Kalle Rovanpera will step up to a Toyota works seat next season, making him the youngest ever full-time factory driver in the World Rally Championship, Autosport has learned. The 18-year-old’s management will invoke a clause in his two-year Skoda deal to depart his current employer at the end of the year. Autosport’s sources have indicated
Former Bentley factory driver Andy Meyrick will return to the Spa 24 Hours next month, 12 months after breaking his back in the Blancpain GT Series blue-riband round. The Briton, who drove for the works M-Sport Bentley operation in 2013-15, will race for the Team Parker Racing squad with which he contested last year’s event.
The FIA is ready to roll out more bespoke bollard lanes in Formula 1 runoff areas this year in its push to clamp down harder on drivers abusing track limits. Amid a growing debate about how to deter drivers from cutting corners, the FIA trialled more extensive use of lanes that directed cars around bollards
Silverstone is focused on securing its place as the long-term home of MotoGP in the United Kingdom amid the uncertainty of the future of Formula 1’s British Grand Prix. This year’s F1 race at the track is the last one under the current deal, while its MotoGP contract has been recently extended to 2021. This
All four factory World Rally Championship teams will contest next month’s Rally Estonia, with Toyota’s Ott Tanak having been added to the entry. Tanak’s entry on his home country’s biggest motorsport event could only be confirmed once Juho Hanninen had safely completed Rally Italy because WRC points leader Tanak will use the Yaris Hanninen drove
Max Verstappen says it is “bullshit” to suggest Formula 1 cars are not challenging enough, and is baffled by Romain Grosjean’s claim that driving a kart is harder. Lewis Hamilton has suggested this season that the current generation of Formula 1 car is too easy to drive, while Grosjean revealed he was more tired driving
Ex-Formula 1 driver Alexander Rossi says his IndyCar future is “in God’s hands” amid speculation he could move from the Honda-backed Andretti Autosports squad to Chevrolet-powered Penske for 2020. Rossi won at Road America last weekend, and sits second in the championship with two wins and a further three podium finishes. The 27-year-old joined Andretti
Formula 1 race director Michael Masi says he is open to changing rejoining rules for 2020 in the wake of the incident between Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel in Canada. The controversy caused by Vettel’s five-second penalty at the Canadian Grand Prix for rejoining the track in an unsafe manner and pushing Hamilton off circuit
Hyundai has resolved its dilemma over who to put in its World Rally Cars in Finland – its traditional weak point – by bringing Craig Breen back to the WRC. DAVID EVANS explains the factors that made Hyundai turn to the former Citroen driver. It’s not often flood defences are needed in Jyvaskyla, but it
World Superbike rider Alvaro Bautista says the door back to MotoGP in 2020 “is more closed” now, as Ducati looks set to retain its current premier class line-up. Bautista moved to WSBK on Ducati’s all-new Panigale V4 R at the start of this season and currently leads the standings by 16 points having won 14
Williams Formula 1 chief technical officer Paddy Lowe’s departure has finally been confirmed after a leave of absence that began before the start of the 2019 season. Lowe has been on leave for “personal reasons” since March 5, with his last Williams appearance coming in pre-season testing at Barcelona. Williams has now announced that he
Craig Breen will return to the World Rally Championship to join Hyundai as its third driver for Rally Finland in August. The decision ends weeks of speculation about who would step in for the team’s resident drivers Sebastien Loeb and Dani Sordo, both of whom had made it clear they did not want to compete
Formula 1 sporting boss Ross Brawn says he cannot wait to work with Lewis Hamilton in shaping the championship’s future and says meetings are now scheduled to get driver input. After dominating a straightforward French Grand Prix last weekend, Hamilton was critical of F1’s rulemaking process and said the series is nowhere near where it
Formula 1 race director Michael Masi says he does not understand why Sergio Perez was so upset at his French Grand Prix penalty. Racing Point’s Perez was handed a five-second penalty at Paul Ricard for gaining places after cutting across the run-off areas at Turns 3 and 4 on the opening lap, and Perez said
Team owner Joe Gibbs says he was “sweating” over the prospect of having Martin Truex Jr and Kyle Busch in the same outfit for the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season. The closure of Furniture Row Racing at the end of 2018 led to Truex moving to Joe Gibbs Racing and linking up with Busch. The
Penske’s Will Power and Josef Newgarden are at a loss to explain how Alexander Rossi was able to take such a dominant IndyCar win for Andretti Autosport at Road America. Rossi took victory after leading all 55 laps and crossing the line ahead of Power by almost 30 seconds, with Newgarden completing the top three
Suzuki’s current strong MotoGP form is down to the manufacturer creating “countermeasures” during its torrid 2017 campaign that has helped improve the GSX-RR bike, says test rider Sylvain Guintoli. The 2017 bike proved largely uncompetitive and Suzuki believed the main problem was homologating the wrong specification of engine, with its then-rider Andrea Iannone said to
The FIA says the quick change of start lights at the French Grand Prix should not have caught Formula 1 drivers by surprise because it was within its permitted tolerances. Sebastian Vettel was among a handful of drivers to admit after the race he was “a bit surprised” by how quickly the lights went out,
The Charlotte Roval will redesign its backstretch chicane ahead of the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series race in a bid to improve overtaking. The chicane is located after the NASCAR field turns through the oval circuit’s banking, before then heading onto the backstretch and into the Turns 11-12 complex. Previously, the original chicane layout proved difficult
Joe Gibbs Racing’s Martin Truex Jr clinched his fourth NASCAR Cup Series victory of the 2019 season, resisting late pressure from team-mate Kyle Busch at Sonoma. Busch made his final pitstop three laps later than Truex Jr, and carried a tyre advantage into the final 23 laps of the 90-lap race. Emerging eight seconds adrift
Alexander Rossi dominated IndyCar’s Road America race to take his second win of the season, ending a run of three second places from the last four races. The Andretti Autosport driver passed polesitter Colton Herta in the opening sequence of corners on the first lap and never looked back, leading all 55 laps and crossing
Daniel Ricciardo has dropped from seventh to 11th in the final Formula 1 French Grand Prix classification after receiving two five-second penalties for overtakes on the last lap. The Renault driver overtook McLaren’s Lando Norris at the chicane but locked up while doing so, which forced Norris to take evasive action and allowed Kimi Raikkonen
Lewis Hamilton says boring Formula 1 races are not the drivers’ fault and instead the blame lies at the rulemakers for a “constant cycle” of making bad decisions. Hamilton dominated Sunday’s French Grand Prix, winning by 18 seconds after a straightforward race with little action to earn his sixth victory in eight races maintained Mercedes’
Audi Team Phoenix secured its fifth win in the Nurburgring 24 Hours after the leading #911 Manthey Porsche was hit with a hefty penalty in the final hours of the race. Dries Vanthoor brought the #4 Team Phoenix Audi R8 LMS to the finish after keeping a furious Kevin Estre in the #911 Manthey Racing
Romain Grosjean believes the Haas Formula 1 team needs to “stop blaming the tyres and start blaming ourselves” after its struggles in French Grand Prix qualifying. The American outfit has been one of the hardest hit by this year’s specification of tyres, which are harder to get into their optimum working range, and regularly found
Chris van der Drift and Evan Chen made amends for disqualification in the opening race to claim their third Super Trofeo Asia victory of the season at Suzuka. The Gama Racing pairing were stripped of their on-the-road win on Saturday after failing ride height checks, handing VSR duo Alex Au and Yuki Nemoto victory. But
Colton Herta claimed his first IndyCar pole position at Road America, beating Alexander Rossi to the top spot as the pair traded places at the top of the timesheets. Herta, who is now IndyCar’s youngest polesitter, set a lap time of 1m42.992s, which was less than two tenths of a second faster than Rossi. Herta
Red Bull Racing’s Pierre Gasly says he made the wrong set-up choice in qualifying for the French Grand Prix, leaving him struggling for pace and ninth on the grid. Red Bull added downforce to Gasly’s car after FP3, but in Q1 the Frenchman found he had lost performance. Gasly will now start the race on
The McLaren Formula 1 team is to build an all-new windtunnel at its Woking factory. Although McLaren has made significant progress in 2019 its car still lacks fundamental downforce and, after new team principal Andreas Seidl analysed what improvements need to be made, McLaren’s board has signed off the construction of a new windtunnel. The
Ferrari’s attempt to have the decision that cost Sebastian Vettel Canadian Grand Prix victory reviewed failed on Friday at Paul Ricard, despite the Formula 1 team presenting new evidence. The outfit felt it had “pretty overwhelming” evidence to show but, in rejecting a review, FIA stewards deemed the material presented featured “no significant and relevant