Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

This Independence Day there will be fireworks all across the United States, but perhaps none more exciting than those that will be seen at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course as the NTT IndyCar Series comes to town for the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio. After a dominant win at Road America two weeks ago, Alex Palou leads the championship with 349 points and a 21-point lead over Patricio O’Ward in second. Palou’s teammate, Scott Dixon, sits in third place with 296 points, waiting for one of the young guns to make a mistake as the season begins to wind down.

This weekend will mark the highly-anticipated returns of Felix Rosenqvist and Rinus Veekay from injury, as well as the return of Santino Ferrucci with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. It will also mark the series debut of former Indy Lights and current IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge driver Ryan Norman as a part of Dale Coyne Racing.

One of the most physically taxing tracks on the calendar, the 3.634 km course will demand the most out of the drivers and should produce exciting racing for the fans. Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio.

WHAT HAPPENED LAST YEAR?

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, Mid-Ohio was made a doubleheader event last year. Race one saw Will Power take the pole and dominate from start to finish, leading 66 laps of the 75 lap race. Power led all the way up until the pit cycle when he pit on lap 21, switching from the alternate red-wall tyres to the harder black-wall tyres. Alexander Rossi, who started on the harder compound, inherited the lead.

After he made his pit stop on lap 26, Power dominated the next stint, pulling away from teammate Josef Newgarden and the rest of the pack behind. Power pit from the lead on lap 47 as others pit around him and was able to leave pit lane with his lead intact, cruising home to his first ever win at Mid-Ohio.

Max Verstappen goes into the second consecutive race at the Red Bull Ring on the back of winning his team’s home race, the Dutchman will be looking to double up on his victory from last weekend.

The Styrian Grand Prix was all about Verstappen, the championship leader obliterated the field leaving no one capable of keeping up with him. The victory also made it four consecutive victories for Red Bull Racing, the first time they have achieved this in the hybrid era. This weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix may be at the same venue but Verstappen is aware that no weekend is ever the same.

This weekend will see not only softer tyres used by Pirelli for the first time ever at the circuit, but also the possibility of mixed weather yet again going into the weekend. On the form he is currently on though it will take a mountain to stop him, especially with all the hard work going on behind the scenes. Verstappen will be looking to extend his championship lead this weekend.

“To win our home race last weekend was a whole Team effort and we can be very happy with that, but we cannot expect the same result easily this weekend. People will learn from what they didn’t do so well last week and also we have softer tyre compounds which could mix things up as well.

“We had a very positive race but there are always things we can do better and I naturally expect everyone to be closer this weekend as this is usually what happens when you have back-to-back races at the same track.

On the back of last weekend’s Styrian Grand Prix, this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix again at the Red Bull Ring brings the Alpine F1 Team another opportunity to add to their slowly increasing constructor’s tally, as they battle for sixth place.

Fernando Alonso after finishing ninth last time out, will experience racing at the same venue for a consecutive weekend for the first ever time in his long Formula 1 career. On the other side of the Alpine F1 Team, Esteban Ocon is hoping to bounce back after a highly disappointing Styrian Grand Prix, after finishing well outside of the points.

This weekend’s grand prix however does have a significant difference to last weekend, as the softest compound of Pirelli’s tyre range the C5, will be available for the first time ever at the circuit. Alpine Chief Race Engineer Ciaron Pilbeam knows just how important it is to gather as much information on the tyre’s performance as possible.

“We have the C5 compound this week, which we’ve never had in Austria before, so that brings a bit of an unknown. At a normal race weekend, the Friday plan is fairly standard and the information you need to gather doesn’t vary much.

“That is different this weekend as we already have information on the C3 and C4 and now we need to look at the C5. It will have more grip than the C4 and probably higher degradation as well. We’ll need to learn how high the degradation is and whether that pushes you towards a two-stop race strategy.”

For the first time in his long and illustrious Formula 1 career, Fernando Alonso will experience back-to-back races at the same circuit, with this weekends Austrian Grand Prix of course being held at the same venue as last weekend’s Styrian Grand Prix, the Red Bull Ring.

Alonso had a solid grand prix last time out, the Spaniard featured in the points places for the vast majority of the race, eventually crossing the line in ninth place.

This weekend represents a brand new challenge for the double world champion, never before has he raced at the same venue across consecutive weekends. If last season is anything to go by, the second race of a double-header tends to be much closer than the first. Alonso is looking forward to building on last weekend and keeping the momentum going.

“It’s the third race of our first triple header this season so I made sure to take some time to recharge the batteries ahead of this weekend. It’s my first time experiencing back to back races at the same venue in Formula 1. But I am looking forward to getting back to the track for another race here and to keep the momentum going. As we saw last weekend qualifying and traffic management can be difficult with it being such a short lap.

“Tyre management is also key here and the compounds are a step softer this weekend which presents a new challenge. The weather is also very unpredictable, where one minute it’s clear blue skies with high temperatures, and the next it’s pouring down with rain and possible thunderstorms. We enjoy these challenges as drivers and I think this makes racing here twice in a row quite interesting as you try to adjust and perfect your weekend.”

The final race of the first triple header of the season commences this weekend back at the Red Bull Ring for the second consecutive grand prix at the venue, the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team are eager to go one better than last weekend.

Mercedes go into this weekends Austrian Grand Prix after a double podium finish at the Styrian Grand Prix, the home of Red Bull Racing. Despite the double podium both Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas, were both comfortably beaten by race winner Max Verstappen.

Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff is aware that his team don’t have the quickest car at the circuit, however with softer tyres in operation this weekend compared to last, different strategic opportunities could present themselves to the team.

“Last weekend, we maximised the opportunities available to us and despite not having the quickest car, took a solid double podium and a good haul of points. Every time we hit the track; we race to win. But, while we missed out on the top step of the podium last time out, there was still plenty to be encouraged by. Our drivers performed well, our pit stops were excellent, and our strategy calls were strong.
 
“We head back to the Styrian mountains this weekend with another big challenge on our hands but running on the same circuit on consecutive weekends brings opportunity too. We had an experimental Friday with the car set-up last weekend, and we hope to arrive to FP1 this weekend with the car in a happier place, ready to build from there. The tyre compounds are also a step softer this weekend, so that will bring a new challenge for all the teams and fresh possibilities in terms of strategy.
 
“This championship is a heavyweight contest over 23 rounds, and we’re just over a third of the way through. There are many opportunities to come and it’s still all to play for, so we’re excited for round nine.”

After two decades, Chip Ganassi Racing‘s participation in the NASCAR Cup Series will come to an end. On Wednesday, Trackhouse Racing Team announced it had purchased all assets and both charters from CGR, which the team will begin using in 2022. One of the charters will go to the #99 of Daniel Suárez, while the fates of CGR’s drivers Kurt Busch and Ross Chastain are not known.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, though Ganassi noted the team was not for sale and that Marks provided “a great offer and an even better vision. As everyone knows, I care deeply for my employees so selling to someone like Justin, who is part of the CGR family, made the reality of selling much easier.” Marks raced for Ganassi in the Xfinity Series as a road course ringer from 2016 to 2018, and won his lone NASCAR national series race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in 2016.

The news came with great shock to the NASCAR world. Although CGR has never won a driver’s championship, Ganassi has long maintained a presence across numerous major motorsport including the NTT IndyCar Series, IMSA, and Extreme E, all of which he will continue beyond 2021.

Ganassi entered the NASCAR world in 2001 after buying a stake in Felix Sabates‘ Team SABCO. Eight years later, the team became Earnhardt Ganassi Racing after a merger with Dale Earnhardt, Inc., which added the #1 currently driven by Busch to the stable, before the Earnhardt name was dropped in 2014. Rob Kauffman, who helped scheme the charter system as chairman of the Race Team Alliance, became a minority owner the following year while Sabates retired at the end of 2020. The team has won twenty-six Cup races with the most recent by Busch at Las Vegas in 2020. CGR also raced in the Xfinity Series until 2019.

Owned by Marks and recording artist Pitbull, Trackhouse débuted in 2021 with Suárez as driver. One of three new full-time Cup organisations, the Richard Childress Racing-supported Chevrolet team has seen solid results with a trio of top ten finishes, a best finish of fourth at Bristol Dirt, and Suárez fighting for a playoff spot as he sits eighteenth in points.

After missing time due to injury, both Arrow McLaren SP‘s Felix Rosenqvist and Ed Carpenter Racing‘s Rinus Veekay have been medically cleared to return to NTT IndyCar Series competition this weekend at the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio.

Rosenqvist suffered a serious crash at the first race of the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix doubleheader when he climbed the tyre barriers in turn six at the Belle Isle street circuit, caused by what the team called “a non-recurrent mechanical fault”. Rosenqvist was okay after the crash and sustained no serious injury, but the Swede was taken to a hospital for further evaluation and was forced to miss the second race at Detroit and also the REV Group Grand Prix at Road America.

After this announcement on Tuesday, Rosenqvist is itching to be back on track.

“I’m thrilled to be back racing this weekend at Mid-Ohio,” Rosenqvist said.

“I have been so well taken care of after the accident and I would like to thank Dr. [Geoffrey] Billows and the entire IndyCar medical team for their professionalism in getting me back in racing shape. I am fully ready to get out there and push to the limit again, and I really can’t wait!”

James Hedley scored his third victory of the season to maintain his lead in the 2021 British F4 Championship standings on a weekend that also saw maiden wins for Arden Motorsport’s Zak Taylor and Phinsys by Argenti’s Matias Zagazeta at Brands Hatch.

As the series arrived at the Brands Hatch Indy Circuit for the third race weekend of 2021, it was the Fortec Motorsport racer that had a 25-point advantage over the early season rookie qualifying master Matthew Rees.

And with the opening race of the weekend being designated as the reverse grid race specifically for this meeting, it was Arden Motorsport new boy David Morales that led away from pole position and held a strong lead before coming under pressure later on from team mate rookie Thomas Ikin, with the rookie cup contender passing exquisitely around the outside of the sweeping and rollercoaster-like Paddock Hill bend.

Eventual race one winner Zak Taylor would join in on the battle between Arden team mates and get past Ikin and Morales at Druids as they battled for the lead, and built up an advantage that would not be toppled, even with a safety car intervention that Taylor dealt with masterfully to take his maiden British F4 victory.

Ikin took a second podium in as many race meetings as well as a third rookie victory, JHR Developments’ Abbi Pulling took a well deserved podium finish after making a last ditch pass on Carlin’s Dougie Bolger on the exit of Clearways in what would be a photo finish across the line.

Zak O’Sullivan enjoyed a positive weekend as the BRDC British Formula 3 Championship travelled to Silverstone GP for the second meeting of the 2021 season.

The Gloucestershire driver took two second-place finishes in the first two races, fighting back from 15th to ninth in the reverse-grid Race 3, clawing back one point on early-season title rival Reece Ushijima, who won the first two races and finished 13th in Race 3.

Hitech GP‘s Japanese-American driver was fastest in the second testing session on Thursday, claimed pole position for, and won, the first two races at Silverstone.

O’Sullivan qualified second by 0.061s for Race 1, starting third for Race 2.

He limited the damage with two second places, withstanding pressure from Roberto Faria (Fortec Motorsport) at the end of Race 2.

After a poor qualifying performance, Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN will be pleased with their comeback in the Styrian Grand Prix, but slightly disappointed that they were unable to have at least one of their cars in the points position.

Kimi Räikkönen feels that if there were ten more laps in the Grand Prix he could’ve put his car in a points scoring position, but obviously this was not a viable option so although the comeback was good, it wasn’t quite good enough.

There are some positives to take from the race with the strategy being good and the pace of the car being good and Räikkönen had some good battles which was helped by a good start to the Grand Prix. Next weekend, it’s the Austrian Grand Prix at the same track so the Fin will be hoping for a better Saturday in order to achieve a points finish.

“Ten more laps and we probably could have scored a few good points, but unfortunately that wasn’t the case. I think we did the best we could today and achieved the best result from where we started: the strategy was right, we had good pace and the car felt good.

“I had a good start, some nice battles and passed a few cars in the process: in the end, it’s just the points that were missing. We will try to have a better Saturday next week and give ourselves a better chance for the race.”

Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda went into the Styrian Grand Prix with a real possibility of a double points finish, this possibility disintegrated before the first lap had even ended, with Pierre Gasly having to retire after being hit by Charles Leclerc. Yuki Tsunoda however finished in tenth place to at least bring a point back for the disappointed team.

Tsunoda did well to bring a single point home to the team, the rookie battled hard throughout the race which saw the midfield extremely close together. As a whole the weekend was possibly the most consistent of his Formula 1 career so far, giving him much hope ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix this weekend, of course again at the Red Bull Ring.

“It’s a good step up from last week and I’m happy to be finishing in the points today. I want to say thank you to the team, we’ve put in a lot of work over the last few weeks, so to be in the top ten is really positive. I think potentially there was the opportunity to even finish in P8 or P9, but we just need to analyse everything and work hard ahead of next week.

“I believe this has been my most consistent weekend so far and I have to say overall I am happy. It was a real shame for Pierre today, but the pace of the car is definitely there, so we just need to put it all together next week. I’ve got some cool activities planned with AlphaTauri and Red Bull over the next few days and then we’ll start preparing for the second race here in Austria.”

“I don’t believe there was a lot I could do” – Pierre Gasly

For Gasly it was an extremely disappointing grand prix which ended before it could really begin. Having started from sixth, Gasly had a great opportunity to add to the team’s tally as well as his own. Unfortunately on the opening lap he was hit by a clumsy Leclerc, who struck Gasly’s rear left tyre just after re-entering the circuit having run wide at turn one.

The Alpine F1 Team have announced that Guanyu Zhou will make his first appearance in a free practice session this weekend ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix.

Zhou, currently leading the FIA Formula 2 championship racing with UNI-Virtuosi, will become the second Chinese driver to participate in an official Formula 1 session after Ma Qinghua, who took part in five sessions between 2012 and 2013.

The Alpine Academy driver says taking part in the free practice session at the Red Bull Ring is the next step on his way to competing in Formula 1 in the future.

“Driving in FP1 at a Formula 1 Grand Prix weekend is like a dream coming true and another step closer to my ultimate goal of becoming a Formula 1 driver,” said Zhou.  “It’s going to be a very special moment.

“I’m preparing myself as much as I can to be ready and also ensure that I’m able to complete all the targets and plans that the team have set me to do. There have not been many Chinese drivers in Formula 1, so to be behind the wheel of an F1 car during a race weekend is going to be a very proud feeling.

Fernando Alonso made it three consecutive top ten finishes in Sunday’s Styrian Grand Prix, with the Spaniard ending his afternoon at the Red Bull Ring ninth.

The Alpine F1 Team driver was embroiled in the battle for points all afternoon long, and although he was passed by both Scuderia Ferrari drivers, he believed he got as much out of the weekend as he could.

With a second race at the Red Bull Ring coming this weekend, Alonso says he hopes the team can analyse what happened last weekend in a bid to improve their performance second time around.

“I don’t think we could do much more than ninth position today, but it’s good to score some more points for the team,” said Alonso.  “We had a good start and fought with two or three cars on the first lap.

“After the first pit-stop we were right behind Lance Stroll in eighth and fought with him for the rest of the race. In the end the Ferraris on fresh tyres were just too fast for us.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing have come together once again with 23-year-old Santino Ferrucci as he will pilot the No. 45 Honda for the team at the upcoming Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio, with midwestern United States grocery store chain Hy-Vee sponsoring the car once again.

After leaving IndyCar full time in 2021 to pursue a part-time NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule, Ferrucci joined the team at the 105th Indianapolis 500 in May. He finished the race in sixth, the highest-placing RLLR car of the day and his third top ten in three Indy 500 starts. He was then brought back for the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix doubleheader, finishing sixth in the first race and tenth in the second race after recovering from a crash in qualifying.

Ferrucci is eager to work with RLLR again, especially at the track where he earned his career best qualifying position of second last season.

“I’m super excited to return to Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing to race the Hy-Vee entry at Mid-Ohio,” Ferrucci said.

“It’s been a great track for me in the past and last year I started on the front row. I’ve always enjoyed the track and its fans. I cannot wait to be working with the team again and continuing our relationship and our growth as the season moves forward. Hopefully we can get the Hy-Vee car into the top five and on the podium!”

The McLaren F1 Team Principal Andreas Seidl has apologised publicly to Daniel Ricciardo after a power loss early on in the Styrian Grand Prix lead to a poor result for the Australian on Sunday.

Ricciardo started in thirteenth and by the end of the first lap made it all the way up to ninth, looking set for a stormer that would finally kickstart his season with McLaren. Very soon afterwards a power loss issue with his engine meant he dropped back to his starting posistion, where he stayed, stuck behind the Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN of Kimi Räikkönen until the end of the race.

“We still end the weekend with some mixed feelings as today felt like a little bit of a missed opportunity,” said Seidl.

“Daniel had a great start from P13 to P9 in the early stages, but then a temporary loss of power meant four cars overtook him, which pretty much ended his race… Daniel, sorry for that.”

Ricciardo remained optimistic after starting and finishing thirteenth, despite running as high as P9 during the race. The Australian was able to recover from the power failure, but after losing four positions in succession, his race was effectively over.