Motorsports Racing News & Blog Articles

Mick Schumacher describes the Red Bull Ring circuit as a ‘very special track’ ahead of the double-header there, which starts with the Styrian Grand Prix this weekend.

The 2019 FIA Formula 2 champion has driven around the circuit before in his junior career, winning multiple times in Formula 3, but wasn’t the greatest in terms of results from his time in Formula 2 – with a pair of fourth-place finishes in six race starts.

However, Schumacher believes the Red Bull Ring has been a great track for himself and says he enjoys driving around the track.

“I’ve always been very happy around the Red Bull Ring; it’s been a great track for me and I’ve been fast. In terms of luck, maybe it wasn’t always my race, but I think in general we’ve had the pace.

“In 2019, it was the first race where I had the pace to stay with the top runners, even though it was a lap down, and I was just as close as what Nyck de Vries was doing at the time, and he won the championship that year.

The FIA Formula One World Championship moves onto the next part of the triple header this weekend with the Styrian Grand Prix. Just like last season the Red Bull Ring in Austria will hold back to back races, but this year with a key difference.

Pirelli have opted for different tyre compounds for each Austrian Grand Prix, this is so different strategies can be played out over the two races at the venue, adding an extra element to each grand prix.

For this weekend it will be the C2, C3 and C4 tyre compounds in use, the second softest combination. For the final race of the triple header again at Austria in just over a weeks time it will be the C3,C4 and C5 compounds in use, the softest range of Pirelli’s tyres.

The same strategy was used last year by Pirelli at Silverstone over the double header there. Those who can remember the British Grand Prix from last season will recall the volume of tyre failures and that dramatic last lap!

The softest combination is viable for the Red Bull Ring, the circuit isn’t too demanding on the tyres, despite its short and rollercoaster like style. This weekend looks set to be the traditional one-stop race usually seen at Austria, however the following grand prix may require two-stops with the softer tyres in use.

Carlos Sainz Jr. said Scuderia Ferrari struggled with tyre-wear throughout the weekend in France, and that carried into the race on Sunday as neither driver finished in the top ten.

The Spaniard driver suffered from degradation regardless of the compound, especially on the second stint with hard tyres that saw, and that saw Sainz begin to fall down the pecking order and out of the points.

Ultimately, Sainz finished seven seconds behind tenth-place Lance Stroll, with George Russell also closing in on the Ferrari driver. But Sainz is confident the team can address this issue ahead of the double header in Austria.

“It is clear that today we didn’t perform well and that we lacked pace,” Sainz said. “ Since the very beginning we really struggled with degradation and we carried that issue through the entire race, regardless of the compound.”

“Despite my best efforts, it was impossible to hold our initial position. We must analyse what happened, understand the issue and try to address it. If there is a team capable of doing that, it’s this one. A double header in Austria awaits and I’m sure we will bounce back.”

Sebastian Vettel said the Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team needed to try something different during the French Grand Prix on Sunday, and they were rewarded with both cars finishing inside the top ten.

The German made a mistake in his first stint that saw him lose a little time to his rivals, and without that, he believes he could have caught those ahead of him quicker and given him a chance of bettering his ninth-place finish.

Ultimately, Vettel finished just four seconds behind sixth-placed Daniel Ricciardo, with Pierre Gasly and Fernando Alonso also involved in the battle.  But the German was pleased with the strong performance put in by Aston Martin after struggling in Qualifying on Saturday.

“I think we had to do something different with the strategy today [by pitting late] and it worked out for us quite nicely with both cars inside the points,” said Vettel.  “Unfortunately, I went off the track in the first stint and lost a lot of time because I was just pushing a bit too hard.

“Without that, I would have been closer to the group of cars ahead and with fresher tyres at the end. So maybe we could have finished a bit higher up if things had been perfect.

Fernando Alonso admitted the French Grand Prix was a return to the kind of form the Alpine F1 Team had been showing prior to the Monaco and Azerbaijan Grand Prix, and he was happy with his eighth-place finish at the Circuit Paul Ricard.

The Spaniard admitted the tyre degradation seen in France was more than expected, but he was able to manage his race well to secure four points for Alpine in their home Grand Prix.

Alonso finished on the back of the battle for sixth behind both Daniel Ricciardo and Pierre Gasly, but he was unable to make any kind of move on those ahead before the chequered flag fell.

“We started ninth and finished eighth and all in all we executed the race how we wanted, so I am happy with the result today,” said Alonso.  “We weren’t expecting the tyres to degrade like they did and our Medium tyres didn’t last very long at the beginning of the race.

“I was a little bit worried but when we switched to the Hards we showed strong pace and we carried this through to the end and it looked like we might be able to overtake Gasly and Ricciardo ahead in the last few laps.

It was a very mixed French Grand Prix for the Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda team, with Pierre Gasly finishing seventh at his home race adding more points to the team’s tally, unlike Yuki Tsunoda who finished thirteenth.

Gasly had a very strong home race, the Frenchman did excellent early on to be right in the mix with both the McLaren F1 Team and the Scuderia Ferrari. Gasly did unfortunately lose two places during his pit-stop, one to each team. The Frenchman recovered well though to finish behind both McLaren’s but ahead of the Ferrari’s, resulting in a seventh place finish.

Tsunoda had a difficult race, after crashing in qualifying the rookie had to start from the pit-lane. Tsunoda recovered some ground very quickly though making up three places on the opening lap. His progress was halted however after getting stuck behind both Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN cars. The team tried to undercut both however it did mean that come the end of the race, Tsunoda’s tyres were finished. All in all a thirteenth place finish isn’t the end of the world for the youngster.

AlphaTauri Head of Vehicle Performance Guillaume Dezoteux thinks Gasly did a fantastic job, and that lots needs to be learned and analysed to support Tsunoda.

“It’s been a successful but difficult race today. We managed to bring home a seventh place with Pierre, which is a nice reward for the weekend. After the morning rain, the track had a big reset and the tyres grained quite badly, not only on our cars but on most of the field. In the race, we had to do a lot of tyre management to stay on the one stop strategy and Pierre did a fantastic job at attacking and defending throughout.

For home-boy Pierre Gasly it was a strong performance at the French Grand Prix, the Frenchman fought hard throughout the race to bring home an excellent seventh place. Rookie Yuki Tsunoda was thirteenth.

Gasly put on a great show in front of his home fans with some hard but fair overtakes, even frustrating McLaren F1 Team’s Lando Norris with one of them. Gasly was well in the mix with the Scuderia Ferrari’s and McLarens all race, but unfortunately lost a spot to one of each team during his pit-stop.

Nevertheless it was a good drive by Gasly, who adds further points to his team’s constructors tally.

“I think objectively it was a good race, we finished behind some strong competitors and we can’t be too dissatisfied with that. Obviously deep inside I would’ve liked to have finished even further up the grid in front of my home crowd, but it was a difficult race and I think we did the best we could’ve today. We lost two positions with the pitstop, both Ricciardo and Charles getting the undercut, and that cost us a bit.

“We’ll have to review the data and see if we could’ve done anything differently. I gave everything I could out there today, and we had some great fights, so I have to be pleased with that. At the end of the day I think to finish P7 is still a strong race for us and we’re taking home some good points.”

It was yet another brilliant performance by the McLaren F1 Team at the French Grand Prix, with both Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo finishing in the top ten, crossing the line fifth and sixth respectively.

The team continue their strong claim as being the best of the rest with both cars finishing in the top six, adding a strong haul of points to their ever-growing constructors tally.

This tally continues to grow at an impressive rate for a midfield team, with Norris continuing his run of being the only driver so far this season to finish every race in the points. Ricciardo too looked much better at the Circuit Paul Ricard and will hopefully be even more confident going into the Red Bull Ring, a circuit the team has great recent performances at.

For the team however the French Grand Prix wasn’t like any other weekend, the team ran special liveries in honour of significant team figure and shareholder Mansour Ojjeh, who sadly passed away exactly one week before Sunday’s race.

Team Principal Andreas Seidl is extremely proud of the team’s performance and knows that Ojjeh would’ve loved the team’s result.

It was yet another sublime Sunday by Lando Norris and the McLaren F1 Team at the French Grand Prix with the British driver crossing the line as best of the rest in fifth, just ahead of team-mate Daniel Ricciardo in an excellent sixth.

It was one of the team’s best overall performances of the season with both cars within the top six, Norris and Ricciardo were both on different strategies. With Norris, the team had him run long on his opening stint on the medium tyres, before moving onto the hards which were much fresher than those around him.

On the fresher tyres Norris manages to carve is way through the field up to fifth place with some brilliant overtaking moves. Norris continues his run of points finishes this season and is now the only driver to finish in the points at every grand prix in 2021. He will be looking to keep the run going in Austria.

“Obviously I’m really happy. I wasn’t really expecting a P5 coming into today, even with a perfect race. I just didn’t think we would have the pace that we did. It was tricky with the tyre management but a lot better than we hoped, which is always good news.

“A good one for us as a team, a fifth and a sixth, one of the best team results this season. Overall a fun race. Hopefully we can continue this into the next few races.”

Mario Isola says Red Bull Racing played a ‘strategic masterclass’ during the French Grand Prix, with Max Verstappen’s two-stop strategy getting the better of the one-stop strategy that was made by the two Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team drivers.

Aside from the struggling Charles Leclerc, who was forced to pit his Scuderia Ferrari as his tyres dropped off the cliff and he tumbled down the order, Verstappen was the only driver inside the top ten to make two pit stops at the Circuit Paul Ricard, and it paid off as he caught and passed Valtteri Bottas for second and then Lewis Hamilton for the lead.

Verstappen’s pace on newer medium compound tyres in the closing stages was dramatically faster than either Mercedes was able to manage, and as a result the Dutchman was able to take his third victory of the season and extend his advantage at the top of the Drivers’ Championship.

Isola, the Head of F1 and Car Racing at Pirelli Motorsport, says the unknown conditions thrown at the teams and drivers on Sunday made for an exciting strategy battle to play out, and it showed Red Bull got it right by gambling on pitting Verstappen twice.

“This race turned into an intense and exciting strategic battle, with a number of unknown factors such as cooler track temperatures, rain this morning that reset the track, and wind that continued to catch a few drivers out, all playing a part,” said Isola. “These aspects contributed as well to increased front-left graining, which was key today.

Andrew Shovlin admits it was frustrating to see the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team lose out on victory in Sunday’s French Grand Prix, with Max Verstappen overhauling Lewis Hamilton on the penultimate lap at the Circuit Paul Ricard to take his third victory of 2021.

There was even more disappointment for Mercedes as Valtteri Bottas also lost a podium finish late in the day, with the Finn losing out to the second Red Bull of Sergio Pérez.  The result sees Verstappen pull further away at the head of the Drivers’ Championship and Red Bull likewise draw away from Mercedes in the Constructors’ battle.

Both Hamilton and Bottas complained about their tyres suffering in France, with both losing performance in the closing laps that made life easier of Red Bull, who played a different tactical battle and came out on top when it mattered.

And Shovlin, the Track Engineering Director at Mercedes, says they will need to go away an identify the reasons why Red Bull were able to out perform the team around a track traditionally classed as a Mercedes stronghold.

“A frustrating day, we had a good opportunity to win and get both cars on the podium so the result is obviously very disappointing,” said Shovlin.  “Lewis had control of the race in the first stint and if anything we looked to be a bit better on degradation.

Toto Wolff says the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team will need to look into what happened during the French Grand Prix on Sunday, with the team losing out on victory on the penultimate lap to Red Bull Racing.

Lewis Hamilton led early on at the Circuit Paul Ricard but dropped behind Max Verstappen during the pit stops early on as Red Bull made use of the undercut by pitting the Dutchman two laps earlier than the reigning World Champion.

Verstappen then pitted again and fell to fourth but, on fresher tyres, was able to catch and pass Valtteri Bottas for second and then Hamilton for the lead.  The decisive move for the win came on the penultimate lap.

Both Hamilton and Bottas struggled for tyre performance in the closing stages, which made the latter also easy prey for the second Red Bull of Sergio Pérez, meaning Mercedes saw a potential one-two finish become a two-four finish.

Wolff, the Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport, says the pace of the Red Bull’s straight out of the pits made all the difference, and they will be looking into how they can improve their own tyre warm-up for the upcoming races.

Lewis Hamilton fell further behind Max Verstappen in the Drivers’ Championship after the French Grand Prix, with the Briton finishing second behind the Dutchman at the Circuit Paul Ricard.

The Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team gambled on pitting only once on Sunday while Verstappen pitted twice, and the fresher rubber for the Red Bull Racing driver gave him the pace needed to catch Hamilton and pass him for the lead on the penultimate lap.

Hamilton led initially after Verstappen made a mistake heading into turn two on lap one, but opted to pit two laps later than his rival, with the Red Bull driver edging ahead into turn one. Red Bull ten gambled on a second pit stop, which left Mercedes on the back foot and powerless to defend in the closing laps.

Despite losing the win, Hamilton was pleased with the result in France as the team worked through problems that had affected their Friday, although he acknowledges there is work to be done in order to fight back against Red Bull and take the challenge to Verstappen across the upcoming races.

“Congratulations to Max, he did a great job today,” said Hamilton.  “The Red Bulls had better straight line speed all weekend but considering that we had such a difficult Friday, I’m really happy with this result.

EKS and Johan Kristoffersson are two of the most prominent names in the FIA World Rallycross Championship. The two have spent their histories in the series competing against each other for championship glory. However, in a somewhat unprecedented move, Kristoffersson will now team up with the EKS squad for the 2021 season, as the pair join forces for a title assault. The pairing has resulted in a new squad being formed; EKS JC, a merger between Mattias Ekström’s EKS squad and Kristoffersson’s JC Raceteknick outfit. 

Here is what Johan had to say about the announcement;

“First of all, I’m very pleased that I can contest a full World RX season, and to do so with a new team is like a new challenge for me. EKS JC know how to win races and championships, and after our first two test days, we saw that we could learn and gain from each other. Joel Christoffersson and the whole team are very passionate and motivated to achieve the goal of defending my Drivers’ title and, together with Enzo, also the Teams’ title.

“The target when you enter a championship as the reigning champion is always to win it again, but that’s certainly no easy task. It’s a position I’ve been in twice already, and we will do whatever it takes to fight for the crown this year.

“The competition will always be there and – because rallycross is rallycross – there will always be a lot of action. We fully expect to have to fight hard, but we are ready for that and I really, really can’t wait to get to the first event with my new car and see where we are at.”

Hi Guys

Well, what a start its been to the Protyre Motorsport Ginetta GT5 Challenge! Five races in and I’m lying second in the standings, just six-points off the lead having finished each race on the podium to date. And the bonus is that Alpaca, a Yorkshire-based company that has experts to help grow businesses, has come on board as a sponsor. 

The season began at Thruxton in early May and it was a really good start to the season for me. Finishing second and third and to be lying second in the championship heading to the most recent Brands Hatch races was really encouraging. Maybe I could have qualified better, which would have put me higher up on the grid, but considering it was the first GT5 meeting of the year, I was very happy.

In Race 1, we took a gamble. The track was wet but we opted for ‘slicks’ hoping the track would dry out quickly. Thankfully that’s what happened which benefitted my Elite team-mate John Bennett and myself whereas the pole-sitter started on wets which cost him. 

My start wasn’t great and conditions were tricky early on, the track was very greasy, and maybe I was over cautious. I completed lap one in seventh place but the track came to me as it dried allowing the tyres to get up to temperature.