This weekend would have been the return of the Dutch Grand Prix at the Zandvoort circuit to the F1 calendar, which is only happening because of a certain Max Verstappen. F1 madness has gripped the Netherlands, it only took about five years for a driver to generate enough buzz to get it back on the calendar. But we aren’t talking about that today, instead I’m talking about a country which has had three drivers who have won the Formula One world championship yet have never gotten close to having a Grand Prix in F1’s 70 year history.
1982 champion Keke Rosberg, 1998 and 1999 champion Mika Häkkinen and the much beloved 2007 champion Kimi Räikkönen all hail from a small country up in Scandinavia, you might have heard of it, Finland! A country that has a rich history of motorsport, mainly through rallying with seven drivers who have won the World Rally Championship, and if you ever saw the piece on Top Gear where James May is given racing lessons by Mika Häkkinen, you’ll realise how seriously the Finns take driving.
So why may I ask, has Finland never had a Grand Prix? Maybe the Scandinavian countries aren’t warm enough throughout the year, but immediately I can refute that because Sweden had a Grand Prix between 1973 and 1978. Plus it’s not like there isn’t demand! We always hear about the Finns traveling down to the Hungaroring for the Hungarian Grand Prix. Why should they be made to travel upwards of 2,000 kilometres to attend a Grand Prix?
For this year, construction was completed on a circuit on the Northern Eastern outskirts of Helsinki with the intention of bringing back the Finnish MotoGP. The circuit was called the Kymi Ring, and it hosted an open test shortly after finishing construction with the Grand Prix scheduled for July 12th, but understandably has been postponed in the current circumstances.
Looking at this video of a virtual lap from the newly-released MotoGP 20 game by Milestone, you can see that the Kymi Ring has some rather unique corners. The fast flowing turn one heading into an uphill hairpin, then a long back-straight before a series of very technical, flowing yet tight corners. Plenty of elevation change too, which is always an amazing characteristic with all the great circuits.
Whether F1 could have a good race here is another matter, although it wouldn’t be any worse than Yas Marina and Sochi. In any case, there have been discussions to potentially have other top-line racing series at the Kymi Ring other than MotoGP. This includes Karting, Rallycross, Speedway, Motocross, and even top-line circuit car racing such as World Touring Cars, DTM and the World Endurance Championship!
Those last three in particular should definitely hammer home how serious the Kymi Ring is about being the home of Finnish motorsport. It has gotten the top grades by both the major motorsport governing bodies for motorcycle and car racing, with the FIM giving it a safety grade A for motorcycle racing, and the FIA have granted the circuit and its facilities, grade 1 licence. Thus making it the first and only Nordic circuit to meet the requirements to host an F1 Grand Prix.
So immediately, this track meets the regulations to host F1, so it would beg the question, why isn’t it already trying? Well, as the answer always seem to be, money. MotoGP got priority over F1 because it cost way less, and it may build up the interest of potential investors but even so, I don’t see any reason why Finland wouldn’t be hugely onboard with getting the F1 circus to go there.
It just astounds me to think that it has taken so long to have the conversation about a Finnish F1 Grand Prix, particularly as we have got an aging Kimi Räikkönen – still racing in F1 at 40 – who will at some point overtake Rubens Barrichello for most Grand Prix starts when F1 does resume. Lewis Hamilton has Silverstone, Fernando Alonso had Barcelona and Max Verstappen will have Zandvoort, why can’t Kimi have the Kymi Ring? I mean, I doubt he actually cares but what about the adoring fans?
Like I was saying, the Finns have to make the journey to Budapest if they want to watch Kimi, their other Finnish driver Valtteri Bottas and indeed all the other drivers. Why should they? I’m British, so whether or not the Finns have their own Grand Prix doesn’t effect me hugely, but I think it’s an insult that they have never had one, particularly at the height of Häkkinen’s and Räikkönen’s careers.
One of Finland’s neighbouring countries is Russia, which already has a Grand Prix at the Sochi Autodrom near the shores of the Black Sea, one of the most southerly points of European Russia. However, there are strong talks of a circuit that has just been completed called Igora Drive, just north of St. Petersburg and not far from the Finnish border potentially taking over the Russian Grand Prix from 2021. This circuit is/was set to host a DTM round this year, and it looks a damn sight better than the current Russian Grand Prix venue.
If it were me organising the schedule, I’d put Kymi Ring and Igora Drive in successive weeks in late July and early August, probably at the expense of the Hungaroring, sorry Hungarians! With the Finnish F1 Grand Prix being a week or two after the MotoGP but before the WRC Rally Finland round. A month’s worth of racing action for the Finns!
As I said earlier, I’m British and none of my family are in any way linked to Finland, nor do I have any special affinity with Finland. But I firmly believe that all you Finns out there deserve a Grand Prix, and I hope it does happen. Kiitos!
I think I speak for a lot of us when I say that I am a huge Charles Leclerc fan, seeing his ascendency from joining the Ferrari Driver Academy, and winning the GP3 and Formula 2 championships then graduating to Formula 1 with Sauber and now a Grand Prix winner with Ferrari, it has truly been incredible.
He’s also been proving to be quite handy on the Esports side, racking up both wins in the last two F1 Virtual Grand Prix events, winning the Veloce Versus 1v1 event and also streaming on Twitch with the many other F1 drivers taking to Esports scene, raising money for charity in a set of races called ‘Race for the World’ which he also won.
However in all but the most recent Virtual GP, there has been a Ferrari being driven by another Leclerc, this being Charles’ younger brother Arthur. For this year, he was picked up by Ferrari to be on their driver academy like his sibling four years prior and it would be easy to assume that there is a bit of nepotism involved, considering other members of the academy include the sons of Michael Schumacher, Jean Alesi and the grandson of Emerson Fittipaldi.
I thought I’d run you all through why I think Arthur Leclerc could be one to look out for in the future and his recruitment to Ferrari’s young driver programme isn’t merely just because of being Charles’ younger brother.
Whilst Charles arrived into single seaters in 2014 off the back of major success in the karting scene, Arthur was only just starting out in karts despite only being three years younger than his highly rated brother. Arthur actually managed to win the Kart Racing Academy championship in France, but due to budgetary issues, he was out of racing for the next four years and in that time, Charles made that climb up the ladder and into F1.
The older Leclerc always had that issue early in his career, they never had a lot of money and if it weren’t for Nicolas Todt, his career would have been over. So it was the same case for younger Leclerc, who only got back into racing because of backing from his uncle, who set up an e-bike company. This helped him seal a place in the relatively low-budget French F4 championship in 2018.
Despite not racing for four years, it was like Arthur had never been away! He won a reverse-grid race in his first event, held his own in a battle with eventual dominant champion Caio Collet at the Pau circuit, took pole at a very wet Spa-Francorchamps and had it not been for some rotten luck in the final round, would have finished runner-up. That year, he also became a part of the Venturi Formula E team’s junior programme, alongside a selection of drivers from single seaters, karting and Esports.
For 2019, he stepped up to the German-based ADAC F4 championship and took his first victory at Hockenheim which supported the German Grand Prix, and Charles was there to greet him when he pulled up into parc fermé. Arthur raced for the Sauber Junior Team by Charouz, and even with the single victory he finished third in the championship, behind the highly rated pair of Red Bull junior Dennis Hauger and the champion Théo Pourchaire, one of Leclerc’s teammates.
That result is mightily impressive considering the level of talent in that field, and the fact he had nowhere near the amount of racing experience of his peers. Despite being three years older than Pourchaire, he had eight years less racing experience, so bearing all that in mind, that makes Leclerc’s results even more impressive.
Whilst Pourchaire and Hauger are stepping up to the Grand Prix-supporting FIA Formula 3 for this season, Leclerc has gone in another direction and joined up with Prema – the team that his brother won the 2017 FIA Formula 2 championship with – in the Formula Regional European Championship. A lower tier F3 series that races for the most part in Italy.
Arthur is now 19, the same age Charles was when he won the GP3 championship. The Prema team was very much a dominant force in Formula Regional last season and even with highly rated teammates like Roman Staněk, Oliver Rasmussen and fellow Ferrari junior Gianluca Petecof, I am very confident that Arthur is the favourite for the championship.
Last time we had an F1 driver called Charles, he also had a racing driver brother called Arthur, I’m referring to the Pic brothers. Charles Pic raced for tailender teams Marussia and Caterham between 2012 and 2013, whilst his brother Arthur Pic got as high as GP2. This time round, Charles Leclerc is in F1 and is one of the top drivers, and with his recruitment to Ferrari’s programme, would it be so absurd to liken the Leclerc brothers to the Márquez brothers in MotoGP?
Marc and Álex Márquez won a championship apiece in the lower and intermediate classes of Grand Prix motorcycle racing and now they are teammates at the Repsol Honda team that Marc has won all but one MotoGP world championship with since joining them in 2013. Could Arthur join Charles at Ferrari in the next few years? It’s not out of the question! But I won’t get ahead of myself. For the time being, let’s see how Arthur does and see if skill and excellence is in his blood.
Image courtesy of Scuderia Ferrari Formula 1 Team.
Over the weekend of what should have been the Vietnam Grand Prix, we were treated to some Esports action as we have come to expect. The highlight of the weekend arguably was the second rendition of the F1 Virtual Grand Prix. Following on from the first event which took place over the weekend of the Bahrain Grand Prix, where two of the real-world regular drivers Lando Norris and Nicholas Latifi were joined by other pro drivers and even a golfer, and Olympic cyclist and a member of One Direction.
However for this event, Norris and Latifi were joined by the likes of Charles Leclerc, Alex Albon, George Russell, Antonio Giovinazzi, and even 2009 world champion Jenson Button. It was held on the Australian GP circuit (since Vietnam was a new addition to the calendar and thus not on the F1 2019 game they were using) and was won rather convincingly by Leclerc, ahead of Renault F2 driver Christian Lundgaard and Russell was P3 in the Williams. Yes, that did happen, though there is equal performance with all the cars.
However I’d like to bring some spotlight to the race following that, the Pro Exhibition. All of the F1 teams let their Esports racers off of their leash to showcase some of the best in virtual racing, just like they’ve been doing in the F1 Esports Series that has been running since 2017.
In the inaugural season, 40 drivers went through qualifications and made it to the semi-finals and 20 of them went to compete in the finals held alongside that year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. After the three 25% distance races held across two days, it was then-kitchen manager Brendon Leigh who performed an incredible move on Fabrizio Donoso to seal the first championship ahead of Donoso and Sven Zurner.
For the 2018 season, all but one of the teams got involved and would pick players who entered through online qualifications and an evaluation process, and they would go on to compete in a full 10-race season held exclusively in London’s Gfinity Esports Arena across three live shows. Drivers would go for individual glory, whilst a prize pot of $200,000 would be distributed among the team’s for their position in the final standings.
Again, it was Brendon Leigh who would come out on top in a dominant display driving for Mercedes, winning six out of 10 races with the other races being won by Merc teammate Dani Bereznay, Toro Rosso’s Frederik Rasmussen and Sauber’s Salih Saltunç. With it, Merc also won the constructor’s champions.
For 2019, the team that didn’t want to take part finally caught the Esports bug, Ferrari. This may have been a stroke of genius because as a result, they got first pickings in the Pro Draft, and selected David Tonizza. A driver who failed to get picked by anyone in 2018, but came back and immediately hit the ground running.
Even with the onslaught of talent around him including the likes of Rasmussen and Bereznay – who had moved to Red Bull and Alfa Romeo respectively – as well as former Renault Junior driver turned Renault Esports driver Jarno Opmeer and the now two-time champion Brendon Leigh, Tonizza was unfazed and racked up three victories from the twelve races to just pip a late-charging Rasmussen to the title in the last race. However, due to Red Bull’s drivers scoring more points than Ferrari’s due to Tonizza’s teammates not scoring any points, Red Bull won the team’s championship and with it, the majority of the now $500,000 prize pot.
As you can imagine, a lot of gamers want to make their way into the Esports series but it’s only two drivers per team in one race. So three drivers are signed and you’ll see some drivers prioritising more time on some tracks over others to get the best possible result, albeit that does come with its downside. Both 2018 and 2019, Frederik Rasmussen lost out on being runner-up and a shot at the championship respectively because he elected to step down and have his teammates race.
Then on the flip side of that, former Sauber driver Allert van der Wal was drafted by McLaren Shadow in 2019 but he didn’t compete in any race, at least I don’t remember seeing him. Plus, Red Bull drafted a guy called Nicolas Longuet but he only did the one race at Monza where he managed to finish in the top three!
The system is flawed but can be worked on, especially now since we have this unprecedented opportunity to polish the rough spots. We now have these proper online races taking place and in the Pro Exhibition, Frederik Rasmussen won from David Tonizza and Haas Esports driver Floris Wijers. We now have another upcoming Pro Exhibition race this weekend on the Shanghai circuit, which will take place before the Virtual Grand Prix race.
We have so many top-line drivers who can win and be successful in F1 Esports, and I’d love to see a full on championship held every week similar to that of a lot of online League championships, such as Apex Online Racing. As much as I like the idea of the three races in one event, F1 Esports seems a bit safe and lacking behind the FIA Gran Turismo Championships in many departments.
Nevertheless, I hope you lot feel compelled to watch the F1 team’s Esports drivers tackling the Chinese GP circuit on Sunday potentially before the Virtual Grand Prix Series race.
Be on the lookout for Formula 1’s own social media channels for how you can watch these races…
After 268 races, 91 wins, and most coveted, seven world championships, Michael Schumacher retired in 2006 as the most decorated Formula One driver in the history of the sport. He had achieved the pinnacle of success, experienced the highest of the highs, and endured the lowest of the lows. Such is the rollercoaster of emotions that is Formula One, but Schumacher had mastered it with a mix of immense talent, fitness and, at times, deviousness.
He therefore left F1, not just as a winner, but as one of the most intense competitors the world of motor racing has ever seen. He is truly the definition of doing whatever was necessary to win.
With that being said, it was perhaps easily foreseeable that he would make his return at some stage – and he did.
Having spent the last 11 years of his first F1 tenure with Ferrari, he worked closely with the team after his retirement, and all eyes were on him making his sensational return with the Scuderia for the start of the new decade in 2010. But Fernando Alonso was chosen as Kimi Raikkonen’s successor, and Schumacher was destined for a greater test.
Having managed the astonishingly dominant Ferrari team during Schumacher’s spell with them, Ross Brawn would help steer the Brawn team to the most inconceivable championship success in 2009, but a lack of funding meant he needed a buyer to sustain a place on the grid for 2010. Good job then, that Mercedes saw their opportunity to make their own sensational return to Formula One with Brawn at the helm.
Having maintained a strong relationship with him at Ferrari, Brawn was able to entice Schumacher into the long-term vision of returning Mercedes to past glory.
And so it was that Schumacher had secured his comeback to the sport he had conquered and mastered before, but was it time to add championship number eight to the tally?
Before the commencement of the 2010 championship, Schumacher stated his intent not to solely make up the numbers, but to win another championship. Partnered with Mercedes new boy Nico Rosberg, it was an all-German line-up for the German team going into their new époque.
It was clear that he had not lost his passion for the sport, and his raw desire to win. He was penalised in Monaco in his first year back for audaciously overtaking Fernando Alonso tantalisingly close to the safety car line at the end of the Grand Prix, but he had displayed the wily nature, extravagance and opportunism that had earned him so much success previously.
He finally earned his first podium since his return at the European Grand Prix in 2012, the same year he set the pole lap in Monte Carlo – although a penalty from the previous race in Spain denied him the front row start.
The on-track supremacy were not the only factor, however. His racing pre-eminence was also defined by his intelligent and cunning mind games. Nico Rosberg described how Schumacher would wait in the toilet during qualifying before the final run to make the eventual 2016 champion wait and effect his mentality and performance – with age had certainly come an abundance of wisdom.
These flashes of brilliance were not the only side of Schumacher’s enigmatic character though. The less alluring and more dangerous side came back with him. It was the same brutal nature that saw him wipe out Damon Hill in Adelaide to claim the 1994 crown in his Benetton days, and that saw him try, in many fans’ eyes, try to end Jacques Villeneuve’s race in Jerez in 1997. This particular attempt was futile however, as Schumacher took himself out of the race and left Villeneuve to take the title.
In many ways, his occasional on-track enmity was as a result of his excellence. His sheer will to win naturally came with an occasionally nasty overtone of jeopardy for those around him, as was discovered by Rubens Barrichello in Hungary when Schumacher very nearly sent him into the wall at speed down the pit straight. Lewis Hamilton was also less than impressed with the German’s antics at the Italian Grand Prix of 2011 – just two examples of Schumacher’s mentality leading him to uncompromising positions, and he overstepped the line on occasion.
It was evident, though, as he got deeper into his forties, that lapses of concentration and perhaps a drop in physical capacity had crept into his game.
Barrichello and Hamilton could argue that their incidents with him were a product of such, but more notable incidents of ungainliness come to mind. He misjudged his braking points in Singapore in 2011 and 2012, spectacularly wiping out Sergio Perez and Jean Eric Vergne respectively, and mych the same happened when trying to overtake Bruno Senna in Barcelona in 2012. And a very clumsy incident with Felipe Massa in 2010 affirms what, if he were a rookie, would probably be described as relative ineptitude. But this is a seven-time world champion, and in reality these moments were perhaps signs that the return may have been misjudged and ill-timed.
He finished ninth, eighth and 13th in the three years he had spent back, and was beaten by team mate Rosberg in all three seasons. He was, however, only an average of 0.2 seconds slower than him in 2010 and 2012, and was actually two tenths quicker in his final season. He had proven that, whilst he did not have the same magic and brilliant race-craft that he had before, he still possessed raw pace.
But ultimately he did not achieve what he set out to upon his return to the sport. He came back and gave it a go, demonstrating the qualities, some more discerning than others, that had made him the most successful of all time. But it was that unrelenting success in his prime that will be remembered, and not the return.
Images courtesy of Mercedes AMG / Wolfgang Wilhelm
Whilst Michael Schumacher had many incredible races, this is one of my favourites showing his incredible skill in changing conditions.
It was 1997 and it was the 12th race in the season which was taking place at Spa Francorchamps, Belgium.
Qualifying for the race had been dominated by Jacques Villeneuve (Williams-Renault) who secured pole position followed by Jean Alesi (Benetton Renault) in 2nd and Michael Schumacher (Ferrari) 3rd on the grid.
In the morning warm-up the weather conditions were hot and dry and Schumacher only managed 15th place.
However, about 30 minutes before the start of the race, an unexpected twenty minute heavy downpour changed the race conditions dramatically.
During the time the cars were assembling on the grid, Schumacher took the opportunity of making some exploratory laps of the track by returning to the pits rather than the grid in both his race car and the spare car, which had been set up for intermediate weather conditions. Schumacher chose to race in the spare car.
Whilst going to take his place on the grid, Schumacher’s brother, Ralf, who had qualified 6th on the grid, spun and crashed his Jordan at Stavelot, resulting in him starting from the pit lane in the spare car.
For the first time in Formula 1 history, the race was started behind the safety car.
Of the front running cars, both the Williams drivers and Alesi started the race on full wet tyres whilst the others were on intermediates. The pack remained behind the safety car for the first three laps and the proper racing began on lap four. Villeneuve was still in front followed by Alesi and Schumacher.
At the start of lap five, Schumacher made a brave move past Alesi on the inside of the La Source hairpin and then overtook Villeneuve at the Rivage loop to take the lead. By the end of lap five Schumacher had built a lead of 5.8 seconds over Villeneuve. Bear in mind, in real terms it was only the second lap of actual racing. He then continued at a truly unbelievable pace, increasing this to 16.9 seconds by the end of lap six, which in real terms was only lap three. He was truly in a class of his own.
Fisichella, who was driving for Jordan and had also started on intermediate tyres, was now in 2nd place after Villeneuve made an unexpected pit stop.
Schumacher was in control of the race and continued to pull away, and by the end of lap 12 his lead had stretched to a full minute. Following a second pit stop, Villeneuve had dropped to 16th.
The track was drying by this stage in the race and pit stops were taking place for slicks to be fitted to the cars. Schumacher pitted on lap 14 for his slicks and after re-joining the race, he eased his pace and controlled the race. He eventually crossed the finish line some 27 seconds ahead of the 2nd place car of Fisichella, followed by Heinz-Harald Frentzen in his Williams-Renault.
If Schumacher had continued at his original pace, who knows how far ahead of everybody he would have been.
Having started from pole, Villeneuve finished his race in 5th, which meant that Schumacher extended his lead over Villeneuve in the Drivers’ Championship to 11 points with 5 races left in the season. Ferrari led Williams by 6 points in the Constructors’ Championship.
I truly believe that this was one of Michael Schumacher’s best drives and it was at this race that he gained the title ‘the Rainmaster’, which was to stay with him for the remainder of his racing career.
Next up for James was a role with Alfa Romeo’s F1 Esports team. Veloce runs the team that competes in the F1 Esports Series, and had decided to sign up James alongside fellow Veloce drivers Dani Bereznay and Salih Saltunç, both of whom had been in the championship the year before. Bereznay had been part of the Mercedes team alongside champion Brendon Leigh and as a result of finishing runner-up, helped them seal the constructor’s championship.
Saltunç had also won a race on his way to fourth overall in 2018, and Alfa also had to pick a driver who had entered through online qualifications – who turned out to be former Renault Esports driver Kimmy Larsson – so it was decided to not have James race for them and only be involved as a test driver. A shame really, because James has proven that he’s very versatile and I was very interested to see how he would fare against the Codemasters F1 game specialists.
Nevertheless, it may not be too unrealistic to think that James could be in line to possibly race for Alfa this season in F1 Esports. Even if his real world commitment took priority, but we will get there.
He ended the year by being selected to represent the UK in the inaugural FIA Motorsport Games, in the sim racing competition dubbed the Digital Cup. On Gran Turismo Sport which by his own admission is not one of his strongest racing titles – he just missed out on a bronze medal in the finals, which was unfortunate but to think that he was competing for his country in what is essentially the Olympics for motorsport, and they embraced the sim racing aspect is just incredible in and of itself. James even walked out in the opening ceremony in Rome along with his fellow Team UK representatives.
Another achievement for James albeit a much smaller-scale one was that he topped the times in Veloce’s own Star In A Simulated Car series, where Veloce team members and a few outside personalities hotlap a BMW M8 GTE car at Brands Hatch GP on iRacing. He did nearly get pipped by W Series champion Jamie Chadwick, and on the video for her interview and lap, someone wrote in the comments “So we’ve deduced that James should be a real driver..”, and that comment aged like fine wine!
An added side effect of winning the eROC, James had automatically qualified for a place in the second rendition of the World’s Fastest Gamer competition. Unlike the first season where winner Rudy van Buren earned a place as McLaren’s simulator driver, the winner this time round would earn a full season’s worth of racing in a GT championship.
James flew to California and did evaluation tests in both sim and real-world driving, under the watchful eye of his mentor and first WFG winner Rudy van Buren, GT Academy winner Jann Mardenborough and Baldwin’s own F1 hero, Juan Pablo Montoya. With drivers being eliminated in very quick fashion, it was down on the final day to James and three other drivers, and you guessed it, James Baldwin won.
So as a result of his involvement with Esports, James Baldwin is now a real world driver, or at least he will be when racing does get underway. What exactly will he be racing? Well a McLaren 720S GT3 of course!
Specifically, the 720S GT3 that is ran by the team which 2009 F1 World Champion Jenson Button owns, Jenson Team Rocket with RJN Motorsport. RJN being the same team that a lot of GT Academy winners have raced with over the years.
Like in my previous article with Igor Fraga, James Baldwin again proves my point that sim racing can indeed help you get places. The world of motorsport is unfortunately an expensive one and not everybody has the money to go racing at most levels but with the incredible levels of realism and the undoubtedly huge savings in money, it can prove to be a viable platform to showcase real skill and build careers.
When we do get racing, James will be driving in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Series (formerly known as the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup) alongside long-time RJN regular Chris Buncombe. Le Mans class winner in the P2 class in 2007, GT Pro-Am champion in 2018 and raced for RJN’s team principal Bob Neville for the first time in 1997, the year Baldwin was born. I’m also holding out hope for the possibility that Jenson Button himself could be racing with James at the Spa 24 hours.
He also has a very fast-growing YouTube channel in which he streams the Esports events he participates in, he does setup tutorials, challenge videos and he’s also planning to release content based around his GT racing campaign, go check out his channel:
The timing has been a bit naff of course but hopefully it is soon that we will be able to go racing, as I’m excited to finally see this incredibly exciting driver be on that track where he has proven he belongs. It has been a huge pleasure to see his career surge the way it has, and I know James Baldwin will be very successful both in the virtual world and in the real world.
I am sure a lot of you have been enjoying the Esports races that have been happening and have been keeping us sane whilst we await the return of real life racing. With the events organised by The Race with their All-Star Esports Battle races and Veloce’s Not The GP series now being joined by their own Pro Series, and not forgetting F1, IndyCar and MotoGP among others organising their own events, we are not short of choice, are we?
Seeing what has been happening in this trying time has been great, and seeing many notable real-world racers take to the virtual world to keep themselves sharp and us entertained is just great to see. Max Verstappen and Lando Norris have been the leading lights with their large followings, helping show what sim racing can really provide.
However, as much as this is familiar surroundings for one driver in particular, I know that he will want to get on the real track very soon. He has been participating in these events alongside Verstappen and Norris and in the first race of the Veloce Pro Series, he finished second to Lando. This driver being James Baldwin.
Like Max and Lando, Baldwin started out racing karts aged eight and won four British karting championships by the age of 15. He attempted a move up into cars in 2015, but only had the money to do a grand total of two races in Formula Ford, so with all that pressure of his family’s money being put into these races, James quite understandably felt that pressure a bit too much. He did those two races and there was no more money, and his racing dream was seemingly over.
After a while out of the driving seat, James shifted his focus to sim racing and quickly proceeded to pick up where he left off in the success department. Through an event organised by Renault on the game Project CARS 2 in which he won, Baldwin got an invitation to participate in the eRace of Champions, where the winner would be allowed to compete in the main Race of Champions at the venue for the Mexican Grand Prix.
The Race of Champions is a tournament in which drivers from many different disciplines compete with equal machinery on makeshift circuits in stadiums to find out who is the champion of all champions. In 2018, the organisers opened up an Esports competition in which Italian driver Enzo Bonito won and therefore allowed him to compete in the main event alongside World’s Fastest Gamer winner Rudy van Buren.
For the 2019 event, Bonito would be joined in the Sim Racing All Stars team by whoever would succeed him as the eROC winner and everyone was expecting him to be joined by two-time F1 Esports champion Brendon Leigh. But in a huge upset, Baldwin defeated Leigh to become eROC champion and he impressed the judges along the way, those judges being nine-times Le Mans winner Tom Kristensen, 2001 F1 runner-up David Coulthard and renowned stunt driver Terry Grant.
He lined up alongside Bonito for the Nation’s Cup competition in the Sim Racing All Star team and also competed for individual glory in the Race of Champions. Whilst his Nation’s Cup teammate grabbed the headlines for defeating Formula E champion Lucas di Grassi and IndyCar champion Ryan Hunter-Reay, Baldwin was by no means any slouch as he won against local NASCAR hero Rubén García Jr. in one of the heats.
This would only be the start of a year of ascendency for James Baldwin, otherwise known as Veloce Jaaames. Yes, three A’s, he didn’t fall asleep on his keyboard when he was coming up with that.
As you can tell by the other part of that username, James is a part of Veloce Esports. The team founded by Formula E champion Jean-Éric Vergne and teammate from his Carlin F3 days Rupert Svendson-Cook, which has really led the charge and pioneered the turn of introducing Esports to a mainstream audience. Their initial focus was on virtual racing before expanding into FPS games and even the car football game Rocket League.
Back to James now, because 2019 had not even gotten started for him and it was not about to stop. He entered into the Project CARS world championships which were taking place at the Mercedes headquarters in Stuttgart and James ended up winning that. Veloce then entered last minute as a wildcard into the Le Mans Esports Series Super Final which would take place before the 24 hours of Le Mans.
In an incredible and never-seen-before format, the teams made up of three drivers would – just like in real life – race for 24 straight hours but in nine races on both historical and modern variants of the Le Mans circuit as well as races at Silverstone, Spa and Sebring in a vast variety of car classes ranging from 1960s Le Mans cars, Group C, GTE, LMP cars of varying eras and many more.
From 11am to 9:30am the following day, all twelve teams would compete in two or three hour enduros to rack up points, and it was one second head start in the final for every point more than the team behind them. Baldwin and his two Veloce stablemates Noah Schmitz and David Kelly overcame a 15-second deficit to somehow win the final 90-minute race and therefore won the whole event and a hefty cash prize! They stood on the Le Mans podium, sprayed champagne whilst all the teams prepared for the start of the real-life 24 hour race and presumably they all went to bed and collapsed from exhaustion.
At this years Autosport International Show, there were some pretty iconic cars on display, from all parts of the motorsport world.
The main feature included Seventy Years of Motorsport, and there were some incredibly beautiful cars on display from Le Mans, World Rally Championship, Indycar, British Touring Car Championship, Formula One and Formula E.
All were game changers in their own way.
The decades of the 1950’s, ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, ’00s, ’10s are all represented.
Jaguar C-Type Le Mans
Jaguar C-Type Le Mans
Jaguar C-Type Le Mans
Maserati 250F
Maserati 250F
Maserati 250F
Cooper T51
Lotus Indycar
Lotus Indycar
Lotus Cortina
Lotus Cortina
Lotus Cortina
Lotus F1
Lotus F1
Porsche 917 Le Mans
Porsche 917 Le Mans
Porsche 917 Le Mans
Lancia Stratos
Lancia Stratos
Lotus F1
Lotus F1
Ford Sierra Cosworth
Ford Sierra Cosworth
McLaren Honda MP4/4
McLaren Honda MP4/4
McLaren Honda MP4/4
Jaguar XJR-9
Jaguar XJR-9
Jaguar XJR-9
Williams-Renault F1
Williams-Renault F1
Williams-Renault F1
Newman-Haas Lola Cosworth
Newman-Haas Lola Cosworth
Newman-Haas Lola Cosworth
Newman-Haas Lola Cosworth
Subaru Impreza Group A WRC
Subaru Impreza Group A WRC
Subaru Impreza Group A WRC
Audi R10 Le Mans 2006
Audi R10 Le Mans 2006
Brawn-Mercedes BGP01
Formula E
Porsche 919 Le Mans
Mercedes-Benz W06 Hybrid F1
Away from there, there were other amazing displays. The Le Mans Toyota TS050 from 2018, the car that finally gave Toyota the victory that it has craved for decades, with Sébastien Buemi, Fernando Alonso and Kazuki Nakajima sharing the driving duties.
Toyota’s 2018 Le Mans winner
Toyota has kept the tradition of not cleaning the winning car.
Side view of the incredible design
There was a display of Formula One cars as well.
F1 Racing’s display
McLaren MCL34
Below is a group of classic rally cars – Some iconic machinery here, from the seventies, eighties, nineties and two-thousands. Three cars driven by Colin McRae featured as well.
Audi Quattro
Audi Quattro
Mitsubishi Charisma WRC
Mitsubishi Charisma WRC
Toyota Celica Group A WRC
Toyota Celica Group A WRC
Subaru Legacy Group A WRC
Subaru Legacy Group A WRC
Subaru Legacy Group A WRC
Subaru Legacy Group A WRC
Subaru Legacy Group A WRC
Subaru Impreza WRC
Subaru Impreza WRC
Subaru Impreza WRC
Subaru Impreza WRC
Talbot Sunbeam Lotus
Talbot Sunbeam Lotus
Talbot Sunbeam Lotus
Talbot Sunbeam Lotus
Fiat 131 Abarth
Fiat 131 Abarth
Fiat 131 Abarth
Fiat 131 Abarth
Fiat 131 Abarth
Fiat 131 Abarth
Lancia 037 Group B
Lancia 037 Group B
Lancia 037 Group B
Lancia 037 Group B
Lancia 037 Group B
Ferrari 308
Ford Focus WRC
Ford Focus WRC
Ford Focus WRC
Ford RS200 Group B
Ford RS200 Group B
Ford RS200 Group B
Ford RS200 Group B
Ford RS200 Group B
Ford RS200 Group B
Ford Escort RS1700T
Ford Escort RS1700T
Ford Escort RS1700T
Ford Escort RS1700T
Lotus Cortina
Lotus Cortina
Lotus Cortina
Lotus Cortina
Peugeot 309
A famous driver pairing!
Peugeot 309
Well, we hope that you have enjoyed this look back to this year’s Autosport International Show, while we wait for the racing season to re-start.
Is 2020 about to become the year that digital motorsport raced to the forefront and is taken seriously?
When I agreed to be a contributor to ThePitCrewOnline, I wasn’t going to restrict myself to what I was going to write about and I would write about anything that took my interest. My first article was about Igor Fraga, a Brazilian racing driver whose involvement in sim racing through competitions such as F1 Esports, FIA Gran Turismo championships and the McLaren Shadow Project Final has resulted in him sealing a place in the FIA Formula 3 championship.
I originally wrote that with the notion that the first round of F3 – which was set to take place alongside the Bahrain Grand Prix – was still happening, then we had this pandemic happen and it has thrown a minor spanner in the works with regards to all these motorsport events getting postponed and cancelled. I don’t think it needs to be said but in case it’s lost on anybody; the health of others is more important than some cars going around a track.
In my previous article, I mention a lot of success stories from the world of sim racing but the other beauty of it is that during such horrid circumstances, something very beautiful can come from it. Having mentioned it briefly since it was all happening very last minute when I was writing it, events were organised by The Race and Veloce Esports that took the place of the real-life racing that was cancelled over the weekend of what was supposed to be the Australian Grand Prix.
The first event by The Race was called the All-Star Esports Battle and had participants ranging from professional drivers such as Max Verstappen, Simon Pagenaud and Juan-Pablo Montoya, sim racers such as Rudy van Buren, James Baldwin and McLaren Shadow Project winner Kevin Siggy Rebernak, and also online personalities like the incredibly beloved Jimmy Broadbent.
Racing in 2012-style F1 cars on rFactor 2 at the Nürburgring GP circuit, and organised everyone into heat races; one for pro drivers, one for sim racers and the final one for drivers who entered online qualifications. Pro driver heat was won by Verstappen, the sim racer heat by van Buren and the qualifying heat by a driver named Jernej Simoncic. It was an incredible event seeing all these contrasting characters unified in the face of adversity, and the final was won in the end by Simoncic.
Moving onto the Veloce event – dubbed the #NotTheAusGP – Lando Norris was participating and he was joined by YouTuber WillNE, Real Madrid C.F. goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, and was even joined by James Baldwin and Jimmy Broadbent, who participated in the All-Star Esports Battle. On the F1 2019 game at the Melbourne circuit with a 50% race distance and the event was incredibly entertaining! Particularly as we saw Lando Norris having to fight through the field after getting disqualified during qualifying, and for most of the race he fought with Tiametmarduk, who I boldly claim makes the best F1 centred content on YouTube.
The event was won in the end by Alfa Romeo F1 Esports driver and friendly giant, Daniel Bereznay. Both these races are available to rewatch on YouTube from the weekend of March 15th on both The Race and Veloce Esports’ YouTube channels, but from the last weekend of March 22nd, we have had follow-up events from both of those and also an officially sanctioned event by F1 itself being referred to as the Virtual Grand Prix series.
Round two of the All-Star Esports battle took place on rFactor 2 again but this time at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s Grand Prix circuit in Indy Pro 2000 cars. The event consisted of two heat races for pro drivers, one for sim drivers and then a last chance race for the pro drivers who didn’t finish in the top five in the first two heats. The first pro driver heat was won by IndyCar driver Felix Rosenqvist and the second by Rudy van Buren, with Kevin Siggy Rebernak winning the sim racers heat and the last chance race being won by GP2 race winner Tom Dillmann.
In the end, the overall event was won by Rudy van Buren ahead of Kevin Siggy Rebernak and the top real world professional driver Daniel Juncadella just beating out Felix Rosenqvist for that honour. Other notable competitors in this event were former F1 drivers Nico Hülkenberg, Stoffel Vandoorne and Esteban Gutiérrez, all three of whom would compete in the next two big events.
On Sunday, both Veloce Esports put together the #NotTheBahGP and F1 themselves put together the Virtual Grand Prix. Along with those three former F1 drivers that I mentioned, we had Lando Norris also competing in these races, Jimmy Broadbent having done the All-Star Esports Battle doubled up his Sunday with both events and joining them would be professional golfer Ian Poulter.
In the Veloce event, instead of a 50% distance race like the proceeding Veloce event, it was two 25% distance races with the second of those races utilising a full-on reverse grid where the first race’s winner would start last with the slower running drivers up at the front. As again, the alien that is Daniel Bereznay swept the first race and despite starting last for the second race, he was near the front before spinning and having to settle for third, with Red Bull Esports driver and real-world GT4 racer Cem Bölükbaşı taking that race. That second race in particular was incredibly entertaining, and pretty much like the whole concept of these races taking place, it’s difficult to describe without anyone seeing it with their own eyes.
Moving onto the officially sanctioned by F1 event, dubbed the Virtual Grand Prix which included the likes of Johnny Herbert, Anthony Davidson, Luca Salvadori, Sir Chris Hoy, Nic Hamilton and Liam Payne. The race was won by Renault F1 junior driver Guanyu Zhou ahead of Stoffel Vandoorne and DTM driver Philipp Eng, the event did have a few technical hiccups and of course it didn’t feature the most professional drivers but it was fun!
That is something I want to touch upon. In these events, you may not see a lot of professional racing but it’s just some fun and entertainment whilst we all go through this difficult time. If you want to have the event that is in terms of driver ability the best, then you will want to watch the All-Star Esports Battle. The Veloce Esports organised events are a good middle ground of driver ability and people looking for some fun who are there to entertain, then the F1 Virtual Grand Prix is pretty much an all out celebrity race for the most part.
It may, unfortunately, be a while before we are back to normal, I hope it is very soon but until then, don’t be a miserable mush and dismiss any digital forms of racing. What’s happening right now sucks, but as a result of it all has come something beautiful, a bunch of people from varying walks of life have come together to try and entertain all of you lot.
One of the best things about this is seeing these guys stream their races to Twitch and YouTube. There’s an entertaining video that Benjamin Daly a.k.a. Tiametmarduk uploaded which featured him battling with Lando Norris, and seeing the reactions of the pair of them was just brilliant.
It may not be top quality racing like we come to expect of professional drivers but it’s something.
I hope I haven’t put myself in a bubble here by writing about Esports-related articles, especially as my next intended article was putting the spotlight on James Baldwin, a driver who has ascended to new heights thanks to Esports just like Igor Fraga. It’s not the circumstances I’d have preferred but I think for the time being, Esports is what may keep us lot sane!
I will provide links to the YouTube videos and also the subsequent channels of a fair amount of these sim races. The All-Star Esports Battle, the Veloce ‘Not The GP’ and the first F1 Virtual Grand Prix, along with an event that Team RedLine (the Esports team that Max Verstappen and Lando Norris are a part of) held recently as well. They’re all the raw footage from all the live streams, so since a majority of you are stuck inside, you’ve got some time to kill, haven’t you?
Keep on the lookout for any more major Esports racing events taking place over the next few weeks. I know they aren’t planning on slowing down any time soon!
Anyway, hope you’re all doing well and hopefully we’ll be out of the woods soon.
As ever this event started on Thursday evening with two short street stages. Thierry Neuville won both of them, whilst Elfyn Evans second fastest behind him on both, and in sharing third fastest times were Teemu Suninen in the first run, and Ott Tanak in the second run. Overall top three at this point were Thierry, Elfyn and Ott.
Friday
With ten stages covering 132.86 km’s ahead of the crews, it would be a challenging day out there, particularly as the temperature began to rise. The start list looked like this – 1. Evans 2. Neuville 3. Ogier 4. Rovanperä 5. Lappi 6. Tänak 7. Suninen 8. Greensmith 9. Sordo.
The reigning world champion set the fastest time in SS3 El Chocolate 1 – 31.45 km, making the most of his good starting position and took the lead. His closest challengers were Teemu Suninen and Seb Ogier. Championship leaders, Elfyn Evans and Thierry Neuville held seventh and fourth respectively.
Into SS4 Ortega 1 – 17.24 km, saw a very good time from Seb Ogier, who won the stage from Dani Sordo and Esapekka Lappi, whilst Ott Tanak lost 45 seconds and dropped from the lead down to eighth place, having damaged the rear of his car. Top three was now Seb, Teemu and Thierry.
A good run for Dani Sordo in SS5 Las Minas 1 – 13.69 km, saw the Spaniard win the stage from Ott, with rally leader Seb third. However, Elfyn was going well too, considering he was opening the road and he’d set the fourth best time, just 5.2 slower than the stage winner.
It was a second stage win for Hyundai, with Thierry Neuville winning SS6 Parque Bicentenario – 2.71 km from Elfyn and Seb. The former champion still held the lead from Teemu Suninen with Thierry still in third.
Well, after lunchtime service Ott Tanak won SS7 El Chocolate 2 – 31.45 km, with Teemu just six tenths slower than the Estonian, and Seb in third. Sadly, it was the last stage that Esapekka Lappi completed, as their Fiesta caught fire at the rear. It was an ignominious end for a great car, as the whole car was engulfed. Esapekka and Janne made it out okay.
The following stage, SS8 Ortega 2 – 17.24 km was cancelled. In fact, the organisers announced that SS9 was also cancelled, but subsequently was reinstated, with a start time that was 30 minutes later.
Ott Tanak won SS9 Las Minas 2 – 13.69 km and moved from seventh into third place as a result. Kalle was second quickest, and Seb was third. Teemu remained in second place overall.
Next up was SS10 SSS Autodromo Shell V-Power 1 – 2.33 km, which had two runs. The top three in the first run was Seb, Elfyn and Ott and in the second run, Seb, Teemu and Ott.
The final stage of the day SS12 Street Stage León – 0.73 km was won by Kalle, with teammate Elfyn second fastest and Teemu in third. Elfyn’s good time, meant that he’d moved up into third place as well.
Classification after Day One
1
S. Ogier
J. Ingrassia
Toyota Yaris WRC
1:23:09.2
2
T. Suninen
J. Lehtinen
Ford Fiesta WRC
+13.2
3
E. Evans
S. Martin
Toyota Yaris WRC
+33.2
4
O. Tänak
M. Järveoja
Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC
+33.4
5
K. Rovanperä
J. Halttunen
Toyota Yaris WRC
+35.7
6
G. Greensmith
E. Edmondson
Ford Fiesta WRC
+1:16.8
Let’s hear from the drivers.
Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT
Sébastien Ogier (1st)
“It’s been a good day, I’m very pleased to be in the lead tonight. This morning the times were not bad but the confidence was not at the maximum. I was still trying to get comfortable, but I made some adjustments to the setup and having some more miles in the car on this surface helped me to feel much better in the afternoon. Tomorrow will be another long day. We will have the best starting position, so we have to try to make the most out of it.”
Elfyn Evans (3rd)
“It’s been a pretty difficult day opening the road, as we knew it would be. But overall, it’s not been bad. The car was working generally very well. Both El Chocolate stages were the challenging stages to find a good feeling, but that was probably down to the road condition as the surface was very loose. In other places it went better than expected. We’ll just keep pushing as hard as we can and see what’s possible.”
Kalle Rovanperä (5th)
“It was getting better all the time today and I’m building the confidence up. It’s nice to see that I’m learning the car quite quickly. There is still some work to do, but it was a nice day. I don’t know where I got the slow puncture on the first stage this morning, but it can happen. After that I was a bit more cautious for the rest of the morning loop because we didn’t have any spare tyres, but on the second loop I tried to be a bit cleaner and faster and it went well.”
Hyundai Motorsport
Ott Tänak (4th)
“We’ve had a really bad day as a team. We lost a lot of time on the second stage, which dropped us back. I went wide and hit quite a big stone which damaged the rear suspension. We had some spare parts to fix it but not enough, so we had to limp to the end. Thankfully, we didn’t lose too much time, but it made for a difficult Friday. Road position is crucial for tomorrow so I am pleased we could make up some places. Everything is still possible, but it’s certainly more complicated.”
Thierry Neuville (Rally2)
“We started the rally well, considering our starting position, and I felt we had a very good run on the opening stages. We pushed hard and got some good performance from the car. We still needed to find some rear grip, but we made some changes at lunchtime service to improve that. We were still in the podium fight after the second run through El Chocolate. The following stage was cancelled but we were still focused. Unfortunately, something happened with the car in the repeat of Las Minas, which meant we had to stop mid-stage after about 5km. A very frustrating end to a tough day for the team. We hope we can re-join on Saturday, but the team needs to assess the car first.”
Dani Sordo (Retired)
“This was not how we envisaged our Rally México to turn out. We started this morning with high expectations but already in the El Chocolate stage we hit trouble when our radiator pipe came loose. I was driving normally, but clearly it wasn’t fixed tightly enough. We made some repairs and tried to push hard on the following stages but unfortunately the damage to the engine forced us to stop in the afternoon loop. These things can happen; we are all human and we have to recover from this disappointment as a team. Of course, it’s hard to take when we had such big hopes for this event but that’s rallying sometimes.”
M-Sport Ford WRT
Teemu Suninen (2nd)
“It’s been a really good and trouble-free day for us. I was sending the car into the corners and driving on the limits – which is what you need to do if you want to push for the top results at this level. We will try and hold our podium place tomorrow, but at the same time I want to make sure I bring the car to the finish and will focus on myself and on continuing the good rhythm we had today.”
Teemu and Jarmo drove brilliantly all weekend. Photo credit, M-Sport Ford WRT
Gus Greensmith (6th)
“I just haven’t been able to get into my rhythm today and I’m a long way off where I wanted to be. We’ve not had the speed we were hoping for, but Teemu has proven that the car is quick so it’s all down to me! The objective now is just to focus on improvements, and bring the car home for some good points.”
Esapekka Lappi (Retired)
“On the stop line we understood that the rear of the car was on fire, but in that moment I didn’t realise how bad it was. We tried to put it out and drove on to a safer place, but when I lost the brakes I realised it was still burning quite bad – and jumped out as quickly as I could!
“I don’t know what caused it as there was no issue on the stage and it was actually a pretty good time. We were going well and fighting for the podium, so it’s a really big disappointment for us and for the whole team. But everyone is okay, and that is the most important thing right now.”
Saturday
With nine stages over 133km’s, it would be a challenging day again for the crews. The running order looked like this – 1. Neuville 2. Greensmith 3. Rovanperä 4. Evans 5. Tänak 6. Suninen 7. Ogier
Seb Ogier won SS13 Guanajuatito 1 – 24.96 km from Ott, who moved back into third overall, whist fast Finn Teemu set the third best time, looking to keep a charging world champion at bay.
Thierry showed that he could set a good time, winning SS14 Alfaro 1 – 16.99 km, from Ott and Seb. The Estonian closed the gap to Teemu a little as well who had set the same as Elfyn. The top three remained the same, and Seb had now increased his lead a further five seconds to 27.6. Sadly, Gus Greensmith stopped in this stage, losing ten minutes, before getting going again. There were some start lineup changes, with Thierry now starting the stage ahead of Ott. The Hyundai team were trying all the tricks to help their world champion get ahead of Teemu! All within the rules….
The top three in SS15 Derramadero 1 – 21.78 km was Ott, Elfyn and Seb. With his quick pace, Ott had closed the gap to Teemu a further 6.8 seconds in their battle for second place. Thierry overshot a junction and lost 7.1 seconds.
After the lunchtime service, SS16 Guanajuatito 2 – 24.96 km was next up. There was some big news however. The organisers had decided that the Sunday’s stages would be cancelled, meaning there were six stages left to decide the result of this year’s event. Covid 19 was affecting this event. The fact that the rally even started was a surprise, but the impeding travel restrictions were having their affect. The stage was won by Thierry, with Seb and Ott just behind. Teemu had a six second lead over the world champions.
The battle for second place continued between them into SS17 Alfaro 2 – 16.99 km, with Ott winning the stage from Thierry and Teemu. The Finn was just 3.1 ahead of a charging world champion. Seb was still leading by a huge 28.1 seconds.
The Estonian crew in their Hyundai were on a charge, winning SS18 Derramadero 2 – 21.78 km and moving ahead of Teemu who lost 9.4 seconds. Thierry and Seb were second and third fastest. The French pairing held a 27.4 second lead now with just three stages left.
SS19 SSS Autodromo Shell V-Power 3 was won by Thierry with Ott and Elfyn second and third fastest. The gap between Ott and Teemu widened a bit more. The Hyundai crew were making second place theirs.
The second run of SS20 SSS Autodromo Shell V-Power 4 – 2.33 km would see Thierry and Ott first and second again, with Seb their closest challenger.
The final stage then, SS21 Rock & Rally León – 1.62 km, and the top three was Thierry, Seb and Ott. Seb’s winning margin was a dominant 27.8 seconds. The French pairing had taken their first victory for Toyota. Ott had driven incredibly well to take second place, and Teemu took third, after a very good drive, much like Elfyn last year.
Final Overall Classification – Rally México
1
S. Ogier
J. Ingrassia
Toyota Yaris WRC
2:47:47.6
2
O. Tänak
M. Järveoja
Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC
+27.8
3
T. Suninen
J. Lehtinen
Ford Fiesta WRC
+37.9
3
E. Evans
S. Martin
Toyota Yaris WRC
+1:13.4
5
K. Rovanperä
J. Halttunen
Toyota Yaris WRC
+2:20.5
6
P. Tidemand
P. Barth
Škoda Fabia R5
+10:29.3
7
N. Gryazin
Y. Fedorov
Hyundai i20 R5
+12:27.0
8
M. Bulacia
G. Bernacchini
Citroën C3 R5
+13:37.5
9
G. Greensmith
E. Edmondson
Ford Fiesta WRC
+13:56.5
10
O.C. Veiby
J. Andersson
Hyundai i20 R5
+15:32.2
Let’s hear from the drivers!
Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT
Sébastien Ogier (1st)
“It’s been a good weekend. We had a good feeling straight from the start and we took our chance to take the lead on Friday morning. Today we had a better starting position and we pushed straight away and increased the gap, and then we tried to control it until the end. It’s a strange victory and it’s hard to celebrate in these circumstances. But thank you to the team, they’ve done a fantastic job this weekend. The car has been faultless all weekend. It’s been really reliable and fast, and these are good points for the championship.”
Elfyn Evans (4th)
“It’s not been an easy weekend for us, but I felt like we drove pretty well. This morning I think we maximised everything we could, but with the road positions it didn’t work out. This afternoon we made a few little errors and we picked up some little issues along the way, so we weren’t able to challenge. So, I’m a little bit disappointed in one way, but at the same time, fourth place after opening the road on the first day in Mexico is not so bad. All three Yaris WRCs are here at the finish, so it’s a testament to the team and the strength of the car.”
2020 FIA World Rally Championship / Round 03 / Rally Mexico / March 12-15, 2020 // Worldwide Copyright: Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT
Kalle Rovanperä (6th)
“I’m quite happy overall. It was not the best weekend, but we had a few unlucky moments, and it was nice to see that when we tried to push, we had a good pace. It’s not so easy to have good speed on the first time here, so I can be happy. Today was mostly sweeping the road, and so we went for a safe pace just to keep our position while also learning about the road cleaning. It’s been a really good beginning to the season for me: It’s nice to have had clean rallies without any big mistakes and some proper pace sometimes.”
Hyundai Motorsport
Ott Tänak (2nd)
“I am pleased to add another second place to my results for Hyundai Motorsport. I feel that I have pushed as hard as I could this weekend, my first proper gravel rally with the team and in the Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC. We had the performance to win this weekend; the incident on Friday morning was my mistake, and I accept full blame for that. We then just tried to get the most out of the rest of the event, and could slowly, slowly make up time and positions. It’s been a demanding event for many reasons, and mentally quite tough, but we have another podium to our name, which is good.”
2020 FIA World Rally Championship Round 03, Rally Mexico 12-15 March 2020 Ott Tanak, Martin Jarveoja, Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC Photographer: Helena El Mokni Worldwide copyright: Hyundai Motorsport GmbH
Thierry Neuville (16th)
“In general, it has been a difficult weekend for Hyundai Motorsport. Unfortunately, we were caught out by some technical issues on the first proper day of the rally and that put us on the backfoot. It’s tough to take but it’s also part of the game in motorsport. On a positive note, we have shown that the speed is there to fight for the victory. After our troubles yesterday we wanted to come back fighting, and we did just that with a strong Saturday overall. We had some competitive runs, including two more stage wins. I tried to push as hard as possible. Together, as a team, we are going to work hard to avoid the sort of problems we’ve had this weekend, and to come back stronger than ever.”
M-Sport Ford WRT
Teemu Suninen (3rd)
“I’m really happy with what I was able to do here this weekend, and really proud to bring this good result home for the team. After Sweden it wasn’t looking too good and the bosses were asking for some more pace! Then I switched the switch and was able to come back a stronger man – back on the good pace, and back challenging for the top results.
“I think it was a good drive from me this weekend and we were able to be really consistent which was important. Of course, it would have been nice to have taken the second position, but Ott was driving really fast and we had some brake issues that we had to manage. Still I think we have shown that the potential is there, so let’s see what we can do in the next rallies.”
Gus Greensmith (9th)
“It’s not been the weekend we wanted. Going into the rally we felt really good, but I just haven’t had the feeling and made too many mistakes. I would drive one good kilometre, and then one bad kilometre, and that time just adds up. But things were getting better and I really started to enjoy myself this afternoon. I’ve still got lots to learn, but we’ll get there – we’ve just got to keep at it.”
Summary
It was a very good drive from Seb and Julien to victory, their sixth in this event. It was Toyota’s first though, since their return to the championship in 2017. Last year, showed the progress they’d made, finishing at the time in second place with Ott. All three cars made it to the finish inside the top six as well. Elfyn and Scott took the opportunity to learn, as they opened the road for the first time in their careers, and it was not a perfect drive by any means, by their own admission, but none-the-less, a drive that has kept them near the top of the championship standings. Kalle was once more showing the quality that he and Jonne have shown previously, which had earnt them the drive at Tommi’s team, with a strong drive to sixth position.
At Hyundai, Ott Tänak confirmed that he was getting a really good handle on his new car, with a strong drive to second. Thierry and Dani suffered with reliability problems, which had hit their hopes both as a team, and as individuals with their own wishes for a good result. The team used some loopholes to put Thierry Neuville in front of Ott Tänak.
M-Sport showed why they are such a great team. With Teemu driving really well, he held off a charging Ott Tänak until almost the very end. Third place was a worthy result. Disaster struck Esapekka however, and a car that Elfyn Evans drove last year was completely destroyed. Gus Greensmith lacked consistency, after holding sixth coming into Saturday, he slumped to ninth place.
Well, we just don’t know now when we’ll see the next event, after Rally Argentina was postponed. The following rounds in Portugal and Sardegna may also go the same way. It all depends on the ease of travel. Once it gets back underway, we will see a big battle for this year’s crown.
Rally Mexico 2020 Podium. Photo credit, M-Sport Ford WRT
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
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2020 FIA World Rally Championship for Manufacturers’ Standings
After round 3
This weekend would have been the return of the Dutch Grand Prix at the Zandvoort circuit to the F1 calendar, which is only happening because of a certain Max Verstappen. F1 madness has gripped the Netherlands, it only took about five years for a driver to generate enough buzz to get it back on the calendar. But we aren’t talking about that today, instead I’m talking about a country which has had three drivers who have won the Formula One world championship yet have never gotten close to having a Grand Prix in F1’s 70 year history.
I think I speak for a lot of us when I say that I am a huge Charles Leclerc fan, seeing his ascendency from joining the Ferrari Driver Academy, and winning the GP3 and Formula 2 championships then graduating to Formula 1 with Sauber and now a Grand Prix winner with Ferrari, it has truly been incredible.
Over the weekend of what should have been the Vietnam Grand Prix, we were treated to some Esports action as we have come to expect. The highlight of the weekend arguably was the second rendition of the F1 Virtual Grand Prix. Following on from the first event which took place over the weekend of the Bahrain Grand Prix, where two of the real-world regular drivers Lando Norris and Nicholas Latifi were joined by other pro drivers and even a golfer, and Olympic cyclist and a member of One Direction.
After 268 races, 91 wins, and most coveted, seven world championships, Michael Schumacher retired in 2006 as the most decorated Formula One driver in the history of the sport. He had achieved the pinnacle of success, experienced the highest of the highs, and endured the lowest of the lows. Such is the rollercoaster of emotions that is Formula One, but Schumacher had mastered it with a mix of immense talent, fitness and, at times, deviousness.
Next up for James was a role with Alfa Romeo’s F1 Esports team. Veloce runs the team that competes in the F1 Esports Series, and had decided to sign up James alongside fellow Veloce drivers Dani Bereznay and Salih Saltunç, both of whom had been in the championship the year before. Bereznay had been part of the Mercedes team alongside champion Brendon Leigh and as a result of finishing runner-up, helped them seal the constructor’s championship.
