NASCAR has extended its postponement of races due to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus through 3 May. NASCAR had originally intended to ru its Atlanta and Homstead events this week behind closed doors in a bid to avoid calendar disruption while adhering to safety guidelines on quelling the spread of COVID-19. However, the series
Month: March 2020
IndyCar and Indianapolis Motor Speedway are aiming to ensure the 2020 edition of the Indy 500 goes ahead as planned despite current advice from healthcare representatives regarding the coronavirus pandemic. On the eve of the season-opening race St. Petersburg, IndyCar cancelled the event along with the next three rounds on the calendar at Barber Motorsports
Reigning MotoGP champion Marc Marquez and Honda have the most to gain from the coronavirus-induced delay to the start of the 2020 season, believes Ducati general manager Gigi Dall’Igna. The worsening COVID-19 pandemic has put the start of the 2020 campaign on hold, with the season opener at Qatar taking place only for Moto2 and
Hyundai driver Thierry Neuville believes that the proposed World Rally Championship’s technical regulations for 2022 will make it “less interesting” and water down the driving appeal of the series. When they are presented to the FIA’s World Motorsport Council in June this year, the proposals will see increasing reliance on off-the-shelf components and a reduction
Six-time champion Sebastien Ogier took his first win in the World Rally Championship as a Toyota driver on this weekend’s truncated Rally Mexico. Ogier delivered a commanding performance to join fellow Frenchman Sebastien Loeb as the only six-time winners of the event, elevating him to the top of the championship table, eight points clear of
The World Rally Championship’s Rally Mexico event will end this evening to allow participants to get home as travel restrictions mount worldwide to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The FIA announced the early termination of the third date of the 2020 WRC in view of the increased precautionary measures being introduced to protect the
Saturday morning’s World Rally Championship loop on Rally Mexico had the three different drivers winning stages, with overnight leader Sebastien Ogier continuing to hold a secure lead. A revised starting order for the new day put Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville at the front of the field, sweeping the stages after retiring on Friday with an electrical
IndyCar CEO Mark Miles says that the series is focused on being “absolutely ready with the normal schedule” for the Month of May at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Following the IndyCar Series’ announcement that the first four rounds of the 2020 season had been cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, the current plan is to
Toyota World Rally Championship driver Sebastien Ogier leads M-Sport’s Teemu Suninen by 12 seconds after Friday’s Rally Mexico stages. Having assumed the lead on the second stage of the morning loop, Ogier quietly got on with the job of building a cushion while rest of the front-runners struggled. The Frenchman’s Toyota team-mate, championship leader Elfyn
Six-time World Rally Champion Sebastien Ogier put his stamp on this week’s Rally Mexico with an assured first loop of stages in the mountains outside Guanajuato. Having admitted to being preoccupied by the threat of Coronavirus ahead of the event, Ogier delivered on his promise to banish such thoughts on the first full day and
IndyCar has cancelled the first four rounds of the 2020 season, including this weekend’s race at St. Petersburg, as the coronavirus outbreak continues to spread. Although Sunday’s event on the streets of St. Petersburg was set to go ahead, albeit behind closed doors, IndyCar has subsequently decided to take its season opener off of the
NASCAR has postponed the Atlanta round due to take place this weekend and the next round at Homestead-Miami amid the ensuring coronavirus pandemic. It was announced earlier in the week that NASCAR would be holding the two events behind closed doors to minimise any potential virus transmission among the public in attendance. However, given the
The World Rally Championship has announced that next month’s Rally Argentina has been postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak. Deferring the date of the rally, originally scheduled to take place on 23-26 April, comes at the direction of the Cordoba provincial government in accordance with new measures implemented by the government of the Argentine Republic
Joint World Rally Championship leader Thierry Neuville stunned a capacity crowd in Guanajuato to take the overnight lead at the start of the 2020 Rally Mexico. On his first pass through the short opening stage layout, Neuville’s time of 59.1 seconds put him 0.4s in front of the driver with whom he shares the top
The IndyCar Grand Prix of Long Beach will not run as scheduled, due to the City of Long Beach prohibiting all large-scale events through April 30, due to the coronavirus. The Long Beach race, which is due to be the third event of the 2020 campaign, was set to run from 17-19 April. There is
Rally Mexico organisers say the third World Rally Championship round of 2020 will go ahead as planned despite coronavirus fears, as the event is “fully aligned with national guidelines”. To date, Mexico has seen just a dozen reported cases of COVID-19 among its population of almost 129 million – none of which have been reported
General admission for Sunday’s IndyCar season-opening Grand Prix of St. Petersburg has been banned due to coronavirus, but the race will go ahead. While Penske Entertainment CEO Mark Miles told Autosport last weekend that he didn’t expect the ’20 IndyCar calendar to be affected by what has since been classified by the World Health Organization
The March 20-22 NASCAR race weekend at the Homestead-Miami Speedway has been postponed for the time being due to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). On Thursday morning, Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez issued a statement suspending several upcoming large public gatherings, including next weekend’s races at Homestead-Miami Speedway. However, NASCAR can still hold
The FIM and Dorna Sports have announced that MotoGP’s Argentine Grand Prix has been postponed a day after it was confirmed as the new season-opener. The outbreak of coronavirus and ever-tightening travel restrictions led to MotoGP having to cancel its original season-opener in Qatar, with Thailand and Austin subsequently postponed in the following week as
The Andretti Autosport trailer carrying Colton Herta’s car to the opening round of the 2020 IndyCar Series at St. Petersburg has caught fire in Florida. The trailer was barely 20 minutes from the paddock in downtown St. Petersburg when the incident occurred in the early hours of Wednesday morning. According to local broadcaster Bay News
The Ducati MotoGP team is still planning to conduct a two-day private test in Valencia at the end of March despite the entirety of Italy being under coronavirus quarantine. After a partial lockdown on numerous provinces affecting 16 million people was put into force, the Italian government extended that quarantine to cover the entire country
Dorna Sports CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta says it’s possible a replacement for the cancelled Qatar MotoGP race could take place earlier than the new 19 April season start in Argentina. Dorna had to cancel the Qatar race owing to tighter quarantine restrictions being imposed on Italian travellers, though Moto2 and Moto3 went ahead due to both
Ex-Formula 1 racer Felipe Nasr will join Carlin for Sunday’s St. Petersburg IndyCar race, while Conor Daly has been signed to sub for Max Chilton in four oval races. Nasr, who impressed the Carlin team in a truncated wet/dry test session at Circuit of The Americas last month, having also driven in the Sebring test
Multiple British Touring Car Championship race winner Rob Collard will make the switch to endurance racing this season and compete in the British GT Championship with Barwell Motorsport. The 51-year-old will move away from the BTCC which he has competed in since 2000 – claiming the Independent’s Cup in 2003 – having raced predominately with
The MotoGP 2020 calendar has undergone a further revision prompted by the threat of coronavirus, with Austin ceding season opener status to Argentina and the finale moving a week later. An amended calendar was initially presented to the public on March 5, with Austin’s Grand Prix of the Americas becoming the first premier-class race on
Reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch says he must be “a hell of a lot better” to challenge for 2020 honours after a mixed start to his title defence. Busch dropped to 27th in the series standings after the season’s first two races but has rallied back to 12th with finishes of second and
FIM president Jorge Viegas admits MotoGP could resort to running two races on the one weekend should coronavirus force more races to be cancelled. Tighter quarantine procedures in Qatar for travellers from Italy initiated prior to the Qatar Grand Prix meant MotoGP promoters Dorna Sports had no choice but to scrap the season-opener for the
The Monza round of the renamed GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup next month has been cancelled as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. The cancellation of the opening round of what was formerly the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup scheduled for April 19 follows the announcement by the Italian government of strict quarantine rules
The CEO of new IndyCar owners Penske Entertainment Mark Miles says he’s not expecting the spread of coronavirus to alter the 2020 calendar. The COVID-19 outbreak has forced numerous schedule changes within motorsport, with Formula 1, MotoGP and Formula E among those who have either lost rounds or had to postpone races. At the weekend,
Qatar Moto2 Grand Prix winner Tetsuta Nagashima says qualifying 14th meant he had to think “like a beast” from the race start, with “win or crash” his only options. Nagashima has raced full-time in Moto2 since 2017, though made his debut as a wildcard back in 2013, and had thus far only managed a best