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  • Renault warns Red Bull over further engine decision delays

    Renault warns Red Bull over further engine decision delays

    Renault has warned Red Bull that it will be forced to withdraw its offer of a 2019 supply if the latter cannot reach an engine decision before the Austrian Grand Prix.

    Red Bull initially said it would use the Canadian Grand Prix, in which both Renault and Honda introduced their first major upgrades of the season, to judge which of the two engine manufacturers to ally with in 2019.

    But after the race Christian Horner said the team would use the next round in France to gather more data before announcing their final decision at their home race in Austria.

    Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool

    However, Renault’s managing director Cyril Abiteboul has warned Red Bull that if they insist on waiting until Austria to decide, they will only have Honda to choose from.

    Speaking to Motorsport.com, Abiteboul said: “They have all the information they need now. I don’t see why they are going to further delay the decision.

    “As per the regulations, [the deadline] was May 15, and then we accepted to extend that a little bit on the back of twelve years of good collaboration. But past a certain point, the offer we made…will not stand.”

    Renault Sport F1 Team

    Abiteboul added that Renault was “already behind” with sourcing components for its 2019 plans, and would have to prioritise that over waiting for Red Bull:

    “They wanted an offer, we’ve made an offer, that offer has to be accepted in the next few days.

    “We are not talking about Austria. Austria, we won’t be here, and [Red Bull] will be talking directly to Honda.”

    Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool
  • British F3: Lundqvist – We’ve got the right balance

    British F3: Lundqvist – We’ve got the right balance

    British F3 championship leader Linus Lundqvist says he and his Double R team have struck the right balance between pace and consistency this season after another strong weekend at Silverstone.

    While championship rivals Kush Maini and Nicolai Kjaergaard toiled in Northamptonshire, Lundqvist won, had second and a sixth across all three races.

    And the Swede was keen to stress the importance of picking up points in every race.

    “Every time we speak it’s been about consistency and we showed that today again, Kush and Nicolai being behind me and as they were the closest rivals I’m really happy with the second place.

    “We’ve been in the mindset, with the team having won the championship in 2016, that if you want to fight for the title you have to be consistent. We’ve shown that through every race weekend that we’ve a race each weekend and that we’re not just picking up seconds and thirds, we’re actually there on pace. We’ve found a very good mix between raw pace but also consistently scoring.”

    While he now has a commanding lead in the standings after making gains on Kjaergaard and Maini over the past two weekends, Lundqvist knows he can’t afford to relax.

    “We’re only halfway through the season, there is still a long way to go and a lot can happen. Two DNFs and our lead is gone.

    “It’s about staying focused and taking valuable points and hopefully we will be able to fight for the wins in future rounds too.”

    While Gamble won, Lundqvist was not disappointed to finish second in the final race of the day as he finished ahead of Maini and Kjaergaard and further extended his lead to 56 points.

    “Without Tom it would have been a perfect race, all in all you always want to fight for the win and I tried to put pressure on him but he was just a little too quick for us but looking back, it’s been a solid weekend.”

  • British F3: Gamble – It’s felt like ages since Rockingham win

    British F3: Gamble – It’s felt like ages since Rockingham win

    Tom Gamble wants more consistency for the remainder of the season after a Super Sunday for the Nottinghamshire teenager.

    Gamble was third early on Sunday before winning from the first corner of the evening race after an engine change Saturday night when an issue was discovered.

    Since his maiden pole and win on the Saturday at Rockingham six weeks ago, it’s been difficult for the 16-year-old with disqualifications and collisions since then.

    “I can’t thank Fortec enough for deciding to change the engine and it was the right call. I’m delighted to be back on the top step because since Rockingham it has felt like ages.

    “A podium today was great earlier, last race I made a good start and got him at the first corner and it was a case of being consistent and building a gap.”

    Gamble is a comfortable fourth in the championship and is looking up rather than down the standings after improvements this weekend.

    “There’s no pressure, I’d like to make the top three in standings and I think it’s definitely possible as long as we stay consistent because Snetterton and the second half of Rockingham was a nightmare. We want to get as many wins as we can.”

    And he isn’t fazed about the prospect of racing at Spa-Francorchamps in six weeks’ time despite having never done so before.

    “A few of the competitors around me have been to Spa before but we all do the two-day test there earlier in the year so I know where I’m going. If we had not have changed the engine then it would have been a lot harder.”

    Image: Spacesuit Media

  • GT4 – Schjerpen/Mitchell make it six different winners from six races and two straight wins for Century Motorsport

    GT4 – Schjerpen/Mitchell make it six different winners from six races and two straight wins for Century Motorsport

    Alexander Schjerpen and Jack Mitchell took an ultimately comfortable win at Silverstone for Century Motorsport’s #43 BMW team.

    After a poor start in which he fell to 16th, the team recovered back to the front and took advantage of the dominant Equipe Verschuur #10 McLaren suffering a suspension failure while leading by half-a-minute.

    And Schjerpen felt the team had to work hard to earn their second straight victory.

    “We knew that we were going to be strong here at this track. We struggled a little in qualifying so going into the race we knew the pace was there so we had to push hard.

    “I had a bad start, I’m not sure what happened there but others went and I didn’t so we ended up P16 and it was hard work in the first stint, Jack did a great job in his first stint to get us back to the front.”

    The Norwegian took the first British GT win of his career with Mitchell on Sunday and left nothing on the table in his second stint.

    “I finished my second stint with qualifying laps and we were pushing very hard, we were unsure where exactly we were with the stops and cars pitting around us, it was a hectic race and we’re super-happy that we finished at the front.”

    And he had a lot of praise for his team’s preparation of the GT4 BMW M4, having had bad luck  earlier in the season.

    “The BMW is a brilliant car, every time I get into it I can throw anything at it and it responds. We’ve been playing around a little with set-up in practice yesterday and we found a good setting with the car.

    “Century Motorsport are doing a brilliant job with it, and it’s fun to drive.”

    Image credit: Nick Smith (@theimageteam)

  • British GT – GT3; Farmer: I thought it was over after Davidson collision

    British GT – GT3; Farmer: I thought it was over after Davidson collision

    TF Sport’s Mark Farmer was relieved to win the Silverstone 500 event with Nicki Thiim in #11 Aston Martin after an earlier collision with the #47 Aston of Graham Davidson left him facing the wrong way.

    Thiim held off the Lamborghini #33 duo of Jon Minshaw and Phil Keen, with Flick Haigh and Jonny Adam were third.

    Davidson was given a 10-second stop/go penalty for causing the collision with a move that Farmer branded “silly”.

    “I thought it was game over because of our 10s success penalty in the last stop.

    “It was a move that wasn’t on really and he ruined his own race and nearly ruined ours. It was silly really because they were lightly fuelled, they were quick and could have gone well, he was catching me and another couple of corners and he’d have done it easily. I was quite cross because it was never on.”

    Farmer paid tribute to his TF Sport team for their strategy that saw the team negate the 10s penalty to squeeze ahead of Keen’s Lamborghini at the final stop, a move that proved crucial as the #33 could not land a blow.

    “The team played a masterstroke on strategy, that really worked for us and Nicki drove like he stole it. The team executed the pitstops flawlessly.”

    Thiim meanwhile was delighted after TFSport secured their third straight podium and their second win in three races.

    “It was a great weekend, we started off really well but we struggled a little with the set-up because of the new surface at Silverstone. It was really hard at the end with the tyres going away.

    “The team did the right strategy in my eyes and it was a really good race after the opening stint. I’m so happy to win this meeting.”

  • Zurich ePrix: Di Grassi wins as penalties shrink Vergne’s title lead

    Zurich ePrix: Di Grassi wins as penalties shrink Vergne’s title lead

    Lucas di Grassi ended his season four win drought by rising from fifth to first in Sunday’s Zurich ePrix, while title challenger Sam Bird finished second to slash Jean-Éric Vergne’s championship lead by almost half.

    Lucas di Grassi, Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler / Courtesy of ABB FIA Formula E

    The race began in mixed-up fashion, with Techeetah’s Andre Lotterer starting well from second to threaten maiden polesitter Mitch Evans off the line. But although Evans managed to defend from Lotterer and drop him back into pressure from third-placed Bird, the Jaguar driver was unable to pull clear of the cars behind as he struggled with rising battery temperatures.

    This brought di Grassi right onto the back of the podium pack, once the Audi driver dispatched with Jérôme d’Ambrosio for fourth place. By lap 13 di Grassi had passed Bird at the hairpin—taking advantage of the Briton’s battle with Lotterer ahead to close in on the pair—and three laps later did what Bird was unable to and took second from Lotterer.

    With Evans’ battery issues continuing out in front, di Grassi was quickly onto the gearbox of the Jaguar—and on lap 18 the outgoing champion made his move on the run to Turn 1, and breezed past into first place.

    Once in the lead di Grassi continued to build a gap to those behind him, and at the end of lap 39 crossed the finish line 7.5s ahead to take his first and Audi’s third win of the 2017–18 season.

    Jean-Éric Vergne, Techeetah / Courtesy of ABB FIA Formula E

    But while last season’s champion enjoyed his best Formula E weekend since last year’s Montreal finale, current championship leader Vergne suffered huge losses at the Zurich ePrix.

    Coming into the weekend with a mathematical chance of clinching the title, Vergne qualified near the back of the grid in 17th while his only remaining rival Bird was set to start from the second row.

    Vergne made good progress in the early stages and before the halfway stage had already got his Techeetah up into the lower points. But on lap 17 Vergne came together with Felix Rosenqvist while taking eighth, sending the Mahindra driver into the wall at Turn 1 and triggering a full course yellow to remove the debris.

    Felix Rosenqvist, Mahindra Racing / Courtesy of ABB FIA Formula E

    This proved to be the defining moment of the race, as shortly after the halfway pitstops it was announced that Vergne—along with Lotterer, Evans and Sébastien Buemi—had been given a drive-through penalty for speeding under the full course yellow.

    These penalties drastically altered the order. With fewer than ten laps remaining, Lotterer, Evans and Buemi dropped from second, third and fourth respectively, while Vergne was once more put outside the points after his trip through the pitlane.

    Worse still for Vergne, the penalties for those in front meant that Bird was elevated to second place, where the DS Virgin driver finished to add another 18 points to his championship challenge.

    Jérôme d’Ambrosio, Dragon Racing / Courtesy of ABB FIA Formula E

    D’Ambrosio completed the podium in third, his and Dragon’s first podium since the 2016 London ePrix, while Lotterer held on for fourth.

    Buemi recovered from his penalty to take fifth, one place higher than he started, after using his FanBoost to pass Evans in the closing stages—Evans lost a further place to Nick Heidfeld before the end, and finished behind the German in seventh. António Félix da Costa and Oliver Turvey were promoted into the lower points by the penalties ahead and a retirement for Nico Prost, and finished eighth and ninth respectively.

    Meanwhile, Vergne fought his way back into tenth place to take the final point of the day. The Frenchman had been set to add another point with the fastest lap, until his Techeetah teammate Lotterer take that honour away in the final stages.

    Vergne’s low finish and Bird’s podium mean the gap at the top of the standings is now down from 40 to 23 points with only the double header in New York—which Bird dominated last season—left to go.

  • British F3 Report: Ravishankar takes maiden F3 win

    British F3 Report: Ravishankar takes maiden F3 win

    Young Singapore driver Pavan Ravishankar took his first win in his debut F3 season on Sunday morning at Silverstone.

    After coming to grief in Race One, Ravishankar started pole in the reverse grid race and didn’t look back as Sun Yue Yang fought to hang on to second with Tom Gamble an impressive third.

    And Ravishankar was delighted to see his improvement this season laid bare.

    “I love this circuit, it is a bit of a shame with the race yesterday because we had front wing damage and I had to drop back. We showed that we have the pace now.”

    Ravishankar built a lead over Yang in the opening stages of the 10-lap race and controlled the race from there, something that was a deliberate tactic.

    “I really pushed a lot in the first few laps because I knew that they would be fighting behind and that if I got a gap I’d be fine. Once I saw the fighting behind me I just realised that I had to just manage the gap.”

    And the 18-year-old paid tribute to his Double R team for helping him settle during his first season in Europe.

    “The tests were positive and I’m still new to Europe so I’m going to work as hard as possible between now and Spa.

    “It’s been very difficult, with the weather and the cold conditions being something that I’m not used to so that was very difficult. The team has helped me settle in so much so a big thanks to them for supporting me through the tougher times.”

    Meanwhile, Gamble has targeted more consistency after a run of bad luck since his first pole and win at Rockingham six weeks ago.

    “After Rockingham on that Saturday we were top of the championship but since then we’ve had a lot of bad luck, I just need to get back on track, get some better qualifying and get closer to the front.”

    An engine problem halted his progress on sAturday where he could only finish tenth, but an engine change brought about better luck on Sunday morning.

    “We had issues yesterday with the engine and it was lacking power and costing us time, the guys at British F3 checked the engine and allowed us to change it so we swapped it last night.

    “Everyone at Fortec did a great job changing it over, thankfully there were no problems today and we had great pace today.”

    Image via @DoubleRRacingGB

     

  • BTCC Oulton Park 2018 Preview

    BTCC Oulton Park 2018 Preview

    This weekend sees the return of the British Touring Car Championship to the Cheshire circuit of Oulton Park.

    Map of Oulton Park Circuit.

    The 5th event on the calendar this year, Oulton Park marks the midpoint in the hectic season that defines the BTCC and what a season it’s been so far!

    With Adam Morgan currently holding a precarious one point lead at the top of the championship, this weekend could be the location for large amounts of reshuffling with the top 5 separated by a mere 18 points! Oulton Park is a circuit renowned for exciting racing with its varying gradients and hills such as Knickerbrook as well as possessing a number of tight corners ideal for overtaking such as Lodge Corner. Be prepared to see big reshuffles of the standings throughout races as there are simply countless areas ideal for overtaking.

    With low chances of rain and predicted temperatures of around 20 degrees Celsius, the fans will be turning out in droves with an estimation of around 40,000 coming to the circuit over the weekend. It’s sure to be an enjoyable weekend for them if they are lovers of adrenalin fuelled overtaking and gorgeous weather!

    The make-up of the grid was confirmed after qualifying today and there was a shock at the top of the grid.  Matt Simpson set pole with a lap over two tenths faster than second placed Sam Tordoff. In terms of the title race, it was expected to be a tricky qualifying session for championship leader Adam Morgan with the 75 Kilogram success ballast that accompanies the top spot. He ended up 19th. This leaves considerable work to be done on race day for Morgan but it also presents a glorious opportunity to his championship contenders, especially Matt Neal. After struggling in the early rounds of the Championship Neal has gotten to grips with the new Honda Civic sealing a win at Thruxton, he currently sits 6th in the standings but has qualified 5th at Oulton. If there’s a man to watch this weekend I’d point towards Matt Neal.

    It’s sure to be a great day of racing at Oulton Park with many thrills and spills along the way so start your countdown to round 12 of the season, it’s going to be an interesting one.

    James Clinton Hunt

    Featured image courtesy of BrianDeegan.co.uk under creative commons

  • British F3: WHAT THEY SAID. Lundqvist, Maini, Cane and Kjaergaard react to Race One

    British F3: WHAT THEY SAID. Lundqvist, Maini, Cane and Kjaergaard react to Race One

    Linus Lundqvist took pole and win on a super Saturday for the British F3 championship leader to hold off championship rival Kush Maini, while second in the standings Nicolai Kjaergaard could only manage sixth after qualifying seventh.

    Jordan Cane made an impressive return to the podium. Here’s what they had to say following a busy Saturday.

    Lundqvist:

    “Today was perfect, we got pole and win and I’m super happy. There’s another two races tomorrow but I’m going to enjoy this victory for a short time.

    When someone is as close as Kush was there doesn’t go a lap where you aren’t looking in your mirrors, you sort of look at what they’re trying to do and I made a small mistake out of the hairpin and he got a run on me. We went side by side a Brooklands and Copse, I just stayed cool and was able to stay ahead.

    I would like a win where it’s easier but all in all we’ve had a great car all weekend so thanks to Double R. I just did my part today.

    You could say it’s almost perfect. I’m always happy with a win and it’s always a bonus if your main rival isn’t doing too well. We’re always happy with a win when it’s there.”

    Maini:

    Today was perfect, we got pole and win and I’m super happy. There’s another two races tomorrow but I’m going to enjoy this victory for a short time.

    When someone is as close as Kush was there doesn’t go a lap where you aren’t looking in your mirrors, you sort of look at what they’re trying to do and I made a small mistake out of the hairpin and he got a run on me. We went side by side a Brooklands and Copse, I just stayed cool and was able to stay ahead.

    I would like a win where it’s easier but all in all we’ve had a great car all weekend so thanks to Double R. I just did my part today.

    You could say it’s almost perfect. I’m always happy with a win and it’s always a bonus if your main rival isn’t doing too well. We’re always happy with a win when it’s there.

    Kjaergaard:

    We’ve struggled a lot yesterday and today. We were slow yesterday and we’re only a bit better today, Clement did a really good job in qualifying.

    I didn’t put my lap together so I was P7 and a lot of others put new tyres on and we didn’t have the pace anyway. It was going to be hard.

    Tomorrow we need to have a look and see what we can do, we definitely need to find some speed as we weren’t fast enough.

    Hopefully these things even themselves out, normally we do have a very quick car. This time it’s weird, we just can’t figure out exactly what the problem is. We seem to have the same problem every time. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll be faster.

    Cane:

    You always aim for the top step but third isn’t bad, Douglas gave me a great car. It was about focussing and staying with the front two,  got close towards the end as they battled more than they did. It’s a good result today.

    I knew Maini had four new tyres, where we had two like Linus, set the second fastest lap time so we’re in a  good position for race three. We’ll be pushing to stick with these boys tomorrow. This is the one place you can have a go at overtaking, as we have a lot of downforce it usually is quite difficult.

  • British GT: McKay heaps praise on Equipe Verschuur as the #10 McLaren takes GT4 pole, while late call-up Sanchez confident after RJN take GT3 pole

    British GT: McKay heaps praise on Equipe Verschuur as the #10 McLaren takes GT4 pole, while late call-up Sanchez confident after RJN take GT3 pole

    Daniel McKay says Equipe Verschuur have given him an easy car to drive after his #10 McLaren shared with Finlay Hutchison claimed GT4 pole by almost a second at Silverstone

    The Scot was third fastest in the Gt4Pro qualifying after teammate Hutchison built a huge gap in Am qualifying.

    “Finlay did a great job in qualifying in the first session and I did my best not to mess it up in the second session and we came from there with a really good gap.”

    And he was full of praise for his one-car team, and hopes that the pole coupled with impressive pace at Snetterton is a sign of things to come.

    “Equipe Verschuur are doing a really good job with the car, this year, I know everyone says that’s motorsport, we’ve been very unlucky for us. We got pole at the first one and had that taken away so it’s nice to keep this one and hopefully it’s converted into a win.

    “The car’s been great all year if I’m honest, the McLaren they’ve presented us with is absolutely fantastic. It’s consistently quick, consistently a nice car to drive and Finlay and I are doing a good job too.”

    McKay was keen to further make his point about his team, with the Belgian outfit considerably faster than their GT4 McLaren counterparts, but was keen not to put too much pressure ahead of the race tomorrow.

    “I think we were the quickest McLaren at Snetterton by around half a second which is huge in any championship, I think today it was 0.6 seconds. You can only go as fast as the car and our team are doing a really good job with the car.

    “I think you have to put expectations out of your mind otherwise you overthink it, start hearing noises that aren’t there. Ultimately it’s about taking it lap-by-lap and see where we are at the end.”

    Meanwhile, RJN Motorsport took an unexpected pole position with Struan Moore and Ricardo Sanchez, who was a late call to replace Devon Modell for this weekend.

    Sanchez revealed that he only received the call to step in last week to partner Moore, and was pleased with the early result.

    “I’m quite happy, especially as it was a last minute invitation, I wasn’t supposed to be here.

    “It was a good job, my lap wasn’t the best because we struggled with the cold tyres but I’m happy. I think it will be a hard day tomorrow for us, the car is hard on tyres so we want to keep it clean, nice and steady, no dramas or penalties or contact and after 3 hours we’ll see where we end up.”

    As with McKay, Sanchez is confident of taking top honours for the British GT’s longest race.

    “I would like to win the race, to be in the podium but it’s a tough race. There’s a lot of GT4 cars, traffic and you have to be really careful with track limits. There’s a lot of warnings and penalties. Expectation will be to win but if we don’t, get on the podium. It’s a strong line-up.

    “Our average lap-times together are strong and if everything goes well, we have a chance. As I said to Struan and the team boss, we have to take it stint by stint.”

    There are a few difference for Sanchez to get used to, especially as the team try and base a strategy around three pit-stops tomorrow afternoon.

    “The biggest challenge is that each driver has to do two stints, and the tyres and fuel tank last an hour each so it’s a bit of a grey area there how we’re going to make the strategy. Everything has to line up.”

     

    Featured Image: Nick Smith, The Image Team