Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Indycar and NASCAR Cup race winner Robby Gordon will return to the Dakar Rally after a two-year hiatus in 2019. Gordon, a Dakar regular since 2005, took stage wins during six of his 11 outings in the event and finished as high
Month: December 2018
Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Max Verstappen says his Austrian Grand Prix victory stands out in his impressive 2018 Formula 1 season because it was “completely unexpected”. Verstappen recovered from a tough start to the year to enjoy the best campaign of his young F1 career, winning
Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Chevrolet says it is now on the right track in the NASCAR Cup series after a troubled introduction for the 2018 Chevrolet Camaro and the exit of veteran drivers. The General Motors brand made the perfect start with its new-for-2018 Camaro by
Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Newly-promoted factory Ducati MotoGP rider Danilo Petrucci says he wants to avoid the strained relationship his predecessor Jorge Lorenzo had with Andrea Dovizioso. Petrucci was promoted from the satellite Pramac team to replace Honda-bound Lorenzo for 2019, and made his debut outing
Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Lando Norris says he steered clear of choosing hero Valentino Rossi’s #46 to use on his McLaren in Formula 1 because he did not want to be a “copycat”. The young British driver has been a fan of the MotoGP legend since
Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Sebastien Loeb has signed to drive for Hyundai in the 2019 World Rally Championship. Autosport understands the agreement, Loeb’s first professional contract outside of the PSA Group, will be announced on Thursday. Loeb is currently out of contact and is testing the
Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. After two World Rally Championship titles with Sebastien Ogier, M-Sport Ford is going into 2019 facing uncertain prospects following its champion’s exit for Citroen. DAVID EVANS has the latest on M-Sport’s efforts to ensure it is still in the WRC field –
Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Daniel Ricciardo says he was losing sleep in the second half of the 2018 Formula 1 season, as misfortune dogged his final races as a Red Bull driver. Ricciardo, who will move to Renault for 2019, was as high as third in
Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Robert Kubica says the rule changes being introduced for the 2019 season are coming at the “perfect” time for his return to Formula 1. Kubica will race in F1 for the first time since 2010 as he has been partnered with George
Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. New NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano has admitted he “felt really weak” and like his career was over when his initial big break with Joe Gibbs Racing went awry. Logano joined the Cup series with praise from veterans such as Mark
Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Carlos Sainz Jr says a presentation McLaren made when he arrived at the team convinced him it knows how to return to the front of the Formula 1 grid. A fundamental aerodynamic problem hindered its MCL33 car in a year in which
Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Three-time MotoGP champion Jorge Lorenzo has admitted he was “very close” to retiring before he sealed a deal with Honda ahead of the 2019 season. Lorenzo signed a two-year contract with Ducati for 2017-18, but he had a tough first season and
Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Mercedes Formula 1 driver Valtteri Bottas will kick off his 2019 season by making his competitive rallying debut in Finland in an M-Sport Ford Fiesta World Rally Car. Bottas will contest the Arctic Lapland Rally from January 24-26 in a Fiesta similar
Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Lucas Ordonez, the first winner of gamer-to-racer contest GT Academy, has announced he is ending his decade-long relationship with Nissan. The 33-year-old was the first-ever graduate of the Nissan-backed GT Academy, back in 2008, which was designed to take the top players
Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Carlos Sainz Jr expects a much better relationship with 2019 McLaren Formula 1 team-mate Lando Norris than he had with other young drivers when at Toro Rosso. Sainz had tense times with both Max Verstappen and Daniil Kvyat during his first F1
Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Josef Newgarden says his Penske IndyCar team has made a step in the right direction to solve the “deficiencies” it had in 2018. Newgarden could not defend his title last season, as he and team-mate Will Power failed to wrestle the crown
Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Five-time Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton had to be convinced to “go a bit slower” in his Yamaha Superbike track test at Jerez, says rider Michael van der Mark. Hamilton rode a black Yamaha YZF-R1 bike alongside works riders van der
Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Pirelli has revealed its compound choices for the first four Formula 1 grands prix of the 2019 season in its new simplified designation of soft, medium and hard. Although those three basic names will be in play at each event, Pirelli has
Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Porsche will expand its factory campaigns in the world’s major GT3 championships for the 2019 season. The German manufacturer will field two line-ups of works drivers in both the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup and the Intercontinental GT Challenge rather than the
Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Schmidt Peterson Motorsports believes Formula 1 recruit Marcus Ericsson has a driving style compatible with 2019 IndyCar team-mate James Hinchcliffe and the sidelined Robert Wickens. Ericsson will switch to IndyCar in 2019 to fill the void vacated by Wickens and SPM has
Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Sebastian Vettel says Ferrari must take the “last step” if it is to stand a chance of winning next year’s Formula 1 world championship. Vettel challenged Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes in 2018, enjoying strong form at various stages of the campaign, but
Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Claire Williams says her Formula 1 team needs Robert Kubica’s “fighting spirit” as it bids to recover from its terrible 2018 season. Kubica will be back on the grid in 2019 after an absence of more than eight years, having won his
Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Kurt Busch says his move to the Chip Ganassi Racing NASCAR Cup series team for 2019 was appealing because it is a “streamlining” two-car outfit Busch has left the four-car Stewart Haas Racing squad, spearheaded by 2018 title contender Kevin Harvick, to
Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Toto Wolff reckons Michael Schumacher’s son Mick can achieve success in Formula 1, “maybe” even with Mercedes. Seven-time world champion Schumacher raced for Mercedes in sportscars before stepping up to F1 and joined the manufacturer for his return to grand prix racing
Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Carlos Sainz says it feels “powerful” rather than daunting to know that McLaren will be relying on him to help lead the team in the 2019 Formula 1 season. As he has much more experience than rookie team-mate Lando Norris, Sainz knows
Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Toto Wolff says even a team such as Williams cannot be discounted from coming up with a Mercedes-beating 2019 Formula 1 car, amid fears of loopholes in the new regulations. As teams work on honing their cars to new aero rules aimed
Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has changed his mind about Formula 1’s halo and says he would not have forgiven himself if vetoing it had led to a “potentially catastrophic outcome”. The controversial driver protection device became mandatory in F1 and Formula 2
Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Kimi Raikkonen reckons Sauber has all it needs to build a “great” Formula 1 car in 2019, after completing his first test on his return to the team. After a five-year second stint with Ferrari, Raikkonen is returning to the Sauber outfit
Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. Kalle Rovanpera feels he could be ready for a full-time World Rally Championship seat by 2020, and Skoda would release him from his contract if he secures one. There is strong speculation that Rovanpera’s manager Timo Jouhki already has the 18-year-old’s future
Get unlimited access You have only 5 articles remaining to view this month. The FIA believes the ‘aeroscreen’ concept would have been only 10% as effective as Formula 1’s halo in protecting Charles Leclerc in the Belgian Grand Prix start crash. The official investigation into the Spa accident, which was caused when Fernando Alonso was