Category: Auto Sport

The Andretti Autosport driver took a lights-to-flag victory on Sunday in Rome after starting from pole, leading every lap and taking the bonus point for the fastest lap.

It means the Briton is 24 points clear of Nick Cassidy in the championship standings after the Envision Racing driver was collected by fellow Kiwi Mitch Evans early in the race which meant neither driver scored points.

Dennis had stated on Saturday after finishing fourth that it would have been difficult to beat Evans and Cassidy on pure pace after they finished first and second but praised his team for turning things around.

“A really good day. We didn’t expect it after yesterday’s performance where we were obviously lacking some pace, but we managed to turn it around and come home with the perfect day,” he said.

“Obviously unfortunate that Mitch and Nick DNF’d but I felt like we still had the pace to win the race even with them there.

“I think it was a good race as a whole and the team can be really proud of what they did overnight with the improvements, and we delivered the perfect result.”

Only two races remain this season at London’s ExCeL where Dennis has performed strongly in the past, taking wins during the last two seasons at the venue.

Despite heading to the UK with strong previous form and a healthy lead in the standings, Dennis admits that he still ‘needs to bring my A-game’ in order to ensure he can win the championship.

“It’s definitely on,” said Dennis when asked about his championship chances.

“Obviously a commanding lead in the championship but the layout is very similar to here in terms of the corner layout, so I expect Jaguar to be strong again.

“I still need to bring my A-game, I still need to qualify at the front and try and score as many points as possible.

“It obviously helps with the 24-point lead but nevertheless we just need to work really hard until then and arrive with the best preparation possible.”

The 18-time WRC rally winner and Toyota WRC boss is set to make a competitive return to rallying’s top flight with an outing at Rally Finland in a 2023 specification GR Yaris Rally1 next month.

While Latvala is scheduled to conduct a pre-event test day in the car before the rally, the Finn logged some valuable seat time at this week’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, which included runs through the event’s 2.5km Forest rally stage.

Latvala was also joined in the car by former team-mate and 2003 world champion Petter Solberg as part of a special Autosport feature that will be published next month.

“Actually, it was good practice,” Latvala told Autosport.

“It helps a lot that I managed to get some sort of idea of the car before the rally. I’m looking forward to the rest of the weekend as I can drive the car more.

“It will help to get the feeling of the car before the test so that when I come to the test I don’t lose time to just understanding the car.”

After retiring from full-time driving in the WRC at the end of 2019, the 38-year-old is new to championship’s hybrid cars that were introduced last year.

Reflecting on driving the car, Latvala admitted he was impressed and surprised by the effectiveness of the hybrid boost.

“I must say the boost, I’m really impressed. When the kick comes it feels like an old Audi Quattro when the turbo boost comes in,” he added.

“This car is so easy to drive and you don’t feel the bumps like you used to. The suspension is at a really high level compared to WRC cars 20 years ago.

“I have never really driven it on a stage and to go with Petter I knew I couldn’t show that I was very slow and at the same time you can’t crash, so you have to find a way to adapt to the car quickly.

“It was my first time with the hybrid really on and it was exciting and Petter was also really excited about it. His passion for rallying and motorsport is amazing.”

All three WRC teams are in attendance at Goodwood this week to celebrate 50 years of the WRC, with eight-time world champion Sebastien Ogier and Elfyn Evans joining the Toyota ranks.

Thierry Neuville and Esapekka Lappi are set to pilot the Hyundai i20 Rally1 on Goodwood’s famous hillclimb and the rally stage, while M-Sport’s Ford Puma will be driven by Ott Tanak and team boss Malcolm Wilson.

Bird was running fourth when he lost control of his Jaguar machine through the high-speed left sweep of Turn 6 and bounced off the barrier.

After coming to a stop on the racing line, Bird was hit first by Envision Racing’s Buemi and then suffered a second impact with the Maserati of Edoardo Mortara.

All three drivers were eliminated in the accident, which also claimed Antonio Felix da Costa (Porsche), Lucas di Grassi (Mahindra) and Robin Frijns (Abt Cupra).

All drivers were able to extract themselves and were unhurt in the incident, which led to a lengthy red flag, with teams in a race against time to build up new chassis for Sunday’s second race.

“There’s a lot of bumps to this corner and too many drains that are raised up,” said Bird, who had led Saturday’s race initially – a contest that was won by his Jaguar team-mate Mitch Evans.

“I hit a drain that was raised up at the wrong angle and it sent me into the wall.

“Scary crash. I’m glad everyone involved was OK.

“They need to adjust the drains and address the smoothness of that section, it’s too quick to have drains and bumps like that, which can send you into a wall at a moment’s notice. For me it’s too much.

“You can get round there, and most people get round there, but it just takes one tiny little error – it’s not even really an error.

“I don’t think they can change it ahead of tomorrow, but certainly for next year they need to think hard about completely redoing that area, really laying a nice smooth surface up the hill because it’s too hit and miss right now.”

The same spot had already claimed the Andretti Autosport machine of Andre Lotterer earlier in the race, an incident that required a safety car, while McLaren’s Jake Hughes was forced to sit out the race after crashing at the same spot in qualifying.

Buemi was left angry by the incident having raised that section of track as an issue last year when Formula E used the comparatively slower Gen2 machines as opposed to the new-for-2023 Gen3 cars.

“It was just a matter of time in my opinion, and I raised the point already last year,” said Buemi, who added there was no radio message or yellow flags warning him of the crash ahead.

“A small driver error on the top there like Sam did, if you’re at the wrong place at the wrong time you have no chance.

“Those cars are really powerful now and not much grip and when something like that happens it’s difficult to avoid.”

Andretti’s Jake Dennis, who was the first car following Bird when he lost control and was just able to avoid the spinning Jaguar, believes that the corner should remain a challenge for drivers.

“It just needs to be a bit smoother – I think the corner’s great, it’s an awesome corner to drive and it gives us good fun, but I don’t want to take that away,” said Dennis, who lost the championship lead after finishing fourth.

“It just needs to be a bit smoother, it’s just one bump. We’re going so fast in that section you can’t recover, and you hit the wall.”

Earlier on Tuesday it emerged that de Vries had been dismissed after just 10 grands prix following a disappointing start to his F1 career with the Italian squad.

AlphaTauri has now confirmed the de Vries’ exit and has announced that Red Bull third driver Ricciardo will step into the Dutchman’s seat for the remainder of the 2023 season.

“Scuderia AlphaTauri announces that Daniel Ricciardo will be joining the team on loan from Red Bull Racing for the remainder of the Formula 1 season, starting from the upcoming Hungarian Grand Prix,” the team said in a statement.

“I’m very pleased to welcome Daniel back into the team,” added team boss Franz Tost.

“There’s no doubt about his driving skills, and he already knows many of us, so his integration will be easy and straight forward.

“The team will also profit a lot from his experience, as he is an eight-time Formula 1 grand prix winner.

“I would like to thank Nyck for his valuable contribution during his time with Scuderia AlphaTauri and I wish him all the best for the future.”

Ricciardo returned to the Red Bull family as a third driver after losing his McLaren drive at the end of last year, one year before the end of his contract.

The 34-year-old Australian opted to take a sabbatical to recharge his batteries after a punishing stint with the Woking team, but has been keeping race ready and completed his first test with the current Red Bull RB19 on Tuesday.

Ricciardo has now been handed 12 races at AlphaTauri to prove to Red Bull that he has been able to rebuild himself after his 2022 exit, potentially with a view to challenging Sergio Perez for the Red Bull seat alongside Max Verstappen.

Ricciardo previously drove for AlphaTauri in its Toro Rosso guise in 2012 and 2013 before earning a promoting to Red Bull’s main team.

The Australian took seven of his eight F1 wins for Red Bull alongside Sebastian Vettel and Verstappen, before moving on to Renault and then McLaren.

Alongside fellow rookie Logan Sargeant, de Vries was the only driver yet to register points in 2023 as he struggled for pace compared to team-mate Yuki Tsunoda.

His cause wasn’t helped by AlphaTauri underperforming with this season’s AT04, which has left the team last in the constructors’ championship after 10 races with just two points.

But Red Bull’s patience – and in particular that of driver advisor Helmut Marko – with the former F2 and FE champion was wearing thin and after just 10 races the has now moved to replace him.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner commented: “It is great to see Daniel hasn’t lost any form while away from racing and that the strides he has been making in his sim sessions translate on track.

“His times during the tyre test were extremely competitive. It was a very impressive drive and we are excited to see what the rest of the season brings for Daniel on loan at Scuderia AlphaTauri.”

The US entrant has revealed that a decision is still pending on its participation in the Fuji and Bahrain races in September and November respectively with its solo full-season Glickenhaus-Pipo 007 Le Mans Hypercar.

It hangs on the Glickenhaus Racing team finding sponsorship to move forward with its programme, according to team founder Jim Glickenhaus.

“We’ve made no decision; we can’t say we will be at Fuji and Bahrain because we are still working on it,” he told Autosport.

“What needs to happen is that we get a serious sponsor that allows us to do the rest of this year and move into 2024, as well as to develop an evo version of the car so that we can remain competitive.

“We are close to doing that, but we’ll either get the backing we need or we won’t.

“I think we have a huge potential that a sponsor would be able to exploit.“

Glickenhaus dropped out of the 2022 WEC this time last year, which followed its most competitive performance since joining the series in 2021 when it lost a clear chance of winning at Monza courtesy of a turbocharger failure.

It didn’t subsequently commit to returning for this year until December.

Glickenhaus insisted that missing the final two races again would not prejudice the team’s chances of gaining a WEC entry next season.

“We remain on good terms with the WEC and we have kept them informed,” he said.

“They have been very supportive of our efforts.”

A decision on the participation of Glickenhaus in the last two races could be imminent.

The freight leaves for the Fuji 6 Hours on 10 September by sea next Wednesday.

Glickenhaus reiterated his stance that competing in the WEC offers less value to his fledgling road car marque, Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus, than racing in the Nurburgring 24 Hours and the Baja 1000 with the street versions of its SCG004C GT car and Boot off-roader.

It remains too early to talk about drivers for Fuji and Bahrain should the team travel to Asia for the last leg of the WEC, explained Glickenhaus.

He stressed that the Ryan Briscoe remains part of the team even though he was replaced by Nathanael Berthon for last weekend’s Monza 6 Hours.

Briscoe will be on duty for Glickenhaus at this weekend’s Goodwood Festival of Speed where he will drive the 007 owned by HK Motorcars that raced as #709 at the Le Mans 24 Hours.

Berthon came into the line-up of #708 alongside Romain Dumas and Olivier Pla at Monza after making his debut with the team in the second car at Le Mans last month.

Together with Ben Keating and Nico Varrone, fourth place in the six-hour race was enough for the American squad to claim the final GTE Am title before the arrival of LMGT3 rules for 2023 will render its C8.R ineligible.

Back-to-back victories at Sebring and Portimao, followed up by a second place at Spa and a third win of the season in the double points Le Mans 24 Hours, had put Corvette in a commanding championship position heading to Italy.

Despite missing out on a podium for the first time all season as Porsche took its first win of 2023 courtesy of the #77 Dempsey-Proton Competition team, an eighth place for its closest rival TF Sport means Corvette can no longer be caught. It has a 78-point advantage with a maximum of 67 still achievable.

Catsburg, who has also taken 24-hour race victories at the Nurburgring (outright) and Spa (in pro-am) this season, paid tribute to the contribution of his “outstanding” team-mates and “relaxed” atmosphere in the Pratt & Miller-run team for contributing to its first WEC title.

For bronze-rated Keating it was a second GTE Am title in as many seasons, after he had claimed the crown for TF in 2022, while 22-year-old silver driver Varrone joined Corvette after two seasons in sportscars racing LMP3 and Ferrari GT machinery.

“This year has really been a lot about doing it as a team,” Catsburg said. “And my team-mates also Nico and Ben deserve a big credit.

“I feel that, okay, I am doing a good job, I am comparing to all the other platinums, but they are outstanding in their class.

“Nico is the best silver, Ben is the best bronze in my opinion and that’s what kind of makes it easier when you have a complete package like that. I think that’s where we are making the difference.

“It has been such a relaxed atmosphere in the team and amongst the drivers. I always feel like these weekends are a bit of a holiday, going out with your mates, having fun.

“I must say this year, the amazing atmosphere amongst the mechanics, the drivers, we just get along well. We go for dinner every night, we always hang out.

“Sometimes you just have guys where you don’t click as much with, and this year has been awesome from the start. And that helps a lot.”

Catsburg added that the knowledge it was the final season of competition for the popular GTE cars, which unlike GT3 machines do not have ABS, “makes it extra cool”.

With the championship wrapped up, he has pledged that Corvette’s approach will not change for the final two rounds, with 10kg in success weight set to come off the car for Fuji in September.

“I don’t think much will change,” he said. “I think we will just continue where we left off.”

Preining slipped from second to fourth with a lazy beginning yet had the option to battle his direction back after the mid-race pitstop, overwhelming polesitter Rast with 20 minutes to go to guarantee his most memorable triumph of the 2023 season.

Defending champ Sheldon van der Linde balanced the platform spots behind partner Rast, with 20kg of accomplishment counterweight on his vehicle keeping him from rehashing his Saturday win.

The beginning of the race was deferred when a few climate protestors caused a disturbance, with nearby police to intercede to guarantee the track was ok for dashing.

At the point when the activity at last got going, Rast drove the field from post position in his Schubert BMW, with van der Linde and Bernhard Porsche’s Ayhancan Guven downgrading first column starter Preining to fourth.

Rast gradually yet consistently started expanding his lead at the front of the pack, fabricating a 1.5s support inside the initial 15 minutes of the race.

At the point when the pit window opened at the 20-minute imprint, Preining was quite possibly the earliest driver to move his required stop, a roused call that established the groundwork for his triumph.

With his tires up to temperature, Preining had the option to close the hole to van der Linde when the BMW driver finished his own pitstop a couple of laps later. Guven, who was formerly running third in front of Preining, had experienced a sluggish pitstop and had previously exited the fight for the platform by this point.

After a few bombed endeavors, Preining at last tracked down a far beyond the South African into Turn 1, sending his Porsche up within to grab second position.

With the defending champ far removed, Preining put his focus on Rast, who was in an agreeable lead in the wake of finishing his own pitstop.

In any case, it required little investment for the 24-year-old to close the hole to Rast, Preining getting on the tail of the three-time champion with 23 minutes of dashing still left in the race.

Subsequent to putting in a couple of laps on the rear of the BMW, Preining at last hurled his vehicle within Rast into Turn 1, riding over the kerbs and muscling his far beyond the German to start to lead the pack of the race.

Rast griped about Preining’s forceful move over group radio yet he had no a valuable open door to mount a counter assault, with the Porsche pro rapidly stretching out his lead as long as two seconds.

In spite of the fact that Rast figured out how to chop down the hole by a portion of a second, Preining was never under danger and he in the end took the checkered banner with a lengthy edge of 2.181s to score his third profession win.

Van der Linde completed a portion of a second down on Rast in third, adding a few essential focuses to his title count after an all over crusade until this end of the week’s Norisring occasion.

The best of the rest spot went to manufacturing plant Lamborghini driver Mirko Bortolotti, who had a generally ordinary race in transit to fourth in his SSR Execution run Huracan.

Abt Audi’s Kelvin van der Linde passed the second Manthey EMA vehicle of Dennis Olsen after his pitstop to complete fifth, while Laurin Henrich was seventh in the best of the Bernhard Porsches.

Henrich’s colleague Guven, who looked set for a platform in the main stretch, was hit with a long-lap punishment for turning his tires while his vehicle was as yet raised, slipping to eighth spot.

Landgraf driver Maro Engel the Mercedes contingent in 10th, in front of plant stablemates Luca Stolz (HRT) and Lucas Auer (Winward).

Franck Perera slipped from tenth on the lattice to twelfth in his SSR Execution Lamborghini, as Venture 1 BMW’s Marco Wittmann, Abt Audi’s Ricardo Feller – the last driver to make a pitstop – and HRT Mercedes driver Arjun Maini finished the focuses scorers.

Domenicali was speaking on the eve of the British Grand Prix at the London launch of a new book, Ferrari: From Inside and Outside. The book features the work of two of F1’s greatest photographers, Ercole Colombo and Rainer Schlegelmilch. Domenicali was part of Ferrari’s dream team with Jean Todt, Ross Brawn and Michael Schumacher that dominated the sport in the 2000s and team principal until 2015.

‘I came into Ferrari knowing already both Ercole and Rainer as they were the ones capturing for supporters and tifosi the best pictures and the best moments of racing,’ he said. ‘Before I knew them, before my professional experience in F1 began, I was watching F1 through their eyes. They became very important people in the world of F1, through the fact that they were always able to capture the right moment with the right tension that you can feel also from looking at a picture.

‘Their role is very important, because we don’t have to forget that now we have social media, we have a lot of different digital ways of speaking about F1. It has a vital role for the new generation of fans to understand more of the history of our sport.’

Ferrari: From Inside and Outside represents the first time that Colombo and Schlegelmilch have collaborated. Colombo is the ultimate insider; a man whose skills as a networker rival his skills with a camera. Enzo Ferrari picked him out to be his photographer, capturing behind the scenes moments. Schlegelmilch, in contrast, is the outsider, an observer who also pioneered techniques for capturing the impression of speed in an image.

Their work is at the heart of the Motorsport Images library, the largest archive of its kind in the world with 26 million images, including an unbroken history of F1, every GP since F1 began in 1950.

The theme of inside and outside is mirrored in the text of the book, edited by James Allen, highlighting the contrast between the fans’ perception of Ferrari from the outside and the lived experience of some of the team’s leaders since Enzo Ferrari:  Mauro Forghieri, Luca di Montezemolo, Jean Todt, and Domenicali. They, together with Enzo’s son Piero Ferrari have each contributed a chapter to the book.

As well as the standard retail book a limited edition version of the book has been released, bound in fine cloth and slipcased. The books are numbered and signed by both photographers. There are only 150 books in this release of which 75 also have two exclusive prints included.

The British squad was announced last month as the first customer for the new Corvette Z06 GT3.R in next year’s WEC when LMGT3 regulations replace the existing GTE Am rule set.

TF currently runs two Aston Martin Vantage GTEs in the WEC and European Le Mans Series, which will also swap GTE rules for GT3, and has previously run GT3-spec Vantages in both British GT and GT World Challenge Europe.

Speaking to Autosport at Monza ahead of this weekend’s six-hour WEC round, Ferrier clarified that its Corvette deal is currently only for the WEC and has left the door open to continue running customers in Prodrive-built Aston machinery elsewhere.

“It is only a WEC programme still, so we still will look to run Astons at the moment,” he said.

“It may be in GT World Challenge or ELMS. [With Corvette] it is a focused, two-car WEC programme.

“There’s scope in the future [to do more with Corvette], it’s more that they’re not making a great number of cars to start with.

“What they’ve decided to make is the two cars in IMSA [GTD Pro], and then the two WEC cars, so, for now, it’s that and then we’ll see where we go really.”

TF’s first test with the Corvette will come next month at the Circuit of the Americas, where prospective customers will be invited to try the car developed extensively by factory drivers Tommy Milner, Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor.

Ferrier expects to receive its first chassis early next year due to a need to prioritise entrants running the Pratt and Miller-built car in the IMSA SportsCar Championship that commences with the Daytona 24 Hours in January.

“Things are still moving with them slightly in terms of the homologation process and bits,” he said.

“That is the plan. Their IMSA Daytona cars are obviously the priority with the race being so early.

“We’ve been over to Detroit already and had a look around straight after Le Mans. It’s a good facility and all very exciting.”

Ferrier explained that the deal was concluded at the Le Mans 24 Hours last month, after talks began last year with “just a very open, general chat”.

“We saw the car at Daytona when we were there and unveiled it,” he said.

“We carried on conversations and only in the last six weeks or so, two months, it started coming to a bit more fruition. At Le Mans was when we decided to say yes.

“For us, it was always strategically wanting to make sure we had a place and a home in WEC.

“The brand is synonymous with Le Mans, it’s good people who do a good product, so it’s all very exciting.”

TF Sport drivers Charlie Eastwood, Michael Dinan and Ahmad al Harthy sit 74 points behind Corvette Racing trio Nicky Catsburg, Nico Varrone and Ben Keating in the GTE Am standings, with the American outfit able to mathematically secure the title with two races to go.

But Ferrier stressed that he’s still keen to continue TF Sport’s record of finishing inside the top three in each season of its WEC participation to date and is anxious not to let the excitement over its upcoming switch of brands cause any distractions.

“The whole thing is still six months away so, while there’s work going on in the background, we’re still pretty focused on finishing this programme properly,” he added.