AUTO #29 Q4 / 2019
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UP FRONT Gallery News Opinion
DRIVING FORCES Robert Shwartzman & Nyck de Vries
TECH REPORT FIA Smart Driving Challenge
COVER STORY The FIA’s champions of 2019
AUTO FOCUS The shape of F1 to come; New Daimler chief’s vision; FIA Motorsport Games; Amina Jane Mohammed; Urban transport solutions; A decade of FIA Women in Motorsport; Cross Country’s global appeal; FIA backs new Clean Air Fund
REAR VIEW Nino Vaccarella Ferrari Dino 246
INSIDE THE FIA FAMILY Automóvil Club Argentino
P64
FINAL LAP Toyota’s city of the future
New disciplines – the future of engagement \
The Games, inspired by the 2018 FIA GT Nations Cup, featured a GT Cup won by Japanese duo Hiroshi Hamaguchi and Ukyo Sasahara.
The inaugural Games was also noteworthy for its inclusive spirit, with women comprising around 20 per cent of all athletes. Four of the six disciplines featured female representation, with the karting slalom including teams of mixed pairs. The Netherlands took gold in that event with FIA Girls on Track Karting Challenge finalist Nina Pothof and team-mate Bastiaan van Loenen clinching the top spot, while neighbours Belgium secured silver thanks to Manon Degotte and Antoine Morlet. Rounding off the podium were Team Russia’s Olesia Vashchuk and Vladislav Bushuev. The success of the Games was most apparent in the number of countries represented on the stage of the Congress Centre Vallelunga during the awards ceremony. While Russia was crowned overall winner and Australia and Italy shared second place, the Netherlands, Japan and Ukraine – which won a single gold medal each – were third. Building on the success of the inaugural Games is already high on the FIA’s agenda, with additional disciplines under consideration for inclusion. “There is a real opportunity to grow the event by involving the majority of our 145 ASNs worldwide and through the participation of many more competitors,” says Stoker. “We can build on this first event to establish the Games as a high-profile arena in which the very best emerging talents from all over the world can show off their abilities. There is great potential to introduce other disciplines such as rallying, rallycross, karting and Cross Kart to reveal the great breadth of our sport and the exceptional talents participating week-in, week-out at events globally. That is worthy of celebration and the Games are a fitting tribute to this talent and to the national sporting organisations that make their success possible.”
Emphasising the changing shape of motor sport, the FIA Motorsport Games featured some of the newest disciplines to emerge as sources of future champions – drifting and digital racing. Scheduled as a night-time event to emphasise the drama inherent to the all-action discipline, the floodlit Drifting Cup took place over two evenings, beginning with solo runs before moving onto a knockout stage in which drivers were paired according to their rankings. The top 16 entrants competed in a three-hour grand final showdown. Ilia Federov took bronze for Russia in a Nissan Silvia S14, knocking Italy’s Federico Sceriffo into fourth. Top honours went to Dmitriy Illyuk, who brought home Ukraine’s only gold medal driving a Nissan 200SX. The Czech Republic’s Michal Reichart (BMW M3 E92) secured silver. The Drifting Cup medals were the first to be awarded in the Games, and Illyuk was proud to be the
discipline’s first gold medallist. “Taking gold was the target from the start because I was the first guy registered by the Ukrainian ASN,” he said. The Digital Cup, a virtual racing contest using systems developed by Polyphony Digital Inc. for the FIA-certified Gran Turismo Championships, saw groups of 12 racers go head-to-head on a large stage with special racing rigs, working their way through qualifying and knockout stages before the Grand Final. Australia’s Cody Nikola Latkovski claimed the first Digital Cup gold medal, beating 11 rivals during the final 19-lap race run using the Red Bull X2019 prototype on a virtual Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Silver went to Costa Rica’s Bernal Valverde, who like Latkovski is a regular in the Gran Turismo World Championship. The final podium placing was taken bylocal hero Stefano Conte, who took bronze for Italy.
Ukraine’s Dmitriy Illyuk topped the Drifting Cup podium.
FIA Motorsport Games 2019 – Winners \ MEDAL CUP
GT CUP
TOURING CAR CUP
FORMULA 4 CUP
DRIFTING CUP
KARTING SLALOM CUP
DIGITAL CUP
1. Russia – 1 Gold, 2 Bronze
H Hamaguchi / U Sasahara (JAP)
K Gavrilov (RUS)
A Rosso (ITA)
D Illyuk (UKR)
C N Latkovski (AUS)
G Mangus (BEL)
N Kreutten (GER)
M Reichert (CZE)
N Pothof / B van Loenen (NLD)
2. Italy – 1 Gold, 1 Bronze
A Lewandowski / A Janosz (POL)
3. Australia – 1 Gold, 1 Bronze
S Grove/B Grove (AUS)
M Homola (SVK)
W Alatalo (FIN)
I Federov (RUS)
M Degotte / A Morlet (BEL) O Vashchuk / V Bushuev (RUS)
B Valverde (CRC) S Conte (ITA)