupled with a sixth place for closest rival Hadrien David, puts the Swiss racer seventy-eight points clear at the top of the championship standings with only one hundred points left on the table.  He only requires twenty-two points across the final four races to clinch the title.

Isack Hadjar took fourth for R-ace GP, while a fast start from seventh gave Saturday podium finisher David Vidales fifth for Prema Powerteam, ahead of David and his R-ace GP team-mate Zane Maloney. 

Andreas Seidl admits the result of the Russian Grand Prix was disappointing for the McLaren F1 Team, even though they scored solid points with both Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris in fourth and seventh place respectively.

After being victorious in the Italian Grand Prix two weeks earlier, McLaren looked for much of the afternoon at the Sochi Autodrom that they would take a second consecutive win, with Norris leading comfortably at the front after dispatching early leader Carlos Sainz Jr.

However, with Norris in control and withstanding every threat from behind, the weather added the curveball that saw the Briton gamble on staying out on slicks, a gamble that failed to pay off as the weather worsened and he fell down the order, ultimately finishing seventh.

Ricciardo pitted earlier and was able to take a fourth place, but Seidl, the Team Principal at McLaren, admits analysis of the race and the decisions the team made towards the end in a bid to prevent any repeat of the outcome in Russia.

“We are, of course, disappointed with finishing P4 and P7 in the Russian Grand Prix today, given the positions we were in three laps from the end of the race,” said Seidl.  “On the positive side, both Lando, Daniel and the whole team put in strong performances all weekend, which is highly encouraging going into the last third of the season.

The result of the 2021 Russian Grand Prix will have Lando Norris down as finishing seventh, but this will show the true reflection of a race that saw him on the verge of a maiden Formula 1 victory onto to be denied in the closing laps by the weather.

For much of the race at the Sochi Autodrom on Sunday, the McLaren F1 Team driver was leading, and at one point had more than a ten-second advantage over eventual winner Lewis Hamilton.

The race unravelled with just half a dozen laps to go when rain began to fall at the circuit, and whereas Hamilton headed to the pit lane to switch to the intermediate tyre, Norris gambled on completing one more lap to try and get an advantage.

However, on that lap, the rain began to fall heavier, and rather than gain an advantage, it was a test just to get back to the pit lane.  He lost the lead by going off track at turn five before crawling to the pits for intermediate tyres.  He was able to pass Kimi Räikkönen for seventh but that was all he could manage on a day where he had the race in his pocket.

“It wasn’t the race or the result we wanted in the end,” said Norris.  “I made a good start and we had a good first stint.

Eight-time North American co-driver champion Craig Drew will be pairing up with Oliver Solberg for Rally Finland on 1-3 October as Aaron Johnston and Solberg agreed to go separate ways.

Last week saw a huge change in the driver pairings in the FIA World Rally Championship as there were many announcements of co-driver changes happening, the experienced co-driver Drew, was co-driver for the most successful driver in USA, David Higgins between 2011 and 2019 in the American Rally Association championship for Subaru Motorsports USA.

Solberg and Drew will be entering the WRC2 class in a Hyundai Motorsport backed Hyundai i20 N and so far this partnership seems to be only for Rally Finland. It will be the first time for both in Rally Finland, Solberg previously made his WRC debut during the winter round of Arctic Rally Finland earlier this season.

“Craig is a good guy, a former team-mate and somebody I know well. I’m looking forward to working with him.” Solberg said.

“It’s a tough event to jump into a new car and with a new driver but, having worked as team-mate to Oliver in 2019, it won’t take us long to gel,” Drew added.

Following the news that the pairing of Adrien Fourmaux and Renaud Jamoul will part ways, just ahead of Rally Finland it has been confirmed that the new co-driver will be Alexandre Coria.

After spending almost three years together driving for M-Sport Ford World Rally Team in the Ford Fiesta WRC and Fiesta Rally2, it was announced Fourmaux will be changing co-drivers and a replacement was not confirmed at the time. Now it has been confirmed that fellow French native Coria will be sitting alongside Fourmaux in the season remainder and in the future.

In a statement published by Fourmaux he revealed: “I am happy to announce that Alexandre Coria will be with me in Finland. A big challenge is coming and we’ll do our best to perform. We have so many things to discover in one rally, but I always love challenges!”

Current WRC3 class leader Yohan Rossel will also be changing co-driver, as it was Coria who was his co-driver.The WRC is a no stranger for Coria but it will be a first time in the top level, before he teamed up with Rossel he has been the co-driver for Vincent Dubert during the 2016 FIA Junior WRC.

Mattia Binotto, the Team Principal at Scuderia Ferrari, was pleased to see Carlos Sainz Jr. secure a podium finish in the Russian Grand Prix on Sunday, although he was disappointed that the late-race rain prevented Charles Leclerc from scoring points.

Sainz led the early laps at the Sochi Autodrom, but early tyre graining saw him fall behind McLaren F1 Team’s Lando Norris, and an early pit stop had appeared to have put paid to his chance of a top result.  However, the rain came, and a perfectly timed pit stop saw him grab third place.

Leclerc was a man on a mission early on after starting on the back row of the grid, and at the end of lap one he was running twelfth.  He was in contention for points all day long only to lose out in the shuffle at the end after gambling on running longer on slicks despite the rain continuing to fall.

“That was a very intense and difficult race today, which ended with one of our drivers on the podium,” said Binotto.  “Carlos had a great weekend, both yesterday in qualifying and today in the race and third place is a nice reward for all the hard work.

“Charles leaves empty handed at the end of a weekend which started on the back foot because of the penalty, but today he once again proved just how talented he is. He made a great start, had really strong race pace and showed the right amount of aggression for the overtaking moves.”

Knockhill Racing Circuit in Fife, Scotland held host to rounds five and six of the Motorsport UK British Rallycross Championship 5 Nations Trophy presented by Cooper Tires over the weekend of 25/26 September 2021. This was the third nation of the five nations involved in the championship and the first time the BRX had visited since the new promoters took over due to the pandemic postponing a lot of racing events. With changeable weather conditions, competitors from all eight classes enjoyed an action-packed weekend of racing.

In Round Five on Saturday 25th September, the RX150 class Stephen Jones took one qualifying race win with Patrick O’Donovan claiming two. In the final, O’Donovan lost ground at the start, recovered to second in the first lap, but it was Tommi Caldwell who won ahead of Jones after a last-lap joker, clinching victory by 0.26 seconds.

The Retro Rallycross Championship gave us some action with some paint exchanges in the Super Retro class final. Vince Bristow in his BMW E36 claimed pole by winning both qualifying sessions two and three but when he failed to get away from the start line, he dropped right down the order. The Porsche 911 of Barry Stewart took the lead just ahead of John Cross‘ Lancia Stratos when Phil Collard joined the battle in his Renault 5, touching Stewart and sending him into a spin. Bristow pushed his way back to second then overtook Cross for the win. The Retro class consisted of just the Toyota MR2 of Tony Lynch and the Ford Escort Mk1 of Simon Hart. Lynch won the first qualifier but a fire in qualifier two ended his day handing victory to Hart.

The BMW MINI Rallycross Championship was dominated by Dave Bellerby who won every qualifying race, his semi-final and the final. Ben Sayer won the other semi-final but had to settle for third, being denied second place in the final by Tom Constantine who drove a great race to make up lost ground from the start.

In the Swift Sport Rallycross Championship final, Faversham driver Max Weatherley led from lights to flag for five of six laps when a big accident involving David Watt, James Constantine and Luke Constantine led to the race being red-flagged. After the restart, Weatherley repeated his performance taking the checkered flag with Watt in second and Scottish driver Don MacLeod taking third place at his home track.

Carlos Sainz Jr. took his third podium of the season and the fifth of his Formula 1 career on Sunday, with the decision to pit when he did late on for intermediates paying dividends as he took third place behind Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen.

Starting on the front row of the grid for the first time in his career, the Scuderia Ferrari driver got a good run on polesitter Lando Norris heading into turn two and swept into the lead, only for the Briton to regain first place as the Spaniard’s tyres began to grain up.

He made an early stop that looked as though would cost him a shot at the podium, but the late race rain shower and his decision to pit early for intermediates gained him a lot of track position and brought him a top three result.

“This was a tricky but positive weekend for me, with a good quali and a strong race where I gave absolutely everything,” said Sainz.  “We made a perfect start from the dirty side, braking late into turn 2 and risking it on the outside of Lando to get into the lead. Unfortunately we suffered from graining and couldn’t hold P1 for much longer and had to pit early.

“After the first stop, we had a very good stint, managing the Hard tyre in traffic and then pushing in clean air, on course for a reasonably comfortable P3 before the rain came and made everything a lot trickier.

Christian Horner says the Red Bull Racing pit wall left it to the drivers to decide when they made a pit stop for the intermediate tyre in Sunday’s Russian Grand Prix, and Max Verstappen’s earlier stop paid dividends as the Dutchman claimed a second-place finish despite starting last.

However, team-mate Sergio Pérez lost a certain podium of his own by staying out a couple of laps longer, and the time lost as he struggled around an ever-increasingly wet track before pitting meant he fell to ninth in the final result.

Horner, the Team Principal at Red Bull, says Verstappen’s second place feels like a win after starting at the back of the field following an engine change, but the late weather change at the Sochi Autodrom showed how easy it was for drivers to go from hero to zero, particularly in the case of Pérez.

“Today’s result in recovering from twentieth to second is an amazing performance,” said Horner.  “Our congratulations must go to Lewis [Hamilton] on his 100th victory, but second for us after taking our grid penalty feels like a victory.

“With six or seven laps to go it didn’t look like it was going to be possible. In tricky weather conditions like we had today, you can very easily come out looking like a hero or zero.

Max Verstappen took a podium finish in the Russian Grand Prix on Sunday despite starting at the back of field, although he admitted the timing of the rain and his switch to intermediate tyres ensured he minimalised his points loss to title rival Lewis Hamilton.

The Red Bull Racing driver had started the race at the Sochi Autodrom from the back row of the grid following an engine change and grid penalty, but he stormed through the field in the early laps to bring himself into the fight for the points.

He was running seventh, having lost a position to Fernando Alonso, when the rain began to fall, and his early switch enabled him to jump most of his rivals as they waited to pit themselves, ultimately picking up second place behind Hamilton.

“Wow, we will definitely take that result!” said Verstappen. “Of course to come from last to second is very good and when I woke up this morning I definitely didn’t expect this result. To finish where we did with the penalty we had, we didn’t lose as many points as we could have so as a Team we did a really good job.

“It was a crucial call to change to the inters, it was really slippery on track and we made a great decision with the timing and took the right lap to pit.”