L&T Motorsport - October Edition - Issue 11

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@Alice_Holloway_ Images: fiawec.com

Reports have come out in the last few days that suggest the Audi racing team will withdraw their LMP1 car from World Endurance Racing and Le Mans at the end of 2017. The rumours have been circulating Audi’s Ingolstadt headquarters in Germany but officials from the team have refused to comment.

Cost-cutting initiatives have been put in place from the Volkswagen Group after its disastrous 2015 with the “dieselgate” issue. This saw both Porsche and Audi only running two cars in Le Mans this year rather than the three they normally opt to run in the prestigious race. The company have apparently been questioning whether it is good for business to challenge their most profitable brands – Porsche and Audi – against each other in the highest class of sports car racing.

The cost for each team to run in a season of the World Endurance Championship is rumoured to be more than 200 million euros. With the Volkswagen Group trying to cut costs in their motorsport funds to try and recover from the “dieselgate” disaster, saving this sum of money would be very beneficial.

Audi also run the only diesel-hybrid LMP1 car, with Porsche and Toyota running petrol engines. It could be that Volkswagen wants to cut all links to them and diesel engines and does not want to be seen showcasing diesel engines after the diesel emission manipulation scandal.

Also, against Audi’s favour of staying in the sport, 2018 brings a new megajoules rule, with WEC committing to a minimum 10 megajoules. Audi currently run a 6 megajoules turbocharged 3.7 litre V6 diesel engine, meaning a massive rework would be needed for the team to have a legal car in the series. This would included providing a second kinetic energy recovery system in the car and would cost more funds to develop a new engine to fit in the rules.

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If the rumours become truth and Audi does pull out of Le Mans and their LMP1 programme, the budget saved would likely be spent on Volkswagen’s electrical car budget. Volkswagen are determined to turn around their “dieselgate” slur and are putting a lot of focus on the electric car industry, hoping to release up to 25 new electrical cars by 2025.

Along with dropping out of World Endurance Racing, Audi’s participation in DTM (Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters) is under consideration. The programme is looking to be completely reconstructed in the next few years.

If all this comes to pass it is possible that Audi will look to a race series like Formula E. This would be encouraged

by Volkswagen to further promote and develop the electronic cars scheme. With Audi racing in Formula E, Volkswagen could use the technology in those cars in their 25 or more new electronic cars, using their racing budget and their development budget to reach that number of cars sooner. If Audi raced in Formula E they would also be competing against the road-car competition (Jaguar, Mercedes and BMW) rather than their sister company, Porsche.

Whether Audi will leave Le Mans and LMP1 racing is not yet confirmed, but clearly there is some strong truth to this rumour. It would be sad to see the 13-times Le Mans winners leaving the sport as only Toyota and Porsche would remain to battle in the LMP1 class of World Endurance racing. LMP1 is already losing Rebellion Racing next season as the team drop down into LMP2, leaving only three teams in the LMP1 class if Audi do stop racing in it. Whatever the case, it can be safe to say Audi will not stop racing altogether, they may just be changing the series that they race in.

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@GeorgeyHowson95 Images: markwebber.com

On Thursday came the announcement that the reigning WEC champion Mark Webber will retire from racing at the end of the season to focus on being a “Porsche special representative” (basically an ambassador).

When I heard this news it genuinely saddened me, I’ve been a fan of Mark’s ever since he rose to prominence in F1 back in 2009. His refreshingly honest interviews, relentless determination and Aussie charm make him a real personality both in and out of the car.

So I’m going to give you a rundown of his career and tell you why I believe that he was a very unique driver and why he will be missed in the car.

Simple beginnings Mark Webber was born into a working-class Australian family just outside of Canberra. He always had a keen eye for sport but motorsport was his passion. Despite financial troubles he rose through the lower formulae to get his debut in the promised land in 2002, Formula 1, proof that the cream always does rise to the top.

His debut came courtesy of Minardi, the perennial back-of-the-grid team. So when he lined up eighteenth on the grid for his debut and home race at Albert Park nobody bat an eye. But when he finished in fifth people took notice. That was his best finish of the season and arguably got him the move to Jaguar for 2003.

2003-06 were the intermittent years, nearly getting pole in Brazil, a podium in Monaco were highlights in what must’ve been slightly frustrating times for Webber. He was clearly talented, everybody could see that but he was a bit like what Hulkenberg is now, lauding around the midfield going from team to team and just lacking that financial and political backing to get him into a top seat.

Spreading his wings Moving to Red Bull from Williams for 2007 was seen as just another sideways move, RBR were only a midfield team at the time and remained that way until their first big opportunity to close the deficit in 2009 when the regulations changed.

With Adrian Newey financed by one of the biggest brands in the world the result was somewhat inevitable.

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Not bad for a number two driver 2009 came and he a new teammate for Mark arrived with it, 21-year-old Sebastian Vettel (you may have heard of him). Their relationship was complicated from the start, in 2007 in appalling conditions at Fuji Webber was taken out by Vettel under the safety car when the pair were running 2-3. Webber wasn’t happy to say the least and went on live TV and called said “Kids isn’t it… kids with not enough experience – you do a good job and then they f*** it all up.” He’s never been one to mince his words and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

More on this rivalry later.

By the time that Germany had rolled around Vettel had already won twice that season in China and Britain so for the first time in his career Webber was in a car that could win. When he put himself on pole at the Nurburgring, the first of his career, the signs were promising. And despite the miserable conditions and a drivethrough penalty he did it, he superbly won.

This was the moment that made me a fan of Mark Webber, I’ve heard and seen so many celebrations in motorsport but his ecstatic radio message and podium antics are still the best I’ve ever witnessed. After the longest wait in F1 history (130 races) he had finally done it, he was a Grand Prix winner.

The problem was that the Brawn team had such an advantage at the start of the season that it was very difficult to catch up to them and it proved too much for both of the Red Bull drivers.

2010 was different though…

The car was one of the best from the start so the opportunity for the championship was there to be seized.

After winning in Spain and Monaco Webber lead the standings for the first time in his career after six rounds and rarely gave up that position throughout the season but he went into the last race at Abu Dhabi eight points behind leader Fernando Alonso.

What happened there has gone down in infamy.

The top two in the championship were stuck behind a stubborn Vitaly Petrov for what seemed like an age and Vettel swooped in to take the championship at the last round.

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If he hadn’t spun off in Korea, slammed into the back of Kovalainen’s Lotus in Valencia or got ran into by Vettel in Turkey it could’ve been a very different story in 2010.

What could’ve been…

Personally, I don’t believe he would’ve gone onto win another three championships in a row if he won one in 2010. Sport is never that simple.

Testing times Losing the 2010 title in Abu Dhabi was crushing for Mark and I don’t think that he ever truly recovered from this. From 2011 to 2013 Webber couldn’t compete with his younger teammate when it mattered. Yes, he drove well and achieved podiums, poles and wins but the numbers speak for themselves. 3 wins for Webber between 2011 and 2013 compared to his Vettel’s staggering total of 29 highlights the difference in class over those years.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not knocking Webber’s ability, he had that in abundance, that overtake going into Eau Rouge is one of the bravest I’ve ever seen (look it up if you haven’t seen it, it’s incredible). It’s just that nobody else stood a chance (apart from the exception of Alonso in his 2012 Ferrari) of beating the German.

The old dog learns some new tricks After 12 seasons and at 37-years-of-age it was time to leave F1 for pastures new. That cooldown lap in Brazil must’ve made health and safety personnel at the FIA go crazy, classic Mark.

But why did he leave? He was hardly having to use a Zimmer-frame after all, he finished third in the drivers’ standings that year. The answer is simple; he fell out of love with the sport. Webber is part of a generation of drivers that went through the lower categories and most of their years in F1 when you could push the car to 100%, 100% of the time. But in 2011 that all changed with the introduction of Pirelli tyres that fell off the cliff when drivers pushed too hard. That coupled with the Multi-21 incident in Malaysia (when Vettel defied team orders and overtook Webber for the win) I believe was the final straws for his time in F1.

He very much took the leave the sport on your own terms, don’t let it leave you approach.

When the opportunity to race in WEC came from the exciting new Porsche team I honestly believe that his decision was easy. A series where he could push his limits and become a world champion. When he did so in 2015 he must have felt that it was fully justified and rightfully so. Fingers crossed that when Bahrain rolls around in November he’ll be at the top with Bernhard and Hartley and go out on a high.

He’s a bit greyer around the edges but he’s still the Aussie we all know and will continue love. Good luck in all your future ventures Mark.

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@JoshuaaSuttill Image: 1meee

Nico Hulkenberg has signed for Renault for at least the next two seasons in a bid to finally end his podium drought and fulfil his true potential.

The German is set to leave Force India for a second time at the end of the season and move to the Enstone outfit that he so nearly joined at the end of 2013.

He has signed a deal for 2017 and 2018 and has an option for a third season with Renault in 2019. His teammate is rumoured to be young Frenchman Esteban Ocon, who currently drives for Manor and is locked in a tight teammate battle with fellow Mercedes junior Pascal Wehrlein.

Others such as Valtteri Bottas and current Renault drivers Kevin Magnussen and Jolyon Palmer are also in contention to drive alongside the German next year.

Hulkenberg’s replacement could be Mercedes young driver Pascal Wehrlein, who has impressed in his rookie year and the team would receive cheaper Mercedes engines for running the German alongside recently resigned lead driver Sergio Perez.

With four races remaining of his second stint at Force India, Hulkenberg sits ninth in the Drivers’ Championship behind his teammate Perez, while the team lies fourth in the Constructors’ Championship.

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@Jon_Earle95 Images: marussia

Two years have passed since the Japanese grand prix that everyone will remember for all the wrong reasons, that is of course the awful accident that Jules Bianchi suffered. Some say he was a future world champion, well in this article we will take a look back at a promising career that was stopped far to soon.

Jules started in motorsport as early as 3 years old, when he started karting and this was facilitated by his father who actually owned his own karting track.

After being successful in karting he started his single seater career in the French Formula Renault 2.0 series for SG Formula, where he finished the year as champion claiming five wins in the process. Whilst competing in the French series he also raced a select few races in the Eurocup where he bagged one pole position and one fastest lap in the three races he competed in.

In late 2007 Jules signed for ART Grand Prix to compete in the Formula 3 Euro Series. In 2008 Bianchi won the Masters of Formula 3 race at Zolder along with finishing third in his first season in the Forumla 3 Euro Series.

He continued to compete in the F3 Euro Series in 2009 heading the ART driving line up along side rookie teammates Valtteri Bottas, Esteban GutiĂŠrrez and Adrien Tambay.

Through out the season Jules had eight wins to his name winning the title with a round to spare. Even though the title was wrapped up he added his name to the F3 greats by securing a ninth win at the final round at Hockenheim.

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During the 2008 season he also made a one off appearance in the Formula Renault 3.5 series at Monaco.

Following his success in the F3 series he stepped up to GP2. Starting off in the Asia series and then graduating to a full GP2 campaign in 2010. He suffered a heavy crash in Hungary however recovered in time to compete in the remaining rounds. Following his debut season he stayed with the ART team for 2011, he starred in the opening two rounds of the season holding off Roman Grosjean to claim victory in the feature race and fourth in the sprint race. He eventually finished the series in third behind Grosjean and Luca Filippi.

Following his third place in GP2 he swapped to the ever competitive Formula Renault 3.5 series for Tech 1 Racing in 2012 following his one off appearance in the series back in 2009. Following a season long battle Jules missed out on the title to Robin Frijns in the final round of the championship.

After testing roles with Ferrari and Force India during his junior formula career Jules was signed to the Ferrari Driver Academy. In 2013 he was announced that he would compete in Formula 1 with Marussia following Luiz Razia’s contract being cancelled due to sponsorship issues. He qualified for his first grand prix 19th ahead of team mate Max Chilton. His famous flying starts continued when he got passed Pastor Maldonado and Daniel Riccardo on the first lap eventually finishing in 15th place.

After a successful first season it was announced that Jules would again race for the Marussia team in 2014.

After a difficult start to the season not being classified in Australia. However he defied the odds and scored his and the teams first ever points in Formula 1 finishing ninth in the Monaco grand prix.

This points finished confirmed everyone’s beliefs that he was ready to step up to the Ferrari seat following looming departure of Fernando Alonso. Out of the nine races Jules and Chilton competed in without retiring in the season he was the quicker driver in eight of them. However this was short lived following a serious accident at Suzuka that put end to his season and sadly his career.

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@PhilmartinGSY

Imagine your F1 career lasting 800 metres. It happened to one poor man back in 1993‌.

Marco Apicella. An Italian who was driving with respectability in Formula Nippon in Japan. As it happens, the second seat at the Jordan team was something of a hot potato at year, with Apicella being one of five drivers to take the seat and being the team-mate of the Brazilian talent Rubens Barrichello.

What better way to get into the car then at your home race. Sounds like a wonderful moment. Monza, in an F1 car. No. He qualified in 23rd place, with the underpowered Jordan proving hard to get to grips with on a power hungry circuit. And worse was to come for poor Marco. Forward to race day, and a multi-car shunt, which eliminated our poor debutant at the first corner, the result of a broken steering arm. And that was it in F1.

Apicella was part of the Dome F1 project, and tested multiple times. Unfortunately the project never got off the ground after the car was written off in a crash, and Apicella faded into F1 obscurity.

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@PhilmartinGSY Image: forum.sky.it

Like anything in life, a team is set up with an overall objective in mind. DAMS was no different, but as successful as they are, they never quite made it where they wanted to…..

DAMS unveiled their attempt at cracking F1 on the starting grid of the Circuit de la Sarthe in the late summer of 1995, the GD-01.The launch of the car was low key, who drivers Erik Comas and Emmanuel Collard present. The car was presented in a blue, white and yellow scheme with a lack of sponsorship. The team had come through a lengthy argument/failed merge with the Larrousse team, which had therefore folded. The car was however already out of its depth, as a result of the design process taking so long and therefore not being applicable to 1995 chassis regulations. A proposed tie-up of Mugen-Honda engines also failed to materialise, things were not looking hopeful…….

The GD-01 was tested by Comas and Jan Lammers at the Circuit Paul Ricard in the south of France in October.

The car was slow, and with it being powered by an old Ford ED V8 didn't offer much hope. They missed the deadline to enter the 1996 season, and unfortunately with failing finances the decision was made to abandon the attempt. DAMS have ultimately turned out to be an exceptional outfit in junior racing, and will continue to do so in the future.

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@Alice_Holloway_ Images: Sutton Images

Having moved to the end of the season, the Malaysian Grand Prix held the 16th round of the Championship.

Daniel Ricciardo optimised Mercedes’ woes to lead his teammate Max Verstappen home for a Red Bull onetwo and took his first win of the 2016 season. After a first corner tangle that dropped Nico Rosberg to the back of the grid he performed impressively to finish on the bottom step of the podium.

Lewis Hamilton had been dominant all weekend, taking a competitive pole position half a second faster than anyone else. Rosberg lined up alongside his teammate whilst Red Bull, Ferrari, and Force India lined up twoby-two behind them respectively. Verstappen managed to outpace Ricciardo by a few thousandths of a second whilst Sebastian Vettel out qualified his teammate. Sergio Perez managed to get ahead of Nico Hulkenberg. Jenson Button and Felipe Massa rounded off the top ten. It had looked like McLaren were strong enough this weekend to be the fifth team in the top ten but, as Fernando Alonso took on a 45-place grid drop for trialling a new spec of engine from Honda, this was not tested in qualifying.

Starting from pole, Hamilton got a brilliant getaway and held his position into Turn 1. It could not have gone worse for Rosberg as an ambitious move from Vettel saw the Ferrari driver squeezed between Rosberg and Verstappen. He got tagged by the Red Bull and spun out, taking Rosberg out with him. Rosberg managed to continue into the race but Vettel’s weekend was over by Turn 2. Daniil Kvyat and Kevin Magnussen also had a clash on the first corner as the Russian driver drove straight into the back of the Renault. For Magnussen, the damage was too extensive to be repaired and he became the second retiree of the race.

Hamilton was leading an easy race as Rosberg was on a recovery mission, trying to make the damage as little as possible in the Championship standings. The Red Bulls had closed in on each other for second place and they were battling on track, giving everyone reminders of the 2013 “Multi-21” incident that happened on this very circuit.

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However, the attention was pulled away from the Red Bull battle as the Virtual Safety Car was pulled of the third time due to Hamilton’s Mercedes being parked at the side of the track. The engine had blown and was pouring smoke form the back, ending the Brit’s race.

This opened up a one-two opportunity for Red Bull, whose drivers were still battling for position out on track.

Ricciardo defended well, but after the team stack-pitted the two cars for fresh rubber the race was really on.

For a few laps, Verstappen looked like he could close the gap and make the move on the Australian. With Ricciardo on new rubber whereas Verstappen was on scrubbed there was nothing he could do to pass his teammate.

Rosberg also had something to do in the closing stages. An aggressive overtake on the inside of Kimi Räikkönen had seen him pick up a ten-second time penalty. His last few laps he was pushing hard to make sure he had the gap he needed to hold onto the podium and managed to do so with an extra two seconds buffer.

Räikkönen finished fourth, with Valtteri Bottas driving a perfect one-stop race to beat Sergio Perez, who was on the same strategy. A great recovery drive saw Alonso finish seventh with a decent gap to Nico Hulkenberg in eighth. Button finished his 300th Grand Prix in ninth whilst Jolyon Palmer picked up his first ever Formula One point as he finished tenth.

As well as Vettel, Hamilton, and Magnussen, Felipe Nasr, Romain Grosjean, and Gutierrez retired from the race, having just 16 cars reach the chequered flag. Grosjean had a brake failure at the beginning of the Grand Prix, going straight off into the gravel at the final corner. Haas’ day ended in the worst way as Gutierrez joined the list of retirees when his front left wheel fell off his car.

After what looked like a race that was going to leave Rosberg on the back foot in the Championship battle, he goes into the last five rounds 23 points ahead of Hamilton. Mercedes were hoping to round up the Constructor’s Championship at their head sponsor’s track but with Hamilton’s DNF it was not to be.

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@Alice_Holloway_ Images: Sutton Images

Nico Rosberg took his fourth win in the last five races around the twisting circuit of Suzuka, extending his Championship lead over Lewis Hamilton. An incident-free race saw all 22 drivers finishing the 53-lap race. Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton finished off the podium, but no one had anything to challenge Rosberg.

Qualifying could have gone either way as Hamilton and Rosberg battled for pole position. No team had anything on the pace of the Mercedes, but Ferrari got the better of Red Bull as they qualified third and fourth with Kimi Räikkönen ahead of Sebastian Vettel. With just two hundredths of a second in it Rosberg took pole. It had been Hamilton’s; Rosberg made a mistake in his first lap in Q3 going half a second down on Hamilton’s time, but Rosberg had been ahead all weekend and just about managed to find the extra time needed to steal pole. He managed to improve on his second lap where Hamilton did not.

Before the race started, two more grid penalties were handed out to shake up the grid, along with the threeplace drop Vettel had picked up for his first corner incident in the Malaysian Grand Prix. Jenson Button took on his new Honda power unit before the race rather than waiting until Austin, giving himself a 35-place drop.

He started from the back. Kimi Räikkönen picked up a five-place drop for changing his gearbox, meaning he started the race from P8 rather than P3. Vettel only dropped two places to sixth thanks to Räikkönen’s drop having affect after he had already taken his.

Rosberg held the lead off the line as Hamilton had a poor start. He slipped backwards down the grid as the front running cars shot passed him. Hamilton was P8 as the grid settled down. The Ferraris made a decent charge with Vettel on a mission. He shot to fourth off the line after narrowly avoiding the slow-starting Hamilton. Räikkönen followed his teammate through but Daniel Ricciardo split the pair.

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Hamilton’s race became a recovery race as he tried to pick up as many points as possible. His Mercedes seemed to be lacking during his first stint on the scrubbed soft tyres but after he got onto the hard compound in his second stint the pace in the car came alive.

Vettel was trying hard to use his tyre strategy to get onto the podium. It looked to be going well for the Scuderia as Vettel held the lead over Rosberg once the Championship leader had made his second pit stop.

However, Vettel elected to take on the soft compound for his final stint to try and reel in Hamilton for the last step on the podium. The problem was that the softs, as they had been all weekend, degraded extremely quickly when being pushed hard. It had been discovered in Free Practice Three that you could only get one fast lap (qualifying lap) out of them before the performance fell away. Vettel had a good challenge on for a few laps by the tyres fell victim to heavy degradation, meaning he had to back off and settle for fourth.

Räikkönen followed his teammate home for fifth, with Ricciardo behind him by about five seconds. The fourthplace constructor’s battle remained in Force India’s advantage as the Force India duo finished seventh and eighth with Sergio Perez ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, whilst Felipe Massa lead Valtteri Bottas home, rounding off the top ten.

At Honda’s home Grand Prix, they had a race to forget this weekend. Fernando Alonso finished 16th with Jenson Button struggling to get home for 18th place. It could be said that this was McLaren’s worst race of the season after they have had such an impressive run since coming back after the summer break. The new updates brought to the McLaren for this weekend appear to have not made any performance gains for the Woking team.

Mercedes wrapped up the Constructor’s Championship with the 40 points that Hamilton and Rosberg brought back to the team. Rosberg now leads the Championship with a 33-point lead. Just four races remain in the 2016 Championship and the Driver’s Championship is still open. Daniel Ricciardo, currently third, cannot longer mathematically catch the Mercedes pair, but with 100 points a maximum left to win either one of them could be the 2016 World Champion.

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@lukejulyan Images: Sutton Images

Lewis Hamilton won a crucial US Grand Prix as teammate and championship leader Nico Rosberg followed him home in second.

The start was always going to be crucial and so it proved, with Hamilton retaining the lead from pole position.

Ricciardo jumped Rosberg into second while Raikkonen passed Verstappen for 4th off the line. The first corner would not be without incident, however, as Hulkenburg and Bottas collided, ruining both drivers’ races as the Force India driver was forced to retire. Down the order, Button made a great start and leapt from 19th on the grid to 11th early on in the race.

Starting on the super soft tyres, Ricciardo was inevitably going to pit first. He did so on lap 8, switching onto the soft tyre. This prompted Verstappen to come into the pits the very next lap, interestingly swapping one set of softs for another set of the yellow marked tyres. Rosberg was next to pit and he came in for the more durable but slower medium tyres and fell in the gap between Raikkonen and Ricciardo.

Race leader Hamilton boxed shortly after for a new set of the soft tyres, Mercedes deciding to split their drivers’ strategies. He remained in the lead after everyone had made their pit stops and the order out front was Hamilton, Ricciardo, Rosberg and Raikkonen. However, Verstappen, in P5, made quick work of Raikkonen for P4 and set about catching the championship leader who was on the slower tyres. Kvyat was given a 10 second penalty for his collision with Perez earlier on.

Gutierrez was the next to retire, his Haas having a brake failure around the 18 lap mark.

Raikkonen, strangely, came into the pits on lap 24 for a set of the super soft tyres, confining him to a 3 stop strategy. Ricciardo came and went from the box for a set of the medium tyres. However, the race started to hot up on lap 26 as Verstappen came into the pits but his team were not ready for him! This caused a disastrous pit stop and he dropped down to P7. He later took responsibility.

The order was Hamilton, Rosberg, Vettel, Ricciardo however the 3 in front of the Red Bull had not yet completed their 2nd stop.

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The race then took a significant turn on lap 29. Looking to make amends for his mistake, Verstappen was pushing. Unfortunately, he suffered a terminal gearbox failure which put him out of the race. The virtual safety car came out as a result. Rosberg was able to take a free pit stop and gained around 15 seconds on Ricciardo. He therefore jumped the Red Bull man and moved into P2. Carlos Sainz, meanwhile, was doing a superb job for Toro Rosso and was in P6.

Raikkonen came in for a set of the soft tyres on lap 38 however he would go no further. Exiting the pits, a loose wheel caused him to have to roll down into pit lane and retire.

Manor will have been sweating at one stage when Ericsson was in 11th. 1 point for Sauber will have moved them above Manor in the constructors’ championship. This has an estimated worth of £30m. However, their worries were calmed late on when Kvyat passed the Sauber driver.

The closest battle on track was the battle for P5. Sainz, Massa and Alonso were battling it out. With 5 laps to go, Massa squeezed Alonso however the Spaniard passed his former teammate following contact. This incident would be investigated after the race. He would repeat the act on the final lap, passing Sainz for P5.

Vettel decided to take a free pit stop with a few laps to go. This allowed him to set the fastest lap and win the DHL Fastest Lap award.

Out in front, Hamilton took the chequered flag to secure a dominant US Grand Prix. This was his 50th win of his illustrious career. Gleefully, his teammate followed him home in 2nd place to limit the damage to just 7 points. This leaves Hamilton 26 points behind Rosberg with 3 races to go.

A frustrated Ricciardo came home to round out the podium in front of Vettel. Alonso, Sainz, Massa, Perez, Button and Grosjean rounded out the top 10. After pitting on lap 1, Bottas could only manage 16th while Ocon had a torrid time, finishing 18th and last, some 40 seconds behind teammate Wehrlein who was 17th.

Magnuessen was given a 5 second penalty after the race for an illegal overtake on Kvyat. This dropped the Renault to P12, below Kvyat.

In 7 days we travel to Mexico, where Rosberg can mathematically secure his first world title.

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@Joe96Clark Images: Sutton Images

Nico Rosberg on his way to the United States of America boasts a 33-point lead over his Mercedes threetime World Champion Lewis Hamilton, with just three more races following the next race.

The calculators are out and fans are working out when it could be that Rosberg can win the title, should he go on to do so of course.

As a man who has so often finished second to Lewis Hamilton in races, Nico can afford to do so for the rest of this season and he will still be able to win the World Championship in Abu Dhabi.

However, the debate forming on social media, questions whether Rosberg is ‘good enough’ or is even good enough to have won the championship should he not have been lucky enough to have the best car on the grid.

Lewis and Nico arguably struck gold with the W05, the first Mercedes car to win the World Championship in 2014 following the end of the V8 era, and the birth of the V6 turbo hybrid cars. Ever since, fans have been complaining about the inequality of the cars, with Mercedes winning a majority of the races from the beginning of 2014.

Having played second fiddle to Hamilton for the last two years, Nico has really taken the fight to Lewis having won nine of the 17 races this year, with Lewis having won six, and either Red Bull driver Ricciardo and Verstappen winning one race each.

Sure, winning nine races in a season warrants the driver as a deserving World Championship title at the end of the year, but with Lewis suffering from a lot of technical problems on his side of the garage, it has somewhat hampered his chances to fight with Nico Rosberg for the title.

The controversy with Hamilton’s engine woes boiled over in Malaysia, provoking fans to attack the Mercedes team on forms of social media, claiming that they were harming his car in order to help Nico Rosberg win his first title. This being pushed through by the claim that the German driver, in a German car, for a German team to win the title over Lewis Hamilton who is English.

Quite frankly if you are stupid enough to believe this rumour, then you need to get a level head and remember that a world championship winning team would not want to harm their own chances at losing the Constructor’s Championship, at any cost…..

No matter the circumstances of the win, nor whoever else is on the grid that is supposedly a better driver, Nico Rosberg has fought at the front for the championship and will no doubt deserve his crown, should he be top of the Championship at the end of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

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@BenIssatt Images: gdnonline and f1-fansite

Maurizio Arrivabene recently caused a stir by suggesting Sebastian Vettel needs to earn a contract renewal with Ferrari beyond 2017.

The flamboyant team boss suggested his lead driver needs to temper his technical approach to every aspect of the car and concentrate more on just the driving.

Certainly it is true that the former four-time world champion has not been at his best throughout this season.

Only one podium finish in nine races up to the Japanese Grand Prix highlights that, as does the fact he sits behind teammate Kimi Raikkonen in the Drivers’ championship, the same teammate he beat by 128 points in 2015.

It’s often said that Sebastian is only as good as the car he’s given and his record over time would seem to back that up.

When his Red Bull cars were class leading he was practically unbeatable, but, in 2014, the end of the team’s dominance saw him beaten by Daniel Ricciardo. His Ferrari career has followed suit, from three wins in his first year in a competitive SF15-T to struggling to even finish on the podium in the less able 2016 successor.

Confidence plays a big part in Vettel’s ability but perhaps he has also become a little complacent at Ferrari.

He knows he can’t compete on the same level as Mercedes and knowing he is the clear No. 1 in the team it’s possible the effort level has dropped.

Also, while Vettel’s arrival at Maranello seemed to renew confidence and motivation for all concerned, it would appear that the 29-year-old isn’t as good as the man he replaced, Fernando Alonso, at maximizing, even surpassing the ability of the car he has.

For sure he is a good team leader, but is he really capable of driving the team forward? It remains to be seen.

What also has to be remembered, however, is that Ferrari, as a team, has come up way short of expectations.

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The fabled Italian squad came into this year clearly as the second best team. Some even thought they could challenge Mercedes but niggling turbo issues blighted their early races meaning they could not show their full potential.

As the year has progressed, however, a massive lack of development and poor strategy calls have seen the team slip further and further behind. Red Bull arguably caught them as early as the Spanish Grand Prix where Max Verstappen and Ricciardo had the pace to beat the two red cars. Of course, Verstappen would do so, claiming his first Formula One victory, while a poor strategy for the Australian would drop him down to fourth.

Throughout the European Season Red Bull continued what has been something of a renaissance for the team, taking over as Mercedes’ nearest rivals and surpassing Ferrari into second in the Constructors’ standings.

Watching his former employers move ahead must have been a massive frustration for Vettel, maybe even planting the first seeds of doubt into his mind about the Ferrari project. If that was the case, it would almost certainly result in a dip in performance.

But what’s to say that this year’s car simply hasn’t suited Sebastian as well as it has Raikkonen? The Finn has been in excellent form in 2016 and his current five-point advantage over Vettel is as much as testament to that as it is to his teammate’s issues.

Arrivabene had grand ambitions when he arrived as team principal, overhauling the management and promising to bring the glory days back to Ferrari.

It was clear it would take time for those goals to be achieved and Vettel would have likely joined regardless, given his career ambitions. Certainly, he had done all there was to do with Red Bull and needed a fresh challenge.

But given the expectations created after the big improvements in 2015 and the early signs at the start of this year, the lack of progress made since does give credence to the idea of the team failing Vettel, that’s not to say, however, Vettel could not give some more too.

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@BenIssatt Images: f1weekends

It’s a few days after Nico Rosberg extended his championship lead to 33 points over Lewis Hamilton at the Japanese Grand Prix.

Looking forward there is four races left to go and for the first real time there is a growing acceptance that the German might finally be crowned world champion.

There’s already a feeling of frustration growing around Hamilton too. His Snapchat exploits in the press conference at Suzuka added fuel to the media fire that is slowing starting to burn against him.

When he’s world champion the press pack adores him, sure his social quirks cause a rumble from time to time but that’s just part of the Hamilton persona. As long as he continues to win on the racetrack, he’s still the flavour of the month.

Now that he isn’t, all of a sudden he’s disrespectful, distracted and, as one newspaper put it, going into “meltdown”.

This kind of fickle attitude should be unexpected, after all, it’s how the mainstream press works nowadays.

But is there any truth to it and actually could Hamilton be quietly gifting the world title to Nico?

There is no doubt that Rosberg has raised his game ever since Lewis won his third world title in Austin, almost exactly 12 months ago.

Three straight wins to round of 2015 and four straight to kick off 2016 is all you have to say as to how he responded to being beaten to the championship by his teammate again.

However, the reasons for those wins vary. Hamilton himself admits he wasn’t performing at 100% following his title triumph, meanwhile, this year, poor starts and technical issues in qualifying hampered his early races.

The collision between the two Silver Arrows in Spain almost pressed a reset between the two. Rosberg had no confidence on the wet streets of Monaco as Hamilton stole his first win of the season from Daniel Ricciardo’s grasp.

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That proved a major catalyst for the Briton, who would win a total of six races over a seven-race stretch. Yet as we talk about ‘gifting’ the world title to Rosberg, his only blip in that run came in Baku where the German scored an easy victory after his teammate hit the wall in qualifying.

During that spell in the summer, however, it was the 2015 Hamilton on show. He was at his best in terms of form and held a comfortable pace advantage over Rosberg throughout that three-month period. It also allowed him to turn a 43-point deficit into a 19-point lead by the summer break.

So, certainly until the end of July, Hamilton was far from gifting the title to Rosberg. No conclusions can be made from Hamilton’s weekend at Spa. The engine penalty he received was expected after his early season MGU-H issues, so to actually fight back and finish third was seen as a good result in Belgium.

A big turning point, however, seemed to be Rosberg’s win at Monza. As yet another poor start blighted Hamilton’s race, it allowed his teammate to claim another easy victory. The confidence and momentum has been strongly in Nico’s favour since, indeed, every niggle that Lewis has had has felt decisive to his mood.

From small things like having to look after his brakes in Singapore, that resulted in him finishing third, to the engine failure in Malaysia that has really put him on the back foot.

It has been momentum that has played as big of a role as anything in swaying this year’s championship and, unfortunately for Hamilton, for the most part, the swing been good for Rosberg.

Perhaps some finger pointing can be done towards Mercedes’ and Hamilton’s ability to overcome their start issues because if anything has gifted Rosberg the opportunity to be champion it’s that.

But for the most part it has just been the consistent, improved performances of the German that has put him in his current position.

Should Rosberg go on and be crowned champion after the final race in Abu Dhabi, Hamilton can reflect on his summer run and acknowledge that, for the most part, luck simply wasn’t on his side. But for Nico it will be a title that he has earned just as much as any of those men before him.

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@Alex_Booth_93 Images: Taringa and BRP

Eddie Irvine is one of the most memorable drivers in modern Formula One history. With his playboy lifestyle, his quirky sense of humour and outspoken demeanour he was a stylish character. But he was also a very talented driver, after playing the loyal number two role to Michael Schumacher at Ferrari, he got the chance to prove himself when the German was injured, taking the 1999 title fight right down to the wire.

Born in County Down in Northern Ireland, Eddie Irvine began his racing career in Formula Ford and Formula 3. After racing for fellow Irishman Eddie Jordan in F3000 he headed to Japan where he drove for Toyota in sports cars and finished runner up in Japanese F3000 in 1993. That same year Jordan gave him his F1 debut at Suzuka. Irvine caused a storm in his first race by infamously incurring the wrath of Ayrton Senna, when the cocky Ulsterman had the audacity to unlap himself. Irvine even had the cheek to tell Senna that he was driving too slowly!

The punch-up with the legendary Brazilian overshadowed the fact that Irvine had scored a point on his debut.

Jordan signed him full time for 1994, but at the season opener in Brazil he was involved in a pile-up with Jos Verstappen, Eric Bernard and Martin Brundle. The stewards blamed Irvine and he was banned from the next three races. More incidents later in the season almost resulted in the FIA revoking his superlicence.

Irvine began to settle down after a turbulent start and 1995 was a good season, regularly out-qualifying team mate Rubens Barrichello. For 1996 Irvine surprised many by signing for Ferrari alongside Michael Schumacher.

At the first race in Australia he finished on the podium after qualifying ahead of the German, but numerous mechanical failures meant a good haul of points was not possible. 1997 started badly as some erratic driving encouraged the Italian press to call for his sacking, in typical Irvine style he hit back by pushing Jacques Villeneuve so hard for the win in Argentina. His best race of the season came in Japan when he led the early part of the race and helped Schumacher in his quest for the title.

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1998 was a successful season for the Ulsterman, finishing on the podium in half of the races, his second place in the French Grand Prix completed Ferrari’s first one-two in almost eight years. 1999 started brilliantly as a poor race for Schumacher gave Irvine his big chance, the Ferrari was not as quick as the McLaren but was more reliable, thus allowing him to take his first career victory. His consistency meant that by the time of the British Grand Prix he was third in the World Championship. Schumacher’s crash at Silverstone left him with a broken leg and would be out for six races, elevating Irvine to the team number one. He fought the championship with vigour taking victory in Austria and Germany and the championship lead. Ferrari began to lose form as Schumacher’s absence led to the team focusing on 2000, but mistakes from Mika Hakkinen and McLaren left Irvine and Ferrari with a chance going into the final two races.

Schumacher’s stunning return in Malaysia helped Irvine take his fourth win of the season and a four point advantage going into Suzuka. Despite initially being excluded for a technical infringement, Ferrari appealed and the result was allowed to stand, leaving Irvine on the brink of glory. Sadly it was not meant to be as a tough weekend saw a rejuvenated Mika Hakkinen retain his crown. Ferrari were happy to secure their first Constructor’s title for 16 years, but for Irvine his big chance was gone.

Irvine moved to the fledgling Jaguar Racing team for 2000 but the initial optimism was short-lived, Jaguar’s debut season was a disaster with the meagre addition of 4 points to his career total. 2001 was slightly better with a podium finish at Monaco but it was not a major step forward and a dismal start to 2002 led to Irvine questioning his future with the team. Tired of the big promises not coming to fruition and the disorganisation of the management, Irvine decided to leave the team with a final podium at Monza a fitting send off. A rumoured return to Jordan did not happen and Irvine announced his retirement. After F1 he continued building up his multi-million pound property empire and shows no sign of slowing his luxurious lifestyle down.

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@jackalala01 Image: grassroots motorsport

Tyrrell is one of the most notable teams in Formula 1's history. In the 28 active years between their formation in 1970 and final entry in 1998, they managed to bag two driver's world championships, and one constructors’ world championship. In their 430 starts, they won 23 races.

However, possibly one of their most famous, and wildest moments was their entry between 1976 and 1977. The Tyrrell P34 was a conventional car in the sense of it's double wishbone suspension and it's Cosworth V8. One of the less conventional features, though, was it's wheel layout. The P34 was the first and the last Formula 1 entrant with not four, but six wheels. Yes, that's right, Tyrrell managed to come to the conclusion that having four front wheels was the ideal layout. Needless to say that it's successes were limited. In the two years it was active, the P34 got one win at the hands of Jody Scheckter, at the Swedish Grand Prix in 1976.

It's a shame, then, that at the end of the 1977 season, Tyrrell discontinued the 6 wheel design. The design was revolutionary, but the performance given by the P34 wasn't enough to compete with the cars on the 1978 season.

Tyrrell only went on to win three more races in Formula 1. They eventually ended their 28 years of racing at the highest level in 1998, after a disappointing season, winning zero world championship points, and failing to qualify for a number of the races. Today, you can loosely trace Mercedes AMG Petronas back to Tyrrell, with their ancestors BAR purchasing the Tyrrell team back in 1999. Nowadays, Tyrrell’s legacy is limited, with their cars only being used for historic events such as the Silverstone Classic, a fitting tribute to the innovator that was Ken Tyrrell, who died in 2001 after battling witch cancer.

At L&T Motorsport, we like to focus on the legacy and history of Formula 1. This is the first of a number of instalments of legendary cars, both for their innovative designs, and their achievements in the world of racing.

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@Olliebluebirds Images: motorsportpress

As we head into the final two races of the 2016 GP2 season, mathematically 3 drivers are in the hunt for the championship but Raffaele Marciello is 39 points behind Antonio Giovinazzi so realistically, the battle in Abu Dhabi for the crown are between the 2 PREMA drivers like it has been most of the season.

Antonio Giovinazzi is 7 points ahead of teammate Pierre Gasly after an impressive display in Malaysia which clinched the constructors’ championship for PREMA. I think that despite the points deficit coming into the race, Pierre Gasly will win the 2016 GP2 Drivers Championship. I think this because Pierre Gasly has had experience on this track unlike Giovinazzi who has not raced around Abu Dhabi in his career and Pierre Gasly grabbed pole position around Abu Dhabi last year so he is quick around here. If he gets pole position which he has done 4 times so far this season, Gasly will grab 4 points which will reduce the gap down to 3 points which will then result in just the fastest driver winning the championship.

However, Pierre Gasly did get pole position in Malaysia but after a poor start, he went from potentially grabbing 25 points to finishing outside the top ten and grabbing zero points. It just shows how easy it is to ruin your chances of winning the championship. In 2013, Sam Bird (just like Pierre Gasly) was 7 points behind Fabio Leimer in the championship and his whole weekend was ruined when he stalled on the grid and gifted the championship to Leimer.

If Gasly wins the championship, then it means that he will not be allowed to come back to GP2. This is because of the rule GP2 use to make sure there is a new GP2 champion every year. This might be a bit of a headache for Red Bull because if they can't let Gasly do another year at GP2, will they promote him into the Torro Rosso team or will they do what McLaren did with Stoffel Vandoorne last year and put him in a single seater for one year and promote him the year after? All of this will be decided when we head for Abu Dhabi in just over 1 month’s time.

Whatever the result, both drivers have had an amazing year and hopefully it will be down to who is the fastest man on track like it has been for most of the 2016 season.

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@JR24GP Image: Nascar.com

Kevin Harvick made a great late race pass on Matt Kenseth to win race 2 of the 2016 Chase for the Sprint Cup at the Magic Mile, New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Harvick had ran well in the top 5 for much of the day, without really challenging the dominant cars of Kenseth and, last week’s controversial winner, Truex Jr, who led 105 and 141 laps respectively. A number of late race cautions however, gave Harvick the chance to make some moves on restarts. On the final restart, Harvick clinched the lead, and never looked back, beating Kenseth to the line by just under half a second.

In victory lane, Harvick, who won for the 34th time in his career, praised the team for setting the car up to be strong on the short runs. "The car was pretty good on the restarts. Once we got clean air there at the end, it wound up being really good up front. I'm just really proud of our team. They did a great job." The win also means that Harvick qualifies for the round of 12 for the 3rd consecutive year.

Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski both came to pit road with 37 laps to go, and nearly made the strategy call work as they finished in 3rd and 4th, whilst rounding out the top 5 was Kyle’s brother Kurt. Carl Edwards finished 6th, Martin Truex Jr faded on his older tires to 7th, whilst Jimmie Johnson came home 8th. Completing the top 10 were Kasey Kahne, the highest placed non-Chaser, and Kyle Larson, who used that result to move out of the Chase drop zone.

The driver moving into that spot was Jamie McMurray. After looking good for a top 10 finish towards the later stages, some bad strategic calls dropped Larson’s Chip Ganassi Racing teammate to the back of the lead lap cars, eventually finishing in 19th. Meanwhile, Austin Dillon, Tony Stewart and Chris Buescher are also likely to miss out on the second round after finishing 16th, 23rd and 30th respectively.

They will head to Dover for the conclusion of round 1 in a must-win situation, a situation Kevin Harvick was in last season. He won that race, and eventually made it all the way to the final round. Those 4 drivers currently in danger will be hoping for a similar bounce back next weekend.

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@JR24GP Image: Nascar.com

In a remarkably quiet race at the Monster Mile, Martin Truex Jr showed once again why he is the favourite for the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup championship by comfortably winning the concluding race of Round 1 of the Chase.

Unusually, the race ran caution-free for the final 208 laps, meaning that by the end, just 6 drivers remained on the lead lap. Kyle Busch finished over 7 seconds behind in 2nd, whilst Chase Elliott leapfrogged Brad Keselowski in the final pit cycle to finish in 3rd. Rounding out the top 5 was Matt Kenseth, whilst Joey Logano was the only other driver to complete all 400 laps in 6th.

Jimmie Johnson had looked like the man to beat for the first half of the race, but a crucial pit road penalty received for his crew jumping over the wall too quickly put the 48 car a lap down and therefore he could only recover to 7th.

Austin Dillon sealed his place in the second round by finishing 8th, but the pressure on him was somewhat relieved when both Chip Ganassi drivers, Kyle Larson and Jamie McMurray, suffered reliability failures which put them out of contention.

Completing the top 10 were Denny Hamlin, and Jeff Gordon, who got his first top 10 finish since returning to the sport part time to fill in for the still recovering Dale Earnhardt Jr. Tony Stewart missed out on a final chance to compete for the championship after finishing 13th, and he joins Larson, McMurray and rookie Chris Buescher in the elimination zone for Round 1.

Meanwhile, Kevin Harvick was relieved to already have sealed his spot in Round 2 last weekend, as early gremlins left him several laps down, finishing back in 37th place.

After such a commanding victory, many pundits are speculating whether Martin Truex Jr has peaked too early, with still 7 races left of this year’s Chase. However, Truex was defiant in Victory Lane, stating “We have done this all year long. You look at this team and what we’ve done, aside from bad luck, I can’t tell you how many races we could have won this year. You’ve seen the same thing.”

Next week however, all the points are reset, giving the top 12 drivers a level playing field for the next 3 races, starting at Charlotte for the Bank of America 500 on Saturday.

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@JR24GP Images: Nascar.com

Jimmie Johnson showed once again why he loves Charlotte Motor Speedway as he took his 8th Sprint Cup win at the track, and the 78th of his career, booking his place in the next round of the Chase and snapping a winless streak dating back to March.

Johnson came to the fore in the second half of the race, and led 155 laps on the way towards an important victory when many of his rivals had major problems, passing Matt Kenseth on the final restart to win by just over a second.

5 of the 12 drivers still in contention for the 2016 championship saw their chances take a major blow in the Bank of America 500. Chase Elliott had dominated the early stages of the race, leading over 100 laps as he looked to break his Sprint Cup duck. However, he was caught up in a wreck which would bring out the red flag when Austin Dillon was spun around by Martin Truex Jr on a restart. This left Dillon crashing hard into the wall, and the 24 car in the wall as well after being hit by Kyle Busch in avoidance.

Earlier, two other contenders had also had to go to the garage. Kevin Harvick had a mysterious electrical power failure, whilst at the same time, Joey Logano suffered a flat tire, spearing him off into the wall at high speed.

Finally, Denny Hamlin had been battling Jimmie Johnson for the lead late in the race when, with no prior warning, his engine blew-up in spectacular fashion, reminiscent of Lewis Hamilton in Malaysia, meaning that he was also forced to watch the conclusion of the race from the pits. “Luckily some others (in the Chase) also had trouble today, so we're not out of it," Hamlin said.

Because of this, any Chase driver who did finish the race had a good day, as they all finished in the top 13.

Behind Johnson, Kenseth came home in 2nd, whilst Kasey Kahne was delighted with 3rd. Ryan Newman drove a much needed good race in 4th, whilst Kyle Larson bounced back from the heartbreak of his Chase exit in 5th.

Kyle Busch did a superb job to salvage 6th following heavy damage from when he hit Elliott. Brad Keselowski had an up and down day on his way to 7th, whilst Kurt Busch was solid as ever in 8th.

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Rounding out the top 10 were Tony Stewart and Jamie McMurray, who just denied Danica Patrick her first top 10 of the season on the final lap.

The two other Chasers finishing outside of the top 10 were Carl Edwards in 12th, and Martin Truex Jr in 13th.

Truex, who won 2 of the first 3 Chase races, had looked a strong contender for a top 5 finish, but dropped back after being unable to engage his clutch after his final pit stop.

Johnson spoke in Victory Lane of his relief in finally picking up his 3rd win of the 2016 season and in turn breaking a 24-race winless streak for him and Hendrick Motorsports. "We knew we would get back. Yes, it was slower than we wanted it to be but to be here today and have this victory is great...This is something very special to our team.”

Team owner Rick Hendrick was also relieved to see that his team, who have won an incredible 11 of the last 21 Sprint Cup championships, are back. “Nobody has to remind me that we hadn’t won a race,” said Hendrick. “(The media) reminds me of that every weekend, and they do on TV. (They) think we were washed up and should have quit. But it kind of motivated us. Nobody ever gave up, and you know, we know what a champion Jimmie is.”

On the other hand, teammate Chase Elliott was left to rue another missed opportunity, this time through no fault of his own. "I'm all good," Elliott said. "I guess the 3 (of Dillon) spun his tires. Then the 78 (of Truex) was trying to push him and got him out of shape...It definitely was devastating. They gave me a good car today. I hate that we weren't able to get the result that we should have out of it."

Problems for nearly half of the Chasers should make next week’s race in Kansas a thriller. A win would guarantee a place in the Eliminator Round regardless of points.

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@JR24GP Images: Nascar.com

When Kevin Harvick’s engine blew last week at Charlotte, a 38th place finish left him in a precarious position, 8 points adrift of the cut line to advance to the next round of the Chase. Harvick however, did what he and the Stewart-Haas Racing team do best, and the 2014 champion won under huge pressure at Kansas Speedway to advance into the Eliminator Round.

For much of the second half of the race, Harvick battled with Carl Edwards for the victory. Edwards looked to have the slightly better car, but when Harvick took the lead on the final restart with 29 to go, there was no stopping him winning his 2nd race of the Chase so far. Harvick led 74 laps on his way to victory, and keeps up his record of never being eliminated from a round of the Chase since the new format was introduced in 2014.

In victory lane, Harvick spoke about how impressive his team always seems to be in high pressure situations. ''These races are hard to win and these guys are so good at the details,'' said Harvick, ''and when you put their backs against the wall they're even better. I'm so proud of them.''

Chase Elliott had at one stage looked yet again as the driver to beat, but following a green flag pit stop whilst leading the race, Elliott had a problem at the rear of the car, causing a flat. The problem would occur again late in the race, leaving him well adrift of the cut line, and needing a win at Talladega to advance.

Elliott had no idea what the cause of the problem was and was understandably dejected after more bad luck plighted the rookie’s chances. “I don't know if we got the left rear getting up on the race track, or something and it got into the fender and cut it down. I don't know what to do man, we were trying as hard as we can.

We had such a good car today again, and....I don't know what to do. Just keep after it and try to move on."

Another Chaser to put their championship hopes in jeopardy was Brad Keselowski. The 2 car broke way loose out of turn 4 on lap 189, leading to contact with Denny Hamlin (himself in the elimination zone), and heavy damage to the front of the Penske Ford. Keselowski would get back out on track later on, but the damage was still causing problems, ending his day for good.

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Keselowski was frustrated with his mentality during the race, saying that he was too aggressive considering the sizeable points buffer he had over the cut line coming into the weekend. "I probably could have raced less hard with a big points-gap coming in," Keselowski said. "With this format it is probably the smart thing to do, but I don't want to race like that. I want to race my guts out and go for wins. I don't want to pointsrace. I don't care what the damn format is, I am going to give it my best."

Behind Harvick and Edwards, Joey Logano gave his Chase hopes a boost after problems last week with a strong run to 3rd. Jimmie Johnson continued his momentum from his win with a 4th place finish, whilst Kyle Busch hung on to a top 5 finish after briefly charging on fresher tires on the last restart.

Austin Dillon gave himself a chance at advancing to the next round by finishing 6th. Alex Bowman impressed even with a stomach bug in 7th, whilst fellow non-Chaser AJ Allmendinger finished 8th. Matt Kenseth led over 100 laps early before fading to 9th, and rounding out the top 10 was Kasey Kahne.

Of the remaining Chasers, Martin Truex Jr had another difficult afternoon, battling to an 11th place finish.

The Furniture Row Racing driver had fuelling problems which compromised the strategy of the team who many believe to be the favourites to win the 2016 championship. Kurt Busch came from the back of the field to 13th, whilst Denny Hamlin had yet more pit road penalties on his way to 15th.

Next week’s elimination race is at the often wild Talladega Superspeedway, where the Chase Grid will be cut from 12 drivers to 8. Last year’s race was won by Joey Logano, and with his Chase place hanging by a thread currently, he will hope to repeat this feat on Sunday.

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@goughieee5 Images: Barnewshaw Images

The Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship came to an emphatic end at the Brands Hatch GP Circuit in Kent. Going into the weekend, there was a total of 8 drivers all battling it out to take home the title.

Saturday’s qualifying session proved to be a topsy turvy affair with the track starting dry and many cars getting out early to put times in, but midway through the session, the rain came and halted proceedings after a roll from the BKR VW of Aron Smith. As the session resumed, the rain eased off and the times kept coming in. It would be the Subaru Levorg of Colin Turkington who claimed pole with a blistering time of 1.31.838. Some two tenths back would be the Handy Motorsport Toyota of Rob Austin who produced his and the teams best qualifying result. Jason Plato in the second Subaru lined up behind him with Hunter Abbott, Josh Cook and Jack Goff rounding out the top 6. The other title challengers, Shedden, Tordoff, Neal, Collard and Jordan all started from 7th, 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th respectively. The shock of the session came from Speedworks’ Tom Ingram who originally qualified 2nd, but was later excluded for failing the ride height checks.

So, three races and eight drivers, who would be champion?

In race one, Turkington got away cleanly but had to hold off Rob Austin from challenging around the outside early on going into Paddock Hill bend. Austin later slotted into second but then entered a race long battle with Jason Plato and Josh Cook in the MG. Apart from an early safety car caused by Hunter Abbott being turned around and collecting the unfortunate Andrew Jordan, Turkington would disappear into the distance and take a dominant lights to flag victory to start the day. Austin would manage to soak up all the pressure from the guys behind him to take an excellent second. Plato would eventually lose his podium spot from Josh Cook on the final lap and final bend. Further down the order it was more eventful as several of the title contenders tried to keep themselves in the hunt. Gordon Shedden fought his way into a fifth place finish after he battled with the BMW of Jack Goff in the early stages. Adam Morgan wedged his Mercedes behind Shedden with team mate Neal behind Morgan. Aiden Moffat, Ash Sutton and championship leader Tordoff completed the top ten.

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The start of race two was almost a copy of race one, the leaders getting away and settling down quickly with Turkington starting to create a big gap at the front of the field. The drama was further down the order as Matt Neal’s Honda engine cut out entering Paddock Hill bend, the car slowed but as he rejoined a corner later, he was collected by the MG of Josh Cook, firing Neal into the barriers. There was a lengthly stoppage as the medical team attended the shaken Honda driver. That turned out to be the last action for Neal for the day as he suffered slight concussion. When action resumed, Plato found a way past Rob Austin and was hassling team-mate Turkington for the race lead. Turkington held on to take another victory as Plato eventually had to defend from the other Honda of Shedden, who made good progress through to third.

Josh Cook impressed again by finishing fourth, Sam Tordoff coming through the field with no ballast to finish fifth with a charging Aiden Moffat in sixth. Mat Jackson, put his earlier issues behind him to come back to seventh. Morgan, Ingram and Collard completed the top ten order.

The final encounter was won by Motorbase’s Mat Jackson, after getting the reverse grid result, Mat made a good getaway with young gun Aiden Moffat staying close behind. The young Scot kept him in sight throughout the race and never looked troubled to get a well deserved second. A nervous crowd watched as Shedden, starting a few places behind Tordoff, caught the BMW and passed him through the final corner. The Honda fended off a hard charging Adam Morgan and a late safety car,coming home in third to retain his title! He became the first driver to defend a title since Fabrizio Giovanardi in 2007 and 2008. Despite losing out on the title, Tordoff helped WSR win the manufacturers and teams championships. Andrew Jordan won the Indy title for Motorbase and Ash Sutton claimed the Jack Sears Trophy.

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@WA10Tom Images: Citroen Racing and General Motors

Yvan Muller announced that he would end is WTCC career at the end of 2016, in line with Citroen leaving the sport. This means that the most successful driver in WTCC history, will bow out at the end of the season after 11 years in the championship.

Muller has won the most championships, and the most races, the most podiums and most pole positions of any driver in WTCC history. His tally of 48 race wins, has been unchallenged by any of the current crop of drivers. Jose Maria Lopez and Rob Huff are joint second with 28 wins. Muller is also the only driver to of won 4 titles: 2008, 2010, 2011 & 2013 and helped to make the Chevrolet Cruze the most successful car in WTCC history. Add to this a rich history in the BTCC before that, culminating in winning the title in 2003 for Vauxhall and it is no surprise that Muller has become a giant in the tin top world.

Muller started his career with Seat, getting on the podium in his first two races and taking his first win by round 5. He went on to take a further 4 podiums to finish the season 4th overall in his debut year. He won his first title for the Spanish manufacture in 2008 with the TDI Leon. He was beaten to the 2009 title by his Seat Sport team mate Gabriele Tarquini despite finishing on the podium 11 times that season.

For 2010 Muller changed to the Chevrolet team and their Cruze model. After a year of development, the car was extremely quick against the now privately run Seats. Even though the Seats scored more wins, Muller’s consistency allowed him to take his second world title by 55 points. In 2011, Muller became the second driver to successfully defend his world title in the dominant and turbocharged Cruze.

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The Cruze won 21 of the 24 races and locked out the top 3 places in the Championship. Rob Huff pushed Muller hard for the title, eventually losing out by just 3 points to the Frenchman.

Another dominant year for Chevrolet saw the battle for the title again between Huff and Muller, but this time Huff would edge out against Muller to claim his first world title and prevent Muller from winning his record breaking fourth title in 2012. However, now being run by RML and Huff now in a Munnich motorsport Seat, Muller managed to take claim his record fourth world title and cemented himself as one of the sports greats.

Since joining the Citroen team right at the start of their program, Muller hasn’t been able to match his younger team mate Jose Maria Lopez who has taken 3 titles in as many years. But the experienced French man has been key to the success of the Citroen team, his experience in developing championship winning touring cars proved pivotal in the rise of the Citroen team.

“These three seasons with Citroen Racing have been particularly special, even though I never managed to be world champion driver with this team. But I will always be proud of having helped to build our racing programme and develop the Citroen C-Elysee WTCC.” Said Muller when announcing his retirement.

Speaking about his future, he went on to say. “Driving has been part of my daily life for so long that I can't see myself stopping racing entirely. But I am going to spend more time with my family and developing my team, Yvan Muller Racing. Before that, though, I am going to put everything I've got into meeting the team's goals.”

It is clear that touring cars will be losing one of the true greats of the sport. However, with plans for Yvan to run his own team, it could be possible that we will see him again the WTCC. Just this time as a team boss, in a similar fashion to Sebastien Loeb and his privateer Citroen team.

Yvan Muller’s final race in the WTCC will be in Qatar in November.

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@EuanCampbelll3 Images: Rimac Media

This is the Rimac Concept-One and it’s been built and designed off the inspiration of the company’s founder and C.E.O Mate Rimac. Let’s delve into the history of the company then, Mate Rimac bought a 1980’s BMW 3Series to drift race with in Croatia, but as a result of all the stress and strain of high-revs and torque surges the engine blew up.

Instead of putting a new one in it mate decides to build his own electric motor and fit it to the BMW to continue racing with. When his fellow racing partners seen it they made fun of him at first and nicknamed it “the washing machine”, but when Mate started to win races everything changed, in fact Mate even broke 5 Guinness World Records! After this he then decided to design his own car with help from a very rich sheikh from Abu Dhabi, but the sheikh wanted them to move the company to Abu Dhabi but Mate refused and so he sold everything he owned and took out a personal loan against himself in order to finish the car and launch the company.

But the technology that Mate wanted for the Concept-one didn’t exist, so he had to create it himself along with his small team, but they had no money to do this and so they decided to sell technology and car parts to car manufactures to keep them alive and fund there dream. Fast forward to 2016 and the Concept-One is finally completed, Rimac have a new car under development and have more employees and sources of revenue than Koeingsegg and Pagani combined.

Now the Concept-One, wow it looks amazing, It’s defiantly the best looking electric car ever made, with a very low supercar stance, LED headlights & taillights and some beautiful curves that could make this car Italian! But the interesting part is the engineering and performance specifications involved in this car.

The performance? Well it’s not what you’d call slow, 0-62mph takes just 2.6 seconds and with 1088hp a top speed of 220mph and 1600Nm of torque, Insane figures for an electric car. The car has a very advanced torque vectoring system that replaces your ESC, EBD etc, it basically monitors the wheels 100 times per second, and applies power to each wheel individually and as a result no 2 wheels will ever have the same power going to them at any one time. This means incredible grip and stability in corners. It can also for a world’s first make the car either 4-wheel drive, front drive or rear drive, so you can play around and choose from within the console.

The car is very light too, made from aluminium and carbon fibre chassis with special rigid crash structures integrated within the chassis to protect the battery.

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The 82Kw battery itself is insane, as it can pull 1MW of power under acceleration or 400Kw under braking, it also features a very unique thermal management system that optimises the batteries core temperature and keeps it stable no matter what the temperature is outside. The Rimac also features regenerative braking like KERS system in F1, so you can climb back some miles under braking and you can also get it when accelerating too which means 22Kw from on board charging.

This is due to the four, yes four gearboxes, single-speed gearboxes on the front motors and double clutch gearboxes for the rear motors, unlike a conventional electric car where it has no gearbox, this means there is no loss of power in any gear at any time! You can pull off in second gear and still get a mass burst of speed.

The brakes in this car are really powerful too, with 390 by 36mm ventilated ceramic disks on the front and 380 by 34mm on the rear, both with 6 piston callipers that are power assisted, also the car can cut the battery power off and make for even more powerful braking power, 400Kw to be precise, which is good for stopping you from 62mph in a distance of just 31.5m. So what’s the range of this beast? Considering it has hypercar performance, the range is 320km in a charge, not bad. The interior of the car is just as beautiful as the outside, with luscious leather and alcantara bucket seats and one of the most beautiful centre consoles I have ever seen, the dials are all inspired by the most expensive mechanical watches on the market and are made from tons of individual components. The infotainment system is the most advanced in the world, in fact Rimac actually made the infotainment system in the W motors Lykan Hypersport.

But the one in here is so futuristic and cool, with everything able to be controlled through the central screen and with lots of 3D telemetry and schematics from the torque vectoring systems power stats, the G-force meters and slip angles, KERS system status, battery efficiency and so much more! It also has incredible smart phone connected system that when your phone connects to the cars own built in 3G Wi-Fi, you can view your data usage and get software updates as well as controlling your car from your phone too.

Also features full 3D navigation with HUD view from your dashboard and surround view camera. Don’t be fooled by the “concept” name this is a fully working production car of which Rimac will only build 8, so the price of the worlds most advanced automobile? Well let’s just say well over £1 Million but I think that is a bargain!? No? okay maybe not. But for the first time in my life, I really want a fully electric car and it’s called a Rimac Concept-One, unfortunately all 8 have been sold, damn you!

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@EuanCampbelll3 Images: NetCarShow

Audi Q5: Yes, the new Q5 is the latest refresh on the Audi range, with that now new distinctive front end look, in fact it makes the Q5 a tad meaner looking. With LED headlights and taillights as well as the “sweeping” indicators and also a very chrome front grill. It’s lighter than the previous model but also has grown in length, width and height meaning more leg and headroom for the passengers in the back! And speaking of passengers the new Q5 comes with a whole range of comforting tech like massaging, heated and ventilated seats. Off course the new Q5 gets that 12.3inch cockpit display that everyone loves and Audi are putting it in all their cars now, it also comes with a separate smaller 8.3inch display that is more for the passenger but can display everything the driver can see on his cockpit display, and Audi can fit a headup display too so you get less distracted by the cockpit one. Overall then this car is for the slightly posh family rather than the businessman venture.

Honda CR-V: While we’re still on the topic of SUV’s Honda unveiled their new CR-V with a completely new look. However, they’ve made it too bulky looking, in other words I don’t really like the look of this. It does come with an array of tech like LED headlights and an automatic grill shutter system to optimise aerodynamic drag? Interesting, it comes with Honda’s first hands free tailgate and high beams assist. Honda also made their first turbocharged engine in a CR-V which is a 1.5litre diesel with 190bhp. The car can be either front or allwheel drive with an all new suspension system with stabilizers to keep smoothness of ride to the maximum.

The interior is an unseen interior from Honda with a new 7inch touchscreen crystal display and TFT dials in the cockpit display that as a rev counter that looks like a P1’s in race mode, Copycats! But its genuinely a nice interior and a nice addition by Honda for the new CR-V just a pity it looks like a beached whale!

BMW 5-Series: BMW have trickled down the looks and tech from the 7-Series and put it in the new 5-Series which means you get all the great tech and looks for half the price! Yes, one of BMW’s best selling cars has had a massive overhaul with LED lights everywhere, more chrome and a gadget geeks heaven inside. The technology inside the 5-series such as the 10.1inch screen and the small TFT 8inch screen in the driver’s view with a headup display, is trickled down from the bigger 7-series and also shares a similar platform too meaning the 5-series will be slightly wider and longer to accommodate those pesky passengers. The new 5-series will be available from December this year and should hit the roads in the beginning of next year.

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Ford Fusion V6 Sport: The ford Mondeo now comes with a V6; it’s badged as a fusion in the USA but the real question is if we in the UK will actually get a V6 Mondeo. The stats and figures are pretty impressive, 2 variants will be available a 2.7litre Ecoboost V6 with 325bhp and a 3.5litre V6 with 375bhp. The fusion also comes with an incredible pothole detection system that is much needed here on the UK roads! The continuously damped real life suspension system can detect a pothole and simply adjust the shock absorbers to “glide” over the pothole as if nothing was there! Let’s hope the next Mondeo features this technology.

Ferrari LaFerrari Aperta: One of the most anticipated first look cars was the LaFerrari Aperta, yes it is just a LaFerrari with the roof cut off but Ferrari have lost no structural integrity making this car as much a track monster as the coupe version is. No power upgrade or any new components it just does what it says on the tin!

Lotus Exige 350 Special Edition: This is the last of the special 50th anniversary editions, and they’ve saved the best till last as this is the hardest, lightest and fastest Exige ever made! With a supercharged 3.5litre V6 making 345bhp and making 314bhp/per tonne! Makes for a track and road weapon. 0-62mph takes just 3.7 seconds, it comes with unique paint options and interior trim.

Maserati Quattroporte: If you squint and look hard enough you’ll see some minor visual updates on the new Quattroporte, here’s some pointers to spot the differences. First is the new front bumper with matte black profile with side strakes, chrome on the bottom under the lights, the rear of the car has new LED taillights and a new quad tailpipe design. It comes with two new model variants GranLusso which is aimed at luxury for the posh passengers, the GranSport which is aimed at the more “sporty” posh bankers. The interior has some new screens and layout of the centre console and looks much tidier and modern. Nothing mechanical has changed although the ZF gearbox is slightly faster at the gear changes, the new quattroporte should be available from next month so get your abnormally large check books at the ready!

Hyundai RN30 Concept: Hyundai have built a rather outlandish concept to prove they can build a race car, with swan doors for entry and 2.0litre turbocharged 4-cylinder engine producing 378bhp, it weighs next to nothing according to Hyundai, due to its mix of fiberglass, carbon fibre and all-wheel drive the Rn30 does 062mph in around 3.0 seconds! It also has a “wet type duel clutch” which delivers insanely quick gear changes that are essential under racing conditions. Whether this car will actually be made is another matter, but it’s technology created could end up in your i30.

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@WA10Tom Images: TAG Photoraphy and BMW Cup

If you are anything like me, you will of spent hours infront of the TV watching motorsport thinking “I would love a go at that.” Then you rush over to your nearest source of internet and start looking at how to go racing, before getting scared off by the cost of it all. It happens to a lot of people every year. But there are ways around this, as we found out at Donington Park.

The BMW Cup is a race series you probably haven’t heard of before. It’s a series for BMW 325 compact cars built to very tight regulations which only allow a limited number of modifications to be made to the standard road cars. This means that the racing is close, and low cost. There are cars on the grid costing £5,000 to build.

Add to this the calendar features circuits like Donington Park, Thruxton, Brands Hatch and even Silverstone’s Grand Prix circuit, it makes for one of the best racing experiences you could hope for. But, you are probably reading this thinking “That’s great, but five grand is still a lot of money.” Well, the guys at the BMW Cup have thought of that, and are running a scholarship to win a fully funded season racing in 2018. When we heard that, we had to have a go.

The day started at a cold Donington Park, we just happened to be testing the car at BMW’s national track day, which was part of their centenary year celebrations. The car we would be testing was Paul Wood’s current race car, who needed the car 2 weeks later for the final round of the championship. So no pressure then. Run

by Automac Ltd, the car had suspension by Bilstein, tyres by Kuhmo, brakes by EBC a custom Vortex exhaust and a K&N induction kit. All of these are control parts, and come with a discount which the BMW Cup guys have arranged for each driver.

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We shared the car with 2 other hopefuls, each of us taking to a damp circuit for 2 sessions with Paul riding shot gun marking our efforts. Pulling out of the pits in the car was a great feeling. Even with ruined tyres the car had so much grip in the damp conditions. The brakes were the most supprising part. You could brake so much later and harder than you would ever think imaginable, the car would pull up every time. Then there was the insanely short shifter, it felt like a sequential box! I knew going around that I was nowhere near what the car could do. After a total of 15 minutes out there, the session was over and I came back in.

After a quick de-brief with Paul, I went off and sat a mock ARDS test. I can’t go into too much detail of what was on there, but it really makes you think about how you drive and act during a race. After that it was time for lunch. This gave us a chance to look through the paddock and ogle the McLaren 650S and M3 GT4 that was sharing the track with us.

After lunch, Neil had a little surprise for us. He had brought his BMWCup rally car fresh off the Prom stages in Blackpool. This was a different beast. Big brakes, locked diff but the same dry tyres, on a track that was now covered in water. That was always going to be fun, and it was. The rally car had the same basic mechanicals as the cup car, but it felt so much faster and more manageable on the limit. The car almost thanked you when you got the tail out. That is a feeling I won’t forget in a hurry.

So, how much did all of this cost. The full day was £250, sharing the car with 3 other people. To experience a race car, is an absolute bargain. Include the fact that you could win a season’s racing, then it’s an absolute no brainer! If you have ever wanted to get behind the wheel of a race car, then this is for you. Head to www.bmwcup.co.uk or e-mail BMWCup@yahoo.co.uk to get find out more.

Sadly, I won’t be going any further in their scholarship, but a huge thank you to Neil and Paul at Automac who brought the cars and ran the day.

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