Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Marcin Budkowski, the Executive Director of the Alpine F1 Team, says Fernando Alonso’s race craft during his first half of the season has blown him away, and he says the Spaniard is very professional in his approach to racing.

Alonso made his return to Formula 1 at the beginning of the season after two years away, and he has shown himself to still be at the top of his game, even when he has recently turned forty.

Budkowski has seen first-hand how good many drivers have been during his time in Formula 1, but he says Alonso has opened his eyes with some excellent displays, such as in the Sprint race at Silverstone and in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix where he plays a starring role in a car that is not the quickest on the grid.

In the recent Hungarian Grand Prix, Alonso played a huge part in team-mate Esteban Ocon’s maiden victory with impressively defensive display against Lewis Hamilton, with the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team driver unable to find away ahead of the Spanish veteran for more than ten laps at the Hungaroring.

“I’ve worked with a number of drivers a bit more than 20 years in F1 and he is extremely impressive,” Budkowski is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com. “He’s impressive in his approach, which is very, very professional.

Roger Griffiths, the Team Principal of the BMW i Andretti Motorsport team, says it was disappointing to see Jake Dennis’ chances of winning the 2020-21 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship end in the wall after a technical failure.

Dennis went into the final race of the season only four points behind Nyck de Vries in the Drivers’ Championship, and after second placed Edoardo Mortara and fourth placed Mitch Evans were eliminated in a first lap crash, the Briton was in prime position to take the title.

However, on the first lap following the restart, Dennis was out of the race after his rear axle locked up, pushing him into the wall.  He was obviously distraught as he got out of the car, and it ended BMW’s attempt at winning the title in their final year as a manufacturer entrant in Formula E.

“We came into this final race with a really good chance of winning the World Championship with Jake,” said Griffiths.  “Practice sessions went not quite as smoothly as yesterday and in qualifying he again just missed Super Pole by a few hundredths of a second.

“Still, he was in a good position having most of his title contenders behind him. Then at the restart after the unfortunate collision between Mitch Evans and Edoardo Mortara we suspect a technical issue with Jakes car that we yet have to analyse.

Jake Dennis felt it was a ‘shame’ for the title fight for the 2020-21 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship to end the way it did during the Berlin E-Prix, with three of the leading contenders crashing out early on.

The BMW i Andretti Motorsport driver was only four points behind Nyck de Vries in the Drivers’ Championship heading into the final race of the season at the Tempelhof Airport Street Circuit, and Dennis had qualified ahead of his rival.

A start line crash between Edoardo Mortara and Mitch Evans – second and fourth in the standings respectively – ended their chances, while Dennis’ own race was over on the first lap following the restart after a problem with a rear axle pushed him into the wall at turn one.

Despite the disappointment of not being able to fight for the title, Dennis was pleased with his rookie campaign, which ended with the Briton only nine points behind de Vries in the standings.

“It’s a shame that the title fight ended like this – not only for me but for Mitch Evans and Edoardo Mortara as well,” said Dennis.  “Three title contenders out of the race early.

Robin Frijns’ 2020-21 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship season ended in disappointment, with the Dutchman failing to score any points in either race of the Berlin E-Prix to end his chance of securing the Drivers’ title.

The Envision Virgin Racing team went into the season finale at the Tempelhof Airport Street Circuit leading the Teams’ Championship, but neither Frijns nor team-mate Nick Cassidy could score points in either race, meaning the team ended fourth in the final standings.

Frijns came into the weekend only six points behind eventual champion Nyck de Vries, but the Dutchman admitted the team found the weekend in Germany tough as they could not find the kind of pace to challenge for the top ten.

“It has been difficult to find the right direction this weekend,” said Frijns. “It has been painful for everybody in the team as everyone has worked really hard, especially coming to Berlin leading the championship.

“But we just couldn’t find the pace in free practice or qualifying. However, generally speaking over the course of the season we have been consistent and competitive – we’ve had ups and downs, but we will be back stronger and try again next season.”

Jean-Éric Vergne ended the final race of the 2020-21 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship season outside of the points, with the eleventh-place finish meaning he ended the year tenth in the final standings.

The DS Techeetah driver went into the season finale at the Tempelhof Airport Street Circuit with an outside chance of taking his third Formula E Drivers’ title, but it was not to be for the Frenchman, who lost out on the final point to Tom Blomqvist on the final lap.

Vergne says the season has been full of ups and downs, but it will be important now for the team to go away during the off-season so they can come back fighting stronger for season eight, which begins in January in Saudi Arabia.

“That’s it for this season, it has been quite a ride this year, there have been a lot of good things and some areas to improve,” said Vergne, who helped DS Techeetah finish third in the Teams’ standings.  

“We finish third, but more importantly, we have a very strong team, who likes to win, and we are going to work very hard to come back stronger and fight back next season. This is our only objective now.”

Tom Blomqvist ended the 2020-21 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship season with only his third top-ten finish of the year, with the British racer ending tenth in Sunday’s second race at the Tempelhof Airport Street Circuit.

The NIO 333 FE Team driver saw himself fall out of contention of first race of the Berlin E-Prix after contact from behind on the opening lap, with

qualified only seventeenth in Saturday’s first race of the Berlin E-Prix, but a first lap incident saw him hit the pit lane for repairs that lost him a number of laps to the rest of the field.

After that, it was just a case of getting to the finish for Blomqvist, but he used the time on track to learn ahead of Sunday’s finale.

“The Qualifying times were super tight on Saturday and the final classification could have seen us much higher up,” said Blomqvist.  “P17 was a tough result, but my race start was very strong.

The Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler team said goodbye to the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship after the Berlin E-Prix on Sunday, and they left with a fourth-place finish in the Teams’ standings.

Lucas di Grassi ended his seven-year stint with the team with a seventh-place finish in the Drivers’ championship, while René Rast scored a ninth-place finish at the Tempelhof Airport Street Circuit to keep him thirteenth in the standings.  Both drivers were in contention for the title right until the final race of the year.

Di Grassi admitted it was an emotional weekend for everyone involved in Audi’s Formula E programme, and he says it was a shame the team is pulling out of the category after the season’s end.

He qualified seventeenth in the season finale in Berlin but was only a tenth of a second away from making it into the top six.  However, after contact with António Félix da Costa, a penalty ended his chance of taking the Drivers’ Championship.

“It was a very emotional weekend,” said di Grassi. “In seven years we have achieved an extreme amount with Audi Sport, ABT and Schaeffler.

James Barclay says the Jaguar Racing team can be proud of their achievements during the 2020-21 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship season, even if they did come up short in both the Teams’ and Drivers’ Championship.

Jaguar missed out on the Teams’ Championship to the Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team by just four points, while Mitch Evans and Sam Bird ended fourth and sixth in the Drivers’ Championship, just nine and twelve points behind Nyck de Vries.

The Berlin E-Prix ended in disappointment for Evans as a car issue and a subsequent crash with Edoardo Mortara ended his chances of the title, while a seventh-place finish for Bird was not enough despite a charging drive through the field.

Barclay, the Team Director at Jaguar Racing, says the results of the 2020-21 season for the team are something to be proud of, and to finish so close to the winning both championships was an amazing achievement.

“As a team, we put ourselves in a position to fight for both the drivers’ and teams’ championship this season and that’s what we’re most proud of,” said Barclay.  

Mitch Evans was left ‘gutted’ after a car failure at the start of the second race of the Berlin E-Prix ended his chance of taking the 2020-21 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship Drivers’ title.

The Jaguar Racing driver came into the season finale at the Tempelhof Airport Street Circuit sitting third in the standings, just four points behind Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team’s Nyck de Vries, but his chances of denying the Dutchman the title were over within seconds of the start.

Evans’ car lurched forward but then stopped, with Edoardo Mortara then hitting the back of the Jaguar.  Both cars were out on the spot, with both drivers out of contention for the title, much to the disappointment of the New Zealander.

“We appeared to have some failure after the launch in the car today,” said Evans on Sunday.  “It was over before it even started so it was obviously not meant to be this year.  I’m gutted for the whole team to not get a run at it today but to be able to finish second in the teams’ championship is still huge progress.

“I want to thank everyone who has put in so much hard work this year. We’ll come back fighting again next year.”

The 2021 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series playoffs kicked off Friday night with the Toyota 200, but even the brighter lights couldn’t provide enough illumination for World Wide Technology Raceway as a power outage resulted in a lengthy delay early into the second stage. By the end, Sheldon Creed shone the brightest as he led 142 of 160 laps and swept the stages to win for the second straight year at Gateway.

Austin Hill and regular season champion John Hunter Nemechek started on the front row, but the latter quickly fell off the pace while Creed took the lead after three laps. Creed led until Chandler Smith‘s truck suffered a rear hub failure on lap 30 to warrant a caution, and continued to hold the spot as the race resumed. Cory Roper and Derek Griffith also brought out yellow flags with their wrecks during the stage. Creed and GMS Racing team-mate Zane Smith battled for the lead throughout the opening segment, with the former winning out. Stewart Friesen, Ben Rhodes, Smith, Ty Majeski, Todd Gilliland, Matt Crafton, Hill, Nemechek, and Derek Kraus rounded out the top ten. All but Kraus was a playoff driver, with Smith and Carson Hocevar being the lone such persons to not receive stage points.

Stage #2 lasted just two laps before the lights were knocked out by a fire in nearby Fairmont City that damaged a transformer. The ensuing red flag marked the first delay for a power outage in the series since the 2014 Phoenix event, while Daytona 500 qualifying in February was also briefly delayed for the same reason. After nearly an hour of waiting, the backup generators were prepared and re-lit the circuit; track manager Chris Blair added one of the backups was also blown out by a power surge, though “there was a backup to the backup that has been hooked up.”

The race finally resumed with Creed and Smith leading the field to the restart on lap 67. As Creed pulled away, brake gremlins plagued his GMS ally until they forced Smith to the garage with six laps remaining in the stage. Creed took the stage win ahead of Rhodes, Crafton, Nemechek, Friesen, Majeski, Kraus, Tyler Ankrum, Christian Eckes, and Hill. Majeski, Ankrum, and Eckes were non-playoff drivers.

The final stage commenced with Creed and Rhodes leading. In a case of major playoff implications on lap 112, Nemechek’s truck stopped on the frontstretch and triggered a ten-person wreck as drivers attempted to avoid him, collecting Ankrum, Enfinger, Hill, Hocevar, Gilliland, Majeski, Rhodes, and Grant Enfinger; Gilliland attempted to return but cut a tyre and could not meet minimum speed, ending his night after 120 laps. Enfinger’s hood popped up on the ensuing restart, causing him to slow on the backstretch but he was able to pit without producing a caution. Nemechek’s woes continued when his left-front tyre went down on lap 129 and forced a trip behind the pit wall to address the broken brake rotor before returning five laps down.

The Mahindra Racing team ended the 2020-21 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship with a fifth-place finish in race two of the Berlin E-Prix, and for Team Principal Dilbagh Gill, it concluded a positive season for the team.

Mahindra took a fifth race victory in Formula E during the London E-Prix weekend thanks to Alex Lynn, and Lynn also took two other third place finishes on his way to twelfth in the Drivers’ Championship.  Team-mate Alexander Sims also stood on the podium thanks to a second-place finish in the Rome E-Prix but was only nineteenth in the final standings.

The team ended ninth in the final Teams’ Championship standings, and Gill says there were moments to remember during the year, and there is plenty of potential to build on ahead of season eight that begins in January 2022 in Saudi Arabia.

“I want to sum up the season by saying I’m very proud of the whole team and I thank each and every one of them for their huge efforts every day,” said Gill.  

“An unbelievable amount of work goes in to achieve results and we can be proud of what we have achieved this year with a fifth race win to add to Mahindra Racing’s Formula E tally as well as three fantastic podiums.

Alexander Sims signed off his 2020-21 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship season with a top five finish in the second race of the Berlin E-Prix, and he felt it was a positive way to conclude his first season with Mahindra Racing.

The British racer finished a lowly seventeenth in race one at the Tempelhof Airport Street Circuit on Saturday, but he rebounded superbly on Sunday and was involved in the battle for the podium until the chequered flag.

Ultimately, Sims was forced to settle for fifth place as both Stoffel Vandoorne and André Lotterer found a way ahead of him, but he felt it was a nice reward for a team that had been working hard in developing their car throughout the whole Formula E season.

“It’s been a nice way to end the season with some points, which has been a bit more difficult that I would have hoped,” said Sims, who ended a disappointing nineteenth in the standings.  

“I’d like to say a big thanks to the team, they’ve put in a massive effort and done a superb job all year.”

If there’s something strange in your driver’s seat, who you gonna call? Josh Berry!

For the fifth time in 2021, Berry will be a substitute driver as Spire Motorsports has announced Corey LaJoie will be unable to run Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Michigan International Speedway due to COVID-19 protocols. Berry will drive the #7 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE in his place, marking his third COVID-related backup role.

Berry ran much of the Xfinity Series‘ first-half schedule for JR Motorsports, during which he won his first series race at Martinsville in April. Although Sam Mayer has since taken over JRM’s #8 from Berry for the rest of the year, he has continued racing sporadically, running three races for Jordan Anderson Racing and substiuting for the injured Michael Annett in JRM’s #1 at New Hampshire in July.

Interestingly, his Cup début at Dover in May also came with Spire for COVID reasons. Prior to that race, Spire’s #77 driver Justin Haley was ruled out because of COVID protocols, and Berry filled in and finished thirtieth. Two months prior, Berry ran his first Camping World Truck Series race since 2016 at Atlanta after Young’s Motorsports driver Kris Wright tested positive for the coronavirus. Berry’s substitute duties also extended to him running the last five Truck races for Rackley WAR as the replacement for the ousted Timothy Peters.

While LaJoie, who sits twenty-ninth in points, did not have a positive test, he explained on SiriusXM that someone at his Stacking Pennies podcast’s studio did on Monday. Under NASCAR’s close contact rules, unvaccinated individuals must quarantine for seven days and can return provided a negative test and no symptoms (those who are vaccinated do not need to quarantine but must be tested after three to five days).

For the 89th 24 Hours of Le Mans, Toyota Gazoo Racing has made history by putting the first Hypercar on overall pole for the blue riband event.

Kamui Kobayashi held off Brendon Hartley in the championship winning, and reigning Le Mans overall winning, car to take the front spot on the grid in the new Le Mans Hyperpole format, seeing the fastest six cars in each class take to the track for a 30-minute fastest lap shoot out. As the Hypercar class only has five entrants, all five took part in the qualifying session.

Toyota have been the favourites all week to take the front row for this weekend’s race, but the question remained which would be in front. Kobayashi led the way after the first flying laps with a big advantage over the sister car, and although he held onto the lead throughout the session with his 3:23.900, Hartley was only three tenth off the sister car when the chequered flag fell.

It had looked like the Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus was going to take third on the grid behind the two Toyotas as, after the first runs, Olivier Pla had put the #708 two seconds faster than Nicolas Lapierre in the #36 Alpine Elf Matmut. However, after a short delay with a red flag due to Kevin Estre putting the #92 Porsche GT Team into the barriers at Indianapolis, Lapierre was able to go faster, claiming third on the grid and demoting Pla to fourth ahead of the #709 sister car.

In LMP2, it was the time of JOTA as Antonio Felix da Costa claimed class pole position. It wasn’t an easy victory, however, with #41 Team WRT‘s Louis Deletraz keeping him honest through the first runs. Although it was close between the pair, da Costa’s 3:27.950 gave him half a second advantage on the chasing Deletraz, something that the Swiss driver could not close down.

The NTT IndyCar Series has announced that the series will return to the Hawkeye State, as the 1.408 km oval of Iowa Speedway is set to return to the calendar in 2022 for a doubleheader weekend.

The series signed a multi-year deal partnering with Hy-Vee, a grocery store chain in the midwestern United States, that is also a frequent sponsor of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, to bring back the oval that is a favorite of both drivers and fans alike. Hy-Vee will be the title sponsor for both races, the Hy-VeeDeals.com 250, which is scheduled to take place on Saturday 23 July, and the Hy-Vee Salute to Farmers 300, set for Sunday 24 July.

IndyCar first raced at the short oval in 2007, and has held 15 races at the track since then. After not being on the schedule in 2021, IndyCar Series Owner and Founder of the Penske Corporation Roger Penske expressed his excitement to have the track back.

“Over the years, Iowa has proven to be a fitting showcase for North America’s premier open-wheel series,” Penske said.

“A key oval and a hallmark on our schedule, we deeply missed seeing our fans in Iowa this year and look forward to what’s ahead.”