Hyundai’s latest World Rally Championship signing Andreas Mikkelsen made a dream start with his new employer by taking the Rally Catalunya lead on Friday morning’s first loop of stages. The WRC’s only mixed-surface event of the season was blessed with sunshine and blue skies – the sort of conditions championship leader Sebastien Ogier feared the
Month: October 2017
Formula 1 is planning to introduce biometric gloves from next season in a bid to help medical personnel better assess the physical condition of a driver after accidents. The new technology features a 3mm thick sensor and it will monitor a driver’s pulse rate and the amount of oxygen in the blood. In the future,
Tony Kanaan has signed a multi-year contract to drive for AJ Foyt Racing in the IndyCar Series from 2018. It had been known that the team was negotiating with the 2004 champion and 2013 Indianapolis 500 winner, once it became clear that Kanaan’s tenure at Chip Ganassi Racing was ending after four years. Foyt said:
Renault has promised its teams it is working hard to produce a “magic” Formula 1 engine mode for 2018, in a bid to take the fight to Mercedes and Ferrari in qualifying. Although the French manufacturer’s power unit is proving to be a match for rival engines in the races, it is still lacking at
Jorge Lorenzo will fight for the 2018 MotoGP title with Ducati, believes the series’ commercial chief Carmelo Ezpeleta. Having spent his entire MotoGP career up this year with Yamaha, Lorenzo has struggled to adapt to a new bike since joining Ducati. His best results are third places at Jerez and Aragon, and he is currently
Sebastien Loeb looks increasingly likely to make his World Rally Championship return on the 2018 Monte Carlo Rally. Though Loeb’s focus next year will be a ramped-up Peugeot-Hansen World Rallycross Championship campaign and he will also contest the Dakar Rally again, he has made clear he would be open to occasional WRC outings. Citroen team
Roger Penske has ruled out running a fifth car at IndyCar’s Indianapolis 500 in 2018 for Juan Pablo Montoya. Montoya will drive full-time in the IMSA Sportscar Championship next season as part of Penske’s all-new Acura DPi programme after switching to an Indianapolis-only IndyCar schedule last year. The ex-Formula 1 driver had recently said he
Haas driver Kevin Magnussen says the fact that he has not been penalised for his driving by Formula 1 stewards means he has no need to change his aggressive style. Magnussen has been involved in incidents with other drivers this season – notably at the Hungaroring, where he was involved in a spat with Renault’s
The Mercedes F1 team generated an astonishing turnover of £289million in 2016, and its parent company only had to pump in around 10% of that figure – less than £30m. While they don’t include the costs of the HPP powertrain division in Brixworth, the numbers suggest that F1 is a bargain for Mercedes in terms
Stefan Wilson is set to make his second Indianapolis 500 start next year after agreeing a deal to drive an Andretti Autosport-run entry in the 2018 event. Wilson, the younger brother of the late IndyCar driver Justin, contested the 2016 running of the race for the now defunct KVSH Racing outfit. He had made plans
Kris Meeke insists he would welcome Sebastien Ogier as his Citroen team-mate for the 2018 World Rally Championship. Though Ogier and Meeke have clashed in the past – notably over running order rules last season – and Meeke was originally signed as Citroen’s lead title hope, he believes the team would benefit hugely from having
Four-time CART champion and Dale Coyne Racing driver Sebastien Bourdais says the outgoing manufacturer aerokit era “hurt” IndyCar’s standing. IndyCar opened up the Dallara IR-12 aerokit to manufacturers in 2015, which resulted in a steep increase in costs. It also caused a split field as Honda struggled to adapt to the changes early on. Chevrolet
Promoting Pierre Gasly to a Formula 1 race seat shows Red Bull has “balls” compared to the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari, says its motorsport advisor Helmut Marko. Reigning GP2 champion Gasly became the latest product of the Red Bull driver development system to reach an F1 seat when he replaced fellow graduate Daniil Kvyat
Andreas Mikkelsen says he joins Hyundai ready to fight for the World Rally Championship title for the first time. The three-time WRC event winner makes his Hyundai debut at Rally Catalunya this weekend at the start of a deal that runs through to the 2019 season. The only Volkswagen driver who could not get a
The entry for the inaugural Laguna Seca Intercontinental GT Challenge fixture later this month will easily break the organiser’s 20-car target. The California 8 Hours on October 15, which joins the Bathurst, Spa and Sepang GT3 enduros on the IGTC schedule this year, is on course to surpass the objective by some margin. Pirelli World
Pierre Gasly says he would choose racing in Formula 1’s United States GP over going for the Super Formula title in its season finale on the same weekend. Gasly, the reigning GP2 champion, replaced Daniil Kvyat at Toro Rosso for the Malaysian Grand Prix and finished 14th on his F1 debut. He will keep the
Sebastian Vettel looks set to avoid a gearbox penalty this weekend, after analysis by Ferrari showed his current one was not damaged in his crash with Lance Stroll in Malaysia. Vettel had feared a five-place grid drop for this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix, after he collided with Stroll on the slow down lap at Sepang.
Juan Pablo Montoya wants to make a sixth Indianapolis 500 appearance in 2018, and hopes that racing with Penske in the IMSA SportsCar Championship will not prevent it. Montoya lost his full-time IndyCar seat to eventual 2017 champion Josef Newgarden at the beginning of this year, and was later confirmed as one of Penske’s drivers
NASCAR team owner and engine builder Robert Yates has died at the age of 74. He had been battling liver cancer. Yates began his NASCAR career at Holman-Moody Racing in 1968 before landing a job at Junior Johnson’s team in 1971. His engines powered Bobby Allison and Cale Yarborough’s successes, including Allison’s 1983 Cup series
Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne says changes are being made to the Formula 1 team to combat the “ugly” reliability problems that marred its Malaysian Grand Prix. Sebastian Vettel had to start last at Sepang after engine problems affected his Saturday, while Kimi Raikkonen was unable to take up his second place on the grid due
Marc VDS Honda MotoGP rider Jack Miller will miss next weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi after breaking his leg in a training incident. Miller sustained a fractured right tibia when he put his foot down to prevent what a Marc VDS statement described as “a slow speed front-end crash” while riding a trials bike
The Red Bull Formula 1 team is convinced it would have still won the Malaysian Grand Prix even if Ferrari had started at the front. Ferrari had looked quickest in Sepang practice, but engine problems consigned Sebastian Vettel to the back of the grid and then eliminated front row qualifier Kimi Raikkonen before the start.
Nine-time World Rally champion Sebastien Loeb says next year’s Dakar Rally could be his last chance to win the South American marathon, with Peugeot expected to quit its off-road programme. The French manufacturer became embroiled in a row about the regulations for Dakar, with series officials ready to handicap the rear-wheel drive, buggy-style car Peugeot
Hendrick Motorsports driver Chase Elliott says he “gave away” his first chance of a NASCAR Cup Series win at Dover. On his 70th start, Elliott led 138 of 400 laps at Dover, racking up 59 of those in the final stage, but lost out to Kyle Busch with just two laps to go. Elliott gradually
Dani Pedrosa admits he has some “curiosity” for a potential future move outside of the works Honda MotoGP team. Pedrosa has been a factory Honda rider ever since he graduated to the premier class as a double 250cc champion in 2006. He was linked to a possible Yamaha switch last year before it picked Maverick
Lewis Hamilton’s bid for a fourth Formula 1 world championship gained momentum with second place in the Malaysian Grand Prix, extending his lead over Sebastian Vettel to 34 points. But Vettel’s fight back from last on the grid to fourth, on a track that was expected to favour Mercedes, gives Ferrari hope that all is
Formula 1 title contender Sebastian Vettel fears a “bad surprise” as Ferrari assesses his gearbox for damage following his collision with Lance Stroll after the Malaysian Grand Prix. The left-rear corner of Vettel’s Ferrari suffered heavy damage when he tried to go around the outside of Stroll’s Williams, which was moving off line to pick
Hyundai will run four cars on Rally GB in a bid to keep its World Rally Championship title hopes alive. Its lead driver Thierry Neuville is 17 adrift of Sebastien Ogier in the standings, while the team trails M-Sport by 64 points in the manufacturers’ standings going into the final three rounds. After missing this
Kyle Busch took the victory for Joe Gibbs Racing in the NASCAR Cup race at Dover in a dramatic late battle with Chase Elliott, who was denied his first win. Elliott had climbed into the lead battle by the end of the second stage having started 12th on the grid, and looked set to break
The number of pro class cars in the Endurance Cup segment of the Blancpain GT Series will be capped in 2018, in an attempt to reinforce the amateur classes. Series organiser Stephane Ratel has decided to restrict the number of pro entries in the championship to 26 to cut back professional driver entry dominance. The