FIA Formula 3 returns this weekend with a bumper double-header in Spielberg, Austria.
As the 2020 season gets underway all eyes will be on Prema, who dominated last year’s championship to win both the drivers’ and teams’ titles. With Robert Shwartzman, Jehan Daruvala and Marcus Armstrong graduating to Formula 2, Prema has an all-new lineup for this year led by Renault academy driver and 2019 Formula Renault Eurocup champion Oscar Piastri.
Piastri is joined by Frederik Vesti, who won the 2019 Formula Regional European title with Prema, and Logan Sargeant, who has plenty of F3 experience having raced with Carlin last year.
Frederik Vesti, Prema (Joe Portlock, LAT Images / FIA F3 Championship)
Whether this new lineup will be able to recreate the eight wins and sixteen further podiums Prema swept to last year remains to be seen, and they won’t be without their competition.
Hitech were Prema’s closest rivals last year and has a trio of drivers for 2020 that combines talent and F3 experience. Max Fewtrell and Liam Lawson, Renault and Red Bull juniors respectively, both took podiums in their debut seasons last year, and are joined by Red Bull junior and reigning Italian F4 champion Dennis Hauger.
ART struggled last year to get to grips with the new F3 car and will be expected to improve after this learning experience. Their new lineup is headed by Sauber junior and reigning ADAC F4 champion Theo Pourchaire, who is joined by Alexsandr Smolyar and Sebastian Fernandez.
Theo Pourchaire, ART (Joe Portlock, LAT Images / FIA F3 Championship)
Another headache for Prema this weekend may also come from Jake Hughes, the only returning race winner from 2019. Hughes is staying with HWA Racelab for a second season, and this consistency should help him to hit the ground running in the first feature race of the year.
But there are plenty more drivers to watch throughout F3’s packed 30-car grid. Among them are 2019 Macau Grand Prix winner Richard Verschoor (MP Motorsport), rising Red Bull proteges Jack Doohan (HWA) and Igor Fraga (Charouz), 2019 British F3 champion Clement Novalak (Carlin), and the highly-rated Sophia Floersch (Campos).
With so many exceptional drivers and a true old-school circuit, this weekend at the Red Bull Ring will prove an exciting start to the 2020 Formula 3 championship.
Sophia Floersch, Campos (Joe Portlock / LAT Images / FIA F3 Championship)
The 2020 Formula 2 season gets underway this weekend with the first of a double-header at Austria’s Red Bull Ring.
The F2 grid in Spielberg will be full of returning faces. Series stalwarts Artem Markelov, Sean Gelael, Jack Aitken, Louis Deletraz, Nobuharu Matsushita, Roy Nissany and Luca Ghiotto are all back, as are Guanyu Zhou, Callum Ilott, Giuliano Alesi, Mick Schumacher, Marino Sato and Nikita Mazepin, who made their debuts last year.
Alongside them are nine rookie drivers, six of whom come from Formula 1 junior programmes. These are: Renault’s Christian Lundgaard (ART), Williams’ Dan Ticktum (DAMS), Ferrari’s Marcus Armstrong (ART) and Robert Shwartzman (Prema), and Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda and Jehan Daruvala (both at Carlin).
The remaining three rookies are Guilherme Samaia (Campos), Pedro Piquet (Charouz) and Felipe Drugovich (MP Motorsport).
Jehan Daruvala and Yuki Tsunoda, Carlin (Carl Bingham, LAT Images / FIA F2 Championship)
In such an unusual season, it’s hard to predict the pecking order coming into the first round of the championship.
Of the returning drivers, Aitken, Markelov, Ghiotto, Matsushita and Schumacher all have race-winning pedigree at this level. Aitken is perhaps best-placed to fight at the front as he remains with Campos this year, although none of the others (Markelov least of all) should be discounted from pulling off a surprise charge to the top step.
Looking at the top teams is usually a safe bet coming into a new season. UNI-Virtuosi had a strong showing in Austria last year with podiums in both races, and have a talented lineup in Zhou and Ilott who are both gunning for their first F2 victory.
Callum Ilott, UNI-Virtuosi (Joe Portlock, LAT Images / FIA F2 Championship)
ART can always be relied on to run at the front. And although the French team has an all-rookie lineup, both Lundgaard and Armstrong were race-winners in Formula 3 last year and could both be credible threats to F2’s old guard.
And then there’s Prema. Schumacher is expected to make a big step forward after a sedate debut last year, so shouldn’t be ruled out of contention just because of his 2019 results. And of course he’s partnered by reigning F3 champion Shwartzman, who has plenty of speed and race craft to make an immediate impression on his F2 debut.
As ever, it’s going to be a fascinating opening round for F2 as we wait to see how the field shakes out for the season ahead.
Marcus Armstrong, ART (Joe Portlock, LAT Images / FIA F2 Championship)
We had some exciting news reported this afternoon! There has been an announcement with changes made to the calendar after the loss of many rounds through the summer period.
2020 FIA World Rally Championship Rallye Monte-Carlo 2020 22-26 January 2020 Thierry Neuville, Nicolas Gilsoul, Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC Photographer: Helena El Mokni Worldwide copyright: Hyundai Motorsport GmbH
Making its championship debut at the start of September is Rally Estonia, long rumoured during this lockdown period to be joining the calendar. Taking place during the first weekend of September, this becomes the 33rd country to host a full world rally championship event. It will be a gravel round, and I can imagine that Ott Tänak and his co-driver Martin Järveoja will be very excited about competing on home soil!
2020 FIA World Rally Championship / Round 02 / Swedish Rally / February 13-16, 2020 // Worldwide Copyright: Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT
Following up is the scheduled Rally Turkey, over the weekend of the 24th to 27th of September, then Rally Germany, the all tarmac round from the 15th to the 18th of October. Following those two events is the rescheduled Rally Italia Sardegna which takes place over the final weekend of October, 29th October to the 1st of November, that would have seen Wales Rally GB take place. The season will conclude in Japan in November over the weekend of the 19th to 22nd.
FIA World Rally Championship 2019 / Round 03 / Rally Mexico / March 7th-10th, 2019 // Worldwide Copyright: Toyota Gazoo Racing WRC
Here’s the full updated calendar for you!
Monte-Carlo 23rd to 26th January
Rally Sweden 13th to 16th February
Rally Mexico 12th to 15th March (this finished early on the 14th of course)
Rally Estonia 4th to 6th September
Rally Turkey 24th to 27th September
Rally Germany 15th to 18th October
Rally Italia Sardegna 29th October to 1st November
Rally Japan 19th to 22nd November
There also may be the addition of Ypres Rally in Belgium which could take place over the weekend of the 2nd to the 4th of October and Croatia with a date yet to be confirmed as other options.
Here’s a reminder of the current championship standings.
2020 FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers’ Standings
After round 3
1
S. Ogier
62
2
E. Evans
54
3
T. Neuville
42
4
K. Rovanperä
40
5
O. Tänak
38
6
T. Suninen
26
7
E. Lappi
24
8
S.Loeb
8
9
T. Katsuta
8
2020 FIA World Rally Championship for Manufacturers’ Standings
After round 3
1
Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team
110
2
Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team
89
3
M-Sport Ford World Rally Team
65
Well, we are hopefully set for an exciting remainder of this season’s championship.
112 days after the opener in Melbourne was supposed to get underway, the Formula One season will finally begin in Austria this Sunday.
As with the return of most sport during the COVID-19 pandemic however, things will work a little differently in the F1 paddock. Media presence will be lower, the freedom of the drivers to roam around the surrounding area during race week will decrease and, perhaps most prominently, there will be a complete absence of fans.
The Austrian Grand Prix will mark the first of two races at the 4.3-kilometre Red Bull Ring, with the Styrian Grand Prix following just a week later. This is all part of the FIA’s plan to satiate the year with as many races as possible so as to create as exhaustive a calendar as possible for the world championship season, which needs to be at least eight races long to classify as such.
Normally by this point of the year, we would know who is competitive and who is not, but the cars have not run since testing in Barcelona at the beginning of the year and, as we learned last year especially, testing pace is little to go by.
It is therefore quite difficult to determine who the favourites are going to be, but the same could generally be said in Spielberg last year. Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari were all competitive last season, with Max Verstappen narrowly beating Charles Leclerc to victory following a controversial overtake at the end of the race, the investigation for which was not concluded until hours after the drivers had stepped off the podium.
Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool
One of the major points of interest is the perennially fascinating midfield battle. The Racing Point, designed on last year’s Mercedes, is tipped to be one of the major challengers to fourth place in the Constructors’ as they look to knock McLaren off their perch as best of the rest. Renault’s inconsistencies over the past couple of seasons will need to be rectified by their new driver-pairing of Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon, as the French team consider their future involvement in the sport they have failed to re-master since their return in 2016. Alpha Tauri – rebranded from Toro Rosso – and Alfa Romeo will also have an eye on challenging for the best of the midfield teams.
Haas are understood to be the only constructor not bringing upgrades to this race, as uncertainty looms about their interest in F1 too. Their upgrades last year affected them adversely rather than helping them progress after the first race, and they will look to avoid further regression this year. They managed a fourth and fifth-placed finish in Spielberg in 2018, while Kevin Magnussen qualified an impressive fifth last season. A gearbox penalty and the Haas car’s ghastly race pace saw him finish behind both the Williams cars.
Speaking of which, Williams’ car was three seconds quicker in testing in Spain than it was in the 2019 Spanish Grand Prix, which will lead the British team to believe they can climb off the bottom of the championship table and relieve some of the immense pressure currently on Claire Williams’ shoulders.
One of the shortest tracks on the calendar follows the longest wait for a Formula One season since the World Championship’s inception. The Styrian mountains will not be alive with the sound of fans, but they will still be alive with the sound of Formula One cars.
As a motorsport fan I’ve rarely felt the level of righteous indignation I experienced in September 2013, when Heart FM egregiously used this caption under a photo of Niki Lauda and a footballer. Admittedly, that footballer was David Beckham, but who hasn’t heard of Niki Lauda?
Never fear, however, for Maurice Hamilton is here to put that injustice to rights with his biography of the great Austrian, fittingly titled Niki Lauda.
The expression GOAT is bandied about a lot these days. That’s ‘Greatest of all Time’, for those of you who like to wave at trendy acronyms as they pass you by. Reading Hamilton’s book, which is based on testimonies by journalists, peers and friends, as well as the forthright opinions of the man himself, it’s clear that Lauda would have been among the first to say that GOAT is not really applicable to him. The term implies a natural ability that is seen rarely in the history of a sport; your Ronnie O’Sullivans, Mo Farrahs and Lance Armstrongs.
Okay, maybe not that last one.
What Lauda can easily be described as is a legend of F1, with three world titles as a driver and decades of involvement in the sport out of the cockpit.
Lauda disliked the misconception that he was a walking computer, thinking in binary terms and coldly assessing risk. This was rooted in his idiosyncratic and abrupt way of speaking, and his often harsh criticism and high expectations of others. He ignored the fluff and superstition of sport, and built a legacy from his own self-belief, business acumen and intelligence. He couldn’t drive around a car’s problems, but he could communicate effectively with his team to correct issues. Everything he did was for a purpose and was done with intricate attention to detail. And if there’s one thing that is apparent in the fond comments by those interviewed by Hamilton, it’s that Lauda possessed a great sense of humour and was deeply kind; aspects of his personality perhaps less widely accepted than his immense fortitude.
Niki Lauda focuses on Lauda’s adult life and career, glossing over his youth and family except in how they affected his early ambition to go racing. Instead, the book gives engaging insight into Lauda’s thought processes and how his work ethic and experiences set him apart from his contemporaries. He had ambition, but it went beyond driving. He had passion, but it was tempered by shrewd decision-making. He was outspoken, but he never exempted himself from his blunt criticism.
Niki Lauda is not just a book for fans; it’s the story of a fascinating life, written with love.
To get the full Lauda experience, the impressive tome Niki Lauda: His Competition History by Jon Saltinstall was published in 2019. Read in conjunction with Hamilton’s biography, it beautifully illustrates Lauda’s racing career. This book doesn’t belong on a coffee table; it is a stunning testament to a career that spanned the decades when single seater motorsport was precariously balanced between appalling danger and creative innovation.
Formula 1 is an inherently photogenic sport, and the sheer beauty of the vintage images in this book are breathtaking. For true fans of both Lauda and the history of motorsport, it’s well worth the £60 asking price.
Niki Lauda: His Competition History is published by Evro.
2020 was meant to be the second year of the all-women’s single seater championship, the W Series. It was going to give out superlicence points with 15 going the way of the champion, and it was due to have eight rounds with the last two supporting the F1 Grand Prix in the US and Mexico. However due to the COVID-19 pandemic which has compromised a lot of motorsport series this year, the W Series was one of those hit the hardest and subsequently has delayed its second season until 2021.
This has of course thrown a spanner in the works of many of the 18 women who were due to compete, one of whom was the inaugural champion Jamie Chadwick. The 22-year old from Somerset had an incredible 2019, with some notable achievements including becoming an Aston Martin factory GT driver, a Williams F1 development driver, being a finalist in the Aston Martin BRDC Autosport award, winning her class at the Nürburgring 24 hours and along with winning the W Series, she also won the MRF Challenge winter series. Chadwick also finished fourth with a race victory in the most recent Asian F3 championship, won a race in British F3 and won the GT4 class championship in British GT back in 2015.
So with nothing in place for a 2020 campaign, Chadwick was invited to participate in a test day for the Formula Regional European Championship with the highly successful Prema PowerTeam in place of Roman Staněk. The Czech driver raced last year in a dual ADAC F4 and Italian F4 campaign with US Racing, taking two wins and fourth in the German championship and one win on his way to fifth in the Italian championship.
Staněk was due to race with Prema in Formula Regional but has had to pull the plug due to potential budgetary issues. Chadwick will take his place in the team having recently earned the backing of a company called Rodin Cars, who develop trackday single seater experiences with their FZED model, based primarily on the Lotus Exos T125.
The Formula Regional European Championship utilises the same Alfa Romeo-powered Tatuus F3 T-318 that Chadwick used in both the W Series and in Asian F3, and she has got a golden opportunity to shine as she is in the best team. Last year was the inaugural season of Formula Regional, Prema dominated with their three drivers occupying first, second and fifth in the championship, with 2019 champion Frederik Vesti now set to race in the Grand Prix supporting FIA Formula 3 championship again with the dominant Prema outfit.
Chadwick will undoubtedly face stiff competition in the form of teammates Arthur Leclerc and Gianluca Petecof, both of whom are part of the Ferrari Driver Academy and finished rather strongly in their F4 campaigns last year. The season will consist of eight rounds, the first of which takes place on the weekend of August 2nd at the Misano circuit in Italy, the season will end at Vallelunga on the weekend of December 6th, and along the way, they’ll also visit Paul Ricard, Red Bull Ring, Mugello, Monza, Catalunya and Imola.
This could be a make or break year for Chadwick, it’s very possible she could do very well or be shown up by her younger teammates. Either way, this is a great chance for Jamie to show that she could be a great prospect for F1 in the future.
89 Not the most significant number of them all, but certainly one of the most prevalent in Formula One as the latest news hits the press.
Why? Because that is the amount of races Mercedes have won since the beginning of the V6 hybrid era in 2014. The Brackley-based team had already been on the rise in 2013, but the arrival of the turbo-charged era paved the way for six of the most utterly dominant seasons in sporting history. With those 89 wins have come 12 championships – six drivers’ and six constructors’ and, particularly last season, themselves and now six time world champion Lewis Hamilton looked unmatchable.
It does not take a genius to figure out what the key to this almost unprecedented success was. New engines means a completely different way of thinking, a different way of working; a different way of racing.
The V6 hybrid department has been led from the start by Andy Cowell – the brilliant mind that helped power Stewart Ford to their maiden victory in 1999. That team’s name now? Four time Constructors’ champions Red Bull.
He has been part of the Mercedes family since 2004, working on the Mercedes Ilmor engines – originally designed for IndyCar, but later used by McLaren and Sauber (now Alfa Romeo) in Formula One.
As his career progressed, he worked his indispensable magic on the V10s and then the V8s. His work on the brand new for 2009 KERS system, in which the kinetic energy from the brakes provided an electric speed boost at the drivers’ command, was revolutionary. Although Brawn GP did not use KERS that season, they did use Mercedes engines, and Cowell’s brilliance had slyly guided another team to glory in the pinnacle of motorsport.
Throughout nearly the entirety of the V8 era, Cowell was responsible for building the Mercedes drivetrains. These engines also helped Lewis Hamilton to championship success in 2008, and powered Michael Schumacher in his three-year return to the sport with the Mercedes factory team.
Then came 2014. Cowell’s almost unparalleled genius produced one of the finest, fastest and the all-conquering hybrid engine that has brought copious race wins for Mercedes, as well as helping to temporarily lift Williams out of their slump, pushing them to 14 podiums between 2014 and 2017.
Cowell’s work and engineering excellence has been one of the defining factors of Mercedes’ relentless success during the hybrid era, so just how big a loss will his departure be?
Well, another brilliant brain in the Formula One paddock, Jock Clear – formerly of Mercedes and now of Ferrari, gave a veracious account in 2016 of just how different these current cars are compared to their V8 predecessors. He remarked on the way that the engine and the chassis need to work as one package, rather than as two separate entities.
This means to say that there is a phenomenal and integral spine to the Mercedes team that has produced an incredible chassis, and incredible engine, and made them work in perfect harmony for six tremendous years.
With that being said, one person leaving from the engine department may not be such an issue – particularly with exceptional talents like Lewis Hamilton and his team mate Valtteri Bottas, who succeeded 2016 champion Nico Rosberg at this now dominant, highly decorated presence in Formula One.
But we saw what happened to Red Bull and Renault. Having achieved 68 wins in the nine seasons prior to 2014, Renault power was one of the most dominant forces in the sport. Since the arrival of the hybrids, Renault power has achieved 12. This pales into insignificance compared to Mercedes’ remarkable 89.
This, of course, is not strictly down to the engine. The aforementioned harmony between driver, engine and chassis is more vital now than ever before, so the lion’s share of the responsibility has to fall to the teams themselves, but it is certainly no secret that Mercedes power has blown away its competition since 2014, and this is down in no small part to Cowell.
So with McLaren moving to Mercedes engines for the 2021 season, Cowell’s departure leaves a void that needs filling, as well as a huge question mark as to who takes the reigns now, and what direction Mercedes decide to take in the engine department in the wake of Cowell’s absence.
In the run-up to the launch of the upcoming F1 game, I know plenty of us are planning on enjoying all there is to offer. Whether you are diving in the deep end with the new My Team mode, ringing the neck out of the four new Michael Schumacher classic cars or just overall being a tool by piledriving into people at the first corner in an online race. However in anticipation of F1 2020 being released, I’d like to let you all know about five content creators who you should consider following if you’re looking for some amazing videos centred on racing games.
Tiametmarduk
This is one that a lot of people in the F1 community will know already. Benjamin Daly is an Australian content creator who has amassed nearly 450,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel. If you subscribe to him, you can expect to find mostly F1 game career mode videos as well as online races, whether it be random lobbies, open to subscribers of his or even organised events.
Daly has been racing a lot of the F1 drivers in the Veloce Esports – of which Daly is a part of – Not The GP events as well as taking part in the last two F1 Virtual Grand Prix races with McLaren (who he has also become the Esports ambassador for). He’s probably the most naturally quick of all the big F1 gaming content creators on YouTube, and plays the game religiously.
This isn’t to say that Daly only ever plays the F1 games, he has branched out a few times though it’s safe to say that as far as the Codemasters F1 games are concerned, he’s the most well known and in my opinion, the best in the business. For a more varied set of racing games, you may like my next pick.
Jimmy Broadbent
Now this is a guy who everyone loves. Known by many names such as Jamble Wanglebork, Sheddy Irvine or the shed dweller, and also for being a bit of a jack of all trades. Jimmy is mainly known for driving more dedicated simulators such as iRacing, rFactor 2, Assetto Corsa Competizione etc. but he also isn’t shy to play the F1 games.
Like Tiametmarduk, Jimmer has been taking part in the Virtual Grand Prix races with Racing Point. Infact where there has been sim racing action in the past few months, it’s been very difficult not to find this wonderful man involved one way or another. Not only that, but Jimmy is also a commentator for the FIA Gran Turismo championships and you can just feel the enthusiasm, this man lives and breathes racing, and it’s just a joy to watch him and his videos.
Broadbent’s YouTube channel hit half a million subscribers during the Le Mans 24 Virtual that he was competing in, and on his birthday too. I cannot stress enough just how wonderful this guy really is and I highly implore you all to go seek out his channel, you will not be disappointed. Also, no he did not portray Frank Butterman in Hot Fuzz.
IntoTheBarrier
A bit of a left field selection I reckon for a lot of you, he’s gone very much under the radar and is someone who I think is very unappreciated. Scott Wallis is someone who I am sure is one of the backbones of the F1 Gaming community on YouTube, as his content is simple yet effective.
Scott often pairs up a short race with overenthusiastic post commentary and throws in a few in-jokes whether that be about aliens, horsey or a very brilliantly delivered “OH NO”. His editing is amazing too, what he lacks in ability on the game (which he would agree with so no I am not insulting him) he makes up for in video making.
What I mean by being a backbone of the F1 Gaming community is that before Scott came along, the F1 games didn’t attract much of an audience on YouTube outside of their little niche. Not many people wanted to hear some monotone 12-year old talk over a car going round a track, but Scott took that concept and perfected it for the mainstream. This opened up the doors for all his peers to start making videos and the F1 games could flourish.
This is why I include IntoTheBarrier here. He’s just short of hitting the 100,000 subscriber mark and he should get there because he deserves it. You have him to thank for the prominence of the F1 gaming community, even if he isn’t as serious or capable at driving as the likes of Tiametmarduk.
He hasn’t been able to participate in a lot of these big Esports races due to the fact he isn’t on PC, but maybe his in-joke about aliens could land him a sponsorship deal with Alienware? Maybe?
Maxime MXM
Another one who may have flown under the radar but understandably so, MaximeMXM is a Dutch content creator who has her channel sitting at 77,000 subscribers, which when you factor in that the content isn’t even in English, it’s honestly very respectable. She used to be a Call of Duty Esports pro player for G2 Esports, but has since focussed more on creating videos on a variety of games, whether that be Call of Duty, Fortnite, but mainly F1 and racing games.
Maxime really turned a lot of heads during F1’s own #ChallengeHeinekenLegends event where former F1 drivers David Coulthard and Nico Rosberg went head-to-head in a series of challenges on the F1 game. In one of the races, Maxime along with a bunch of other content creators (including Tiametmarduk) took to the US Grand Prix venue and she really stole the show. She led a couple of laps and finished third!
She has since been picked up by Veloce Esports and will start uploading English language videos to a second channel called MaxSim, and I for one am very interested to see where this takes her. I would highly recommend subscribing to her.
TRL Limitless
Now for someone who is very alien-level quick on the game. James Doherty is someone you may know from the F1 Esports series, where in 2018 he was drafted by Renault’s Esports team. However he is mainly known for his over 100,000 subscriber YouTube channel in which he uploads setup tutorials, analysis of onboard laps of some of the quickest drivers on the game and he even streams his online league races.
Doherty’s background was in karting, and he competed in both British and European Rotax races. His channel serves as more informative driven rather than entertainment, but his success as one of the most successful F1 game league racers in the world is not to be sniffed at.
Limitless is undoubtedly one of the fastest drivers on the game and his channel is completely dedicated to it so if you want to learn some tips on how to get faster on the F1 game and to learn more about it, then his channel is definitely the one you need to go to.
Honourable mentions
A list about racing game content creators wouldn’t be legitimate without mentioning Aarava. Like his Veloce stablemate Tiametmarduk, his channel is primarily F1 career mode focused but he also doubles that up by being the team principal of Alfa Romeo’s Esports team.
I’d also like to mention Super GT and BlackPanthaa, who both primarily don’t really play the F1 games and are more into Gran Turismo and Need For Speed respectively, but they are both worth a mention if you like those games.
Last but not least though, if you are a fan of GTA Online then you’ll really appreciate the next guy I am going to mention, his name is Broughy1322. He is the go-to guy if you want to know the performance of every car in GTA, as he religiously laps every single car in the game and he doesn’t get enough appreciation.
Alright! Hope I’ve given you all some good channels to go watch whilst we are all stuck inside. Enjoy them as we await the new F1 game!
Very recently, I saw an article appear on my phone’s Google news feed about a former racing driver who had starting uploading adult content to her OnlyFans page. Renee Gracie is an Australian woman whose racing career has spanned Aussie racing series such as Porsche Carrera Cup Australia, the Super2 series which is the feeder category to the Supercars, and then Supercars itself. Gracie took part in the Bathurst 1000 in 2015 and 2016, both times with Simona de Silvestro which made them the first all-woman pairing at Bathurst since 1998.
Gracie’s racing career was never sparkling and she didn’t set the world alight with her results, and it wasn’t long after her final year of racing in Super2 that she walked away from motorsport for good, citing her reason for hanging up her helmet that it’s no longer her passion. Then she gets dragged into the spotlight by daring to sell pictures of herself online, and she’s getting a respectable amount of money to live off of, the amount? Not important. I’m probably not doing any favours by bringing more attention to it, but I just had to say something because it really irks me.
Immediately, I have seen people say very demeaning things about Gracie, shaming her for making a living off of something which clearly sells. I’ve even seen a person say “Imagine showing your daughter a woman who should be her inspiration just for her to go do porn”, it’s really sickening to see these remarks.
There’s this very territorial culture about what grown women can do with their own bodies. Whether the issue is that they should be better role models, or that what they do is shameful, they’re selling out etc. The very same people who will publicly belittle her but will be the first to frantically search for her content when they get the opportunity.
I know I’ll get the very toxic people who will inevitably say that I’m ‘simping’ for Gracie, for daring to defend a woman who is selling pictures of herself online. This attitude towards women is frankly abhorrent, and you have to ask yourself why do you have a problem with it? Men sexualise women all the time, but when women sexualise themselves, it’s trashy for some reason?
This deep-rooted misogyny isn’t just exclusive to women who earn money by selling nudes and provocative videos, it’s in all forms of life especially in motorsport. Every time I see a W Series article or a woman in motorsport being covered in some capacity, all I see are just demeaning and bigoted comments about them.
Whether it be about Sophia Flörsch when she had her Macau crash and I saw comments about how if she had been a man, she would have reacted in time, or the people who say that the only reason that Tatiana Calderón isn’t good is because she’s a woman. Or if it’s the likes of someone like Carmen Jordá who tries to mask her incompetency behind the fact that she’s a woman, not helping the notion that women aren’t at the level of men and should not compete against them.
That’s why I was against the W Series at first before I realised what its aim was and have grown to appreciate it for what it is. There’s always a surface level guttural reaction to seeing a woman in racing, that it’s a gimmick and it’s not looking for the best drivers to compete.
Unfortunately as is the case in motorsport, you do need to potentially appeal to sponsors with a reason as to why you may be marketable, and that’s a reason you may find a lot of women racing. Current F1 driver Alex Albon was born in London to a British father and a Thai mother, and after being dropped by Red Bull at the end of 2012, he had the opportunity to gather sponsors from Thailand due to the fact that he was one of very few drivers at that level from there, even though he was born in Britain.
Though whilst Albon didn’t seem reluctant to call himself Thai, I know there’s a lot of distain from a lot of women in motorsport to be labelled as such. I remember when Sophia Flörsch got a race seat halfway through the FIA F3 European Championship in 2018 and the commentator kept on referring to her as ‘Lady Racer’, when saying ‘the sole woman in the field’ would probably have done just fine.
But Flörsch has quite rightfully been fed up of these remarks and playing into these pre-conceived notions that people seem to have about women in racing. She’s been openly critical of the W Series (albeit probably a bit too much when she’s made snide comments towards some of the women who do compete) and flat out refuses to compete, which she’s well within her right to do.
Attitudes won’t change overnight, and you’ll always find the odd person who will never stop being bigoted. It’s true that since 1950, only two women have ever qualified for a Grand Prix and motorsport will always be male dominated. For every 95 men in racing, there’s probably about five women and out of those, only a select few will be talented enough and maybe those are the ones who don’t have the opportunities.
I know in my heart of hearts that there’s a woman out there who will be F1 world champion, whether that’s Jamie Chadwick or maybe even someone’s unborn baby girl, I know one day it will happen.
Yes, I started this article talking about a former driver who started an adult film career, but these awful attitudes towards women is prevalent everywhere. Renee Gracie got a lot of stick as racing driver and undoubtedly is getting more as an adult film actress, and everyone who is trying to belittle her for making that choice, shame on you.
As has been the case with a lot of the major motorsport championships during this pandemic, we have seen the rise of sim racing to fill that void. Had these motorsport events not been postponed, the weekend of June 14th would have been the season finale for the 2019-20 FIA World Endurance Championship season with the 88th running of the 24 hours of Le Mans. That has been postponed until September, but in its original June slot will be a virtual rendition sanctioned officially by the FIA and ACO.
Normal Le Mans 24 will not happen til September 19th. Image courtesy of Joao Filipe, Adrenal Media / FIA Wec
Dubbed the Le Mans 24 Virtual, the race will be held using rFactor 2 and will feature 50 entries consisting of four drivers each across two classes; LMP2 will be the leading class with all entrants using the Oreca 07 and they will be accompanied by LMGTE cars from the likes of Ferrari, Porsche, Aston Martin and Corvette. It looks set to be the peak of sim racing already, as the list of drivers who have signed up to compete is absolutely incredible!
Where to begin? Perhaps with some prominent F1 drivers. Max Verstappen and Lando Norris are back again in a 24 hour virtual race, hoping to repeat their win in the iRacing Spa 24 hours only this time without Max’s brake pedal falling off 15 minutes from the end. They’re racing with Team RedLine once again, one of if not the most successful sim racing team of all time and they’ll be partnered up with sim racers Atze Kerkhof and Greger Huttu.
Team RedLine will also be running the two entries of the WEC team Jota Sport, featuring the likes of Formula E championship leader António Félix da Costa and 2019 IndyCar rookie of the year Felix Rosenqvist alongside two very successful sim racers. The sim racers being inaugural World’s Fastest Gamer winner and former McLaren simulator driver Rudy van Buren, who is Mahindra’s Formula E simulator development driver and will be racing this year in Porsche Carrera Cup Deutschland, and the other being McLaren Shadow Project Final winner Kevin Siggy who is currently leading the Formula E Race at Home Challenge for sim racers.
Another prominent team in the world of sim racing is Veloce Esports, and they’re fielding three entrants in the top class with current and former F1 drivers: Pierre Gasly, Stoffel Vandoorne and Jean-Éric Vergne. F1 Esports race winner Jarno Opmeer, 14-year old Veloce Academy protégé Tomek ‘Hyperz’ Poradzisz, and the second World’s Fastest Gamer winner James Baldwin who is set to race this year in the GT World Challenge for Jenson Button’s Team Rocket squad.
Speaking of Jenson Button, he’s also racing in this, as are his former F1 teammates Fernando Alonso and Rubens Barrichello. Even the likes of Indy 500 winners Juan Pablo Montoya, Tony Kanaan and Simon Pagenaud are competing. Let’s just hope the latter doesn’t try to take Lando out again!
Two other current F1 drivers are competing, that being Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi, and they’re paired up with Ferrari’s current F1 and SRO GT Esports drivers, reigning F1 Esports champion David Tonizza and 2018 eRace of Champions winner Enzo Bonito. Alongside them in the GT class will be Felipe Massa and Giancarlo Fisichella, who are racing an entry backed by Strong Together, a foundation set up by Charlene, Princess of Monaco.
The FIA’s Women In Motorsport is represented by Katherine Legge, Sophia Flörsch, Tatiana Calderón and Emily Jones with the Richard Mille Racing Team. However the most notable woman in racing right now, W Series champion Jamie Chadwick is also racing and she’s going to be sharing driving duties with YouTube sim racing royalty Jimmy Broadbent!
The 2020 Virtual Le Mans entry list. Image courtesy of Fia WecSecond part of the 2020 Virtual Le Mans entry list. Image courtesy of Fia Wec
Other notable drivers taking part include Pietro Fittipaldi and also F2 drivers Louis Delétraz and Jack Aitken who are both racing for Williams and Rebellion’s collaboration effort. Former F1 driver Olivier Panis is also competing, and that’s before we even get onto some of the regulars of the WEC and the 24 hours of Le Mans.
Toyota drivers Sébastien Buemi, Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway, José María López and Brendon Hartley will be in the top class. Along with the likes of André Lotterer, Nicki Thiim, Will Stevens, Bruno Senna, Neel Jani, Norman Nato, Nicolas Lapierre, Darren Turner, Nick Tandy, Dries Vanthoor, Filipe Albuquerque, Nicky Catsburg, Jan Magnussen, Miguel Molina, Tommy Milner and Thomas Laurent, all of these are just some of the 200 names you will see when you tune in to the Virtual 24 hours of Le Mans on June 13th!
So how do you watch? It will be streamed on the official Motorsport TV website and possibly Twitch as well? TV scheduling may or may not happen and will vary between country, you will need to check back on social media, Fia Wec’s website
But what does this really mean? This is probably the biggest sim race of all time in terms of driver caliber, and it’s just absolutely incredible to behold. It could open up doors to potentially get more of these sim races to happen in the future during the off-season and maybe for a great cause too!
Yes we’re probably all fed up of sim racing and a lot of the controversies to come along with it, but you can’t deny it’s better than just twiddling our thumbs waiting for real racing to begin again. Sim racing has been immense during this wait, and it doesn’t look set to be slowing down even when real racing gets back going again.
So until that happens, I hope you will join me as a viewer of this landmark sim race. A real spectacle in sim racing!
image courtesy of W series
In the run-up to the launch of the upcoming F1 game, I know plenty of us are planning on enjoying all there is to offer. Whether you are diving in the deep end with the new My Team mode, ringing the neck out of the four new Michael Schumacher classic cars or just overall being a tool by piledriving into people at the first corner in an online race. However in anticipation of F1 2020 being released, I’d like to let you all know about five content creators who you should consider following if you’re looking for some amazing videos centred on racing games.
Very recently, I saw an article appear on my phone’s Google news feed about a former racing driver who had starting uploading adult content to her OnlyFans page. Renee Gracie is an Australian woman whose racing career has spanned Aussie racing series such as Porsche Carrera Cup Australia, the Super2 series which is the feeder category to the Supercars, and then Supercars itself. Gracie took part in the Bathurst 1000 in 2015 and 2016, both times with Simona de Silvestro which made them the first all-woman pairing at Bathurst since 1998.
