Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

From the start of September, Mark White will become the brand new Operations Director at the Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team.

White has over twenty five years experience behind him having started at Honda in 1994. Whilst working for the Japanese manufacturer White took on various managerial roles including leading Synchro Motorsport, the Honda race team based out of their UK manufacturing sites.

White will take full responsibility of Production Control, Quality Assurance and Manufacturing. White will report to Bob Halliwell, who has been promoted to Chief Operating Officer.

Aston Martin CEO and Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer, is extremely pleased with White’s arrival.

“Mark White’s arrival at Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One™ Team will be a key appointment and add valuable expertise to our factory operations. Mark’s experience of the automotive world will be especially relevant as the cost cap comes into force with greater emphasis on containing manufacturing expenses. 

In the build up to this weekend’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone, the world was introduced to what the next generation of Formula 1 car will look like, as a full scale 2022 F1 car was presented to the media.

The part we already new about was the brand new for 2022, 18-inch Pirelli tyres where the rims diameter alone is five inches bigger than it currently is and has been since the 1960’s.

The brand new Pirelli tyres for 2022 have the same tread width as currently used but with an overall slightly bigger diameter, growing from 660 millimetres to 720 millimetres. The most dramatic change to the tyres for 2022 is a reduction in the sidewall, the sidewall now resembles the low-profile Pirelli tyres seen on some of the world’s leading performance road cars.

The tyres new profile will see the cars behaving differently in 2022, the P Zero F1 tyre will change direction more precisely than ever before. During testing of the new tyre, feedback has been very positive from the drivers. The 2022 cars will be less sensitive to aerodynamic turbulence, hopefully meaning that from next season onwards drivers will be able to sit much closer behind one another.

The tyre compounds for next season will also be completely new, however as normal there will be a range of five different compounds, with three being chosen for each grand prix. From 2022, Pirelli will officially be the only tyre manufacturer in Formula 1 which has manufactured all the wheel sizes seen in the championship, since the sport began. An incredible feat for the manufacturer, as the excitement for 2022 continues to grow.

Williams Racing go into their home grand prix on the back of coming agonisingly close to George Russell getting his first points for the team, after he made it to final qualifying for the first ever time with the team.

In front of 140,000 British fans on Sunday, Williams will be hoping that their home grand prix will see their points drought come to an end, especially with the new weekend format possibly giving the team an open oppurtuniy.

For the first time ever in Formula 1 qualifying will take place on Friday evening, with the result determining the grid for a sprint race on Saturday which in itself will decide the grid for the traditional Sunday race.

Head of Vehicle Performance Dave Robson is really looking forward to the weekend and is hoping to be battling with the midfield teams yet again.

“The event at Silverstone is always a highlight of the Formula One season, as well as an iconic event of the British summer. This year, the event is notable for the experimental format which will see traditional Qualifying take place on Friday evening and then a Sprint Qualifying session on Saturday afternoon, before the main Grand Prix on Sunday. For us, this represents quite a change in how we approach, plan and execute the event.

George Russell goes into his home race this weekend at Silverstone, on the back of possibly his greatest performance yet for Williams Racing at the Austrian Grand Prix.

After making it to final qualifying for the first time with Williams, Russell narrowly missed out on the illustrious points finish he is so desperate to get with the British team. Russell will be going into the British Grand Prix full of confidence and belief, that his first points finish with the team is just around the corner.

The British driver is excited for the weekend ahead and is expecting the full capacity crowd to make an electric atmosphere.

“I am really excited for my home race and to have all the British fans back will be an incredible experience. It will be a challenge with the new format this weekend, so we are going to have to be on our toes to make the most of it. All in all, the British Grand Prix at Silverstone is always a great weekend; it has the best crowds of the year, the fans are incredibly passionate, and the circuit offers great racing. There’s nothing quite like it.”

“I am super excited for Silverstone” – Nicholas Latifi

After the Canadian Grand Prix got cancelled, Nicholas Latifi is treating this weekend as his home race, with the British Grand Prix of course being Williams’ home race.

Thursday morning brought big news for Ford allies Team Penske and Wood Brothers Racing as the former announced NASCAR Xfinity Series driver Austin Cindric will replace Brad Keselowski in the #2 Ford Mustang for the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season. Cindric was initially planned to take over WBR’s #21 in 2022, which will now be filled by Harrison Burton who moves over from Joe Gibbs Racing and consequently leaves Matt DiBenedetto out of a ride.

Keselowski departs Penske after twelve years in the organisation, during which he won the 2010 Xfinity and 2012 Cup titles. While he has not formally announced his 2022 plans, plans to become a co-owner of Roush Fenway Racing are all but confirmed; he previously ran the Camping World Truck Series team Brad Keselowski Racing, whom Cindric drove for in 2017 before moving up to the Xfinity Series.

“Getting to drive for Mr. Roger Penske in the No. 2 has been a tremendous opportunity, and I am so proud of the success we’ve had together,” read a written statement from Keselowski. “His guidance has helped me both be a better competitor, but even more so, a better man.”When I first walked through the doors at Team Penske, the team had 65 Cup Series wins and was on the hunt for their first NASCAR Championship. Over our years together we developed into a formidable force. Today, the team has more than 130 Cup Series wins, two XFINITY Championships and two Cup Series Championships. I am so proud to have played a role in these wins and milestones.

“Looking to the future, I wish Austin and the team all the best in this next chapter. I extend my sincerest gratitude to the entire 2 crew for their commitment and work over these past 12+ years. I know they will continue to do great things together with Austin at the wheel.

“Making the decision to part ways with Team Penske to embrace a new opportunity and challenge was a difficult one, and one I did not take lightly. I know that I am leaving in a good place though, and I am both excited and eager to share the details of what’s next for me soon.

Roman Bilinski brought home a solid points haul from his debut weekend in the BRDC British Formula 3 Championship at Donington Park (10/11 July).

After being expected to replace Alex Connor at Arden Motorsport, the Polish driver was eventually drafted in to replace Frederick Lubin, who was ruled out of testing and the race weekend on medical advice.

Having driven for Arden in the British F4 Championship last season, he made the switch to Carlin over the off-season.

But he returned to the Banbury squad for their trip to the Leicestershire circuit for the third race weekend of the F3 season, after taking seventh- and fifth-place finishes at Brands Hatch last time out in F4.

He immediately impressed, going third, eighth, fifth and second in the four testing sessions on Thursday, before adding second- and third-fastest times on Friday.

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series owner/driver Dawson Cram announced Wednesday that he will move up to the Xfinity Series for Saturday’s Ambetter Get Vaccinated 200 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. He will drive the #74 Chevrolet Camaro of Mike Harmon Racing.

The 19-year-old Cram has raced for his family-run Cram Racing Enterprises since the second half of the 2020 Truck season. Cram has raced in the series since 2018 with a highest run of fourteenth at Michigan in 2020 for Long Motorsports, the assets of which were purchased to form CRE. In 2021, he is running much of the Truck schedule in the #41 but has occasionally allowed others like Cody Erickson and Todd Peck to make starts. After twelve of fourteen races, the #41 is thirty-third in owner points with a best finish of seventeenth by Cram at the Daytona Road Course in February.

The #74 has primarily been driven by Bayley Currey in 2021, though he stepped out of the seat at Pocono for Jesse Iwuji. The car is currently thirty-eighth in the Xfinity owner standings with Currey scoring a seventh at Phoenix for the team’s second top ten in its history. Kyle Weatherman, who drives the partner #47, holds the other top ten of eighth at Kentucky in 2020.

“Extremely honored and excited to announce I will be making my @NASCAR_Xfinity debut this weekend at @NHMS,” tweeted Cram, “thank you so much @mhrracing and @BayleyCurrey blessed to be able to live my dream!”

The #74 was set to start thirty-fifth in the race, though Cram will likely be sent to the rear for a driver change as Currey is listed on the entry list.

Kyle Larson‘s dominant début season with Hendrick Motorsports has rewarded him with a contract extension. On Wednesday, the team announced Larson has signed a deal that will keep in the organisation through the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season. His contract had previously been set to expire after 2022.

Since his return to NASCAR for the 2021 season, Larson has been on a tear as a first-year Hendrick driver. After twenty-one races, he has a series-high four wins while his eleven top fives and fourteen top tens are tied for the most; he is also second in points. From the Coca-Cola 600 on 30 May to the inaugural Ally 400 on 20 June, he won four straight events with three points rounds and the exhibition All-Star Race, and would have made it five in a row had his tyre not blown on the final lap at Pocono 1.

“It’s been a big year for Kyle,” team owner Rick Hendrick said. “His talent inside the race car has been on full display, and he’s doing amazing things through his foundation and with our partners. I’m proud of his hard work and look forward to having him on our team for many years to come.”

Hendrick Automotive Group‘s HendrickCars.com brand will continue sponsoring his #5 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for the next two seasons, which includes supporting his non-NASCAR exploits such as dirt track racing. When he was suspended by NASCAR in the spring of 2020, he enjoyed a tremendously successful dirt season that included victories in sprint cars and late models.

HendrickCars will comprise the bulk of his sponsor schedule by appearing on the #5 for thirty-five of thirty-eight races in 2022. Valvoline will support him for the other three.

There is a high level of intrigue surrounding this years British Grand Prix with the debut of a brand new weekend format, which adds sprint races to the calendar which should promise for more overtaking which adds the potential for an even more exciting British Grand Prix Weekend than usual to the delight of the full capacity crowd at Silverstone.

Kimi Räikkönen is excited to try out the brand new format, but is wary to not be too quick to judge the format before the weekend has begun and the Fin will then make his mind up on the format after he has experienced it for himself.

“The new format will be interesting: I don’t feel we are in a position to judge it yet, let’s see what this weekend brings and then we can make our mind up about it with more knowledge.”

Räikkönen feels that it will be imperative to be competitive right from the off on the weekend to be in with a chance of scoring points in either or both of the races on the weekend.

“Most importantly, no matter how the weekend looks like, we need to make sure we’re competitive from the beginning: things start to matter on Friday and we need to be right in the battle for the top ten from the start if we want to be there at the end of the day on Sunday.”

Marcin Budkowski, the Executive Director of the Alpine F1 Team, is looking forward to the next challenge that the British Grand Prix brings.

Silverstone will be the first track to trial the new sprint race format, giving a smaller thirty-minute race instead of a third practice session. How the track finishes that race will be how the grid lines up for Sunday’s race. And Budkowski is expecting there to be some unpredictability around the shorter races.

“We’re looking forward to trialling the new race weekend format for the very first time this weekend in Silverstone. It’s definitely something new and will create some action on all three days.

“For the teams, the main challenge will be to setup the cars and build the drivers’ confidence in one hour of practice on Friday morning only, as we then go straight into Qualifying,” said Budkowski.

“The cars will be in parc ferme from that point onwards, which means we can’t really touch them anymore. There are also different rules for tyre usage, including free choice for the race itself.

Esteban Ocon has not been having the easiest of times since he signed a three-year deal with Alpine F1 Team in mid-June. The Frenchman finished out of the top ten at the French and Styrian Grand Prix and was forced to retire from the Austrian Grand Prix.

Ocon is hoping to put his woes from the triple header behind him and hopefully get a good result at this weekends race, the British Grand Prix.

Ocon said: “The France-Austria triple header was not as successful as we had hoped. It’s good that we’re heading to a completely different circuit, taking on a new challenge and having a reset. The team and I have been working very hard behind the scenes to see what we can do to improve our performance.

“I know we’ll come back to the level we had at the start of the season and the hard work will only continue until we achieve that and even go beyond. I’m really motivated for a good result this weekend.“

“I suspect the gaps between the field won’t be as close” – Alonso

Fernando Alonso has been a stand out performer of 2021. The veteran returned to the field after a two-year hiatus and has proven that he still has what it takes to compete. To contrast his teammate, Alonso finished in the points in every race in the triple-header and has even had the pace to compete against McLaren F1 Team and Scuderia Ferrari at times.

The Alfa Romeo name will remain in Formula 1 beyond the 2021 season after the Italian marque signed a new multiple year agreement with Sauber Motorsport.

The Alfa Romeo name returned to the sport back in 2018, first as a sponsor of the Sauber F1 Team, then as the new name for the outfit that currently fields Kimi Räikkönen alongside Antonio Giovinazzi.

The extension of the contract had been uncertain, but now the announcement has been made that they will stay united beyond this year and continue their work in moving up the grid – they finished eighth in the Constructors’ Championship in 2020 and currently hold the same position in 2021 after the opening nine rounds.

“We are delighted to be announcing the extension of this partnership,” said Frédéric Vasseur, the Team Principal of Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN.  “Alfa Romeo have been an incredible companion over the last few years, and we are even more excited about the chapters that are yet to come.

“The new regulations are giving us the chance to make another step forward and I firmly believe we are perfectly placed to make big gains together. We are looking forward to our future together and to keeping moving towards the front of the grid.

The Mercedes-EQ Formula E Team failed to score points in either race of the New York City E-Prix, and Team Principal Ian James admitted it was not the kind of weekend the team needed so close to the end of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship season.

Nyck de Vries has fallen to tenth place in the Drivers’ Championship after finishing thirteenth and eighteenth across the two races, while Stoffel Vandoorne retired from race one and could only finish twelfth in race two as he slipped down to thirteenth in the standings.

James says they will leave the Brooklyn Street Circuit disappointed, but he believes the team will fight to return to the kind of pace that took them to three victories in the opening five races.

“New York wasn’t the weekend we were hoping for,” said James.  “It wasn’t the weekend we needed or should have delivered either. Stepping onto the plane home tomorrow without having scored a single point this weekend is more than disappointing.

“We found ourselves in a difficult position this weekend. It hasn’t been the first time we didn’t score as good of a result as we hoped for, but it has been the first track this season on which we seemed to struggle to find the pace we know we normally have. That’s frustrating, but also an opportunity and challenge for the team to bounce back from.

The Stadium Super Trucks weekend at the inaugural Big Machine Music City Grand Prix in Nashville will feature a grid of eleven trucks with heavy involvement from Crosley Brands, who will sponsor four drivers including a pair of returning faces after years away. On Wednesday, the series’ entry as a support round for the NTT IndyCar Series was formally confirmed by both race and SST organisers. The series’ participation was initially announced by the GP last week. Scheduled for 6–8 August, practice/qualifying will take place on the first day followed by a race on each of the next two.

Crosley Brands, a radio and record company run by SST driver Bo LeMastus, serves as the title sponsor for the series and will also sponsor their CEO. Arie Luyendyk Jr., a three-time race winner who most recently ran the season opener in St. Petersburg, will also drive a Crosley-sponsored truck, as will Ricky Johnson and Jeff Ward. Johnson and Ward, both motocross and off-road stars, make their returns to SST after last racing in the inaugural season in 2013, Johnson made four starts that year and scored a runner-up finish at San Diego, while Ward ran the first four races with a highest placement of eighth at Long Beach and San Diego.

“We couldn’t be happier to be in Nashville with the Crosley Stadium Super Trucks,” said LeMastus. “We just enjoy being involved and the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix is going to be a huge annual event. Scott Borchetta from Big Machine is a big supporter of music and motorsports, and so are we at Crosley. We plan to be involved with this event for many years. In addition to being the title sponsor of the Stadium Super Trucks series, Crosley will also be the primary sponsor on four trucks in the race. Crosley will sponsor the trucks of Arie Luyendyk Jr., Jeff Ward, Ricky Johnson and myself. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”

The GP will be held on a 2.17-mile, 11-turn street circuit in downtown Nashville. Four ramps will be placed in various locations around the track.

“The addition of Robby Gordon‘s Crosley Stadium Super Trucks to the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix line up is very exciting, as we have added to the massive lineup of entertainment and racing stars coming to Nashville,” race CEO Matt Crews added. “Nashville is a world-class city and global entertainment capital and the SST trucks will be a huge hit on the streets of Nashville.”

Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team go into their home grand prix on the back of a frustrating triple-header, however with new upgrades for this weekend they will be looking to start hunting down Red Bull Racing and Max Verstappen at the British Grand Prix.

Mercedes go into this weekend having been comfortably beaten by Red Bull at both rounds held at the Red Bull Ring, it leaves the team behind in the constructors and with work to be done.

Lewis Hamilton too has seen the gap between himself and championship leader Verstappen grow significantly, he will be hoping that the 140,000 British fans who will be in attendance on Sunday, will give him and the team the boost they need to start the comeback. Hamilton has always performed well at Silverstone, his home-race of course, this weekend will be even more special for the world champion though after having the newly named Hamilton straight named after the seven-time world champion.

Valtteri Bottas ended the triple-header as the faster of the two Mercedes at Spielberg, the Finnish driver who continues to be racing for his seat goes into this weekend full of confidence.

This weekend also see’s the first trial of the brand new weekend format, with qualifying on Friday evening and a sprint race on Saturday afternoon to determine the grid for Sunday’s race. Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff is really looking forward to all the challenges the team face this weekend with the new format, and hopes the sold out crowd will give the team a much needed boost.