Issue 3

THE PIT STOP issue 3

q u a r t e r l y

m o t o r s p o r t

m a g a z i n e

IMAGE BY RYOMA KASHIWAGI

CONTENTS

8 20 30 48 60 A FUTURE STAR GONE TOO SOON

IN SHORT

SELLING THE DREAM How Bart Horsten is financing his racing dream

53A TARGA FLORIO Nick Faure gives a driver’s eye view of the Targa Florio

GREAT BRITISH RACING DRIVERS A look at Indira Flack’s incredible exhibition

THE PUSH FOR DIVERSITY The changes NASCAR are implementing to improve diversity within the championship

THE LAST TRULY DIVERSE F1 SEASON Ash Miller explains why 1995 was the last time F1 had a real mix of results

IS TIME UP FOR BOTTAS?

HOT PROPERTY A look at the fledgling career of Oliver Solberg

SUCCESS AND FAILURE The Alfa Romeo that gave one driver his best F1 season, while for the other it led him to retire

BULL IN A CHINA SHOP Edd Straw plots the history of Red Bull’s rise from purchasing a failing F1 team and turning them into world beaters

CHASING THE AMERICAN DREAM Alex Sedgwick and his pursuit to compete in NASCAR

NEXT RACING GENERATION The Clerk of the course trying to inspire a new generation

CREES: FROM BTCC TO MONACO

74 98 118 128 138 DON’T EXPECT RALLIART TO RETURN TO THE WRC

THE PIVOTAL CAR IN FERRARI’S DOMINANT ERA

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TIME FLIES

I

t doesn’t seem like two minutes ago that we were all sat around waiting for pre-season testing to begin for the many championships across the world, but already we are over seven months into the year and it means for many of you, you are already halfway through your first annual subscription of The Pit Stop.

The support we have had in this time has been nothing short of exceptional and I want to personally thank you all. While other magazines around us appear to be struggling, The Pit Stop, even its early stages, is growing and we couldn’t be happier. Print isn’t dead by any means, no matter what people say, and we firmly believe that a tangible product is still the way forward.

As early subscribers will be aware, our mantra is telling the lesser known stories of the motorsport world and providing a variety of content and we are certainly striving to live up to that. Our first two covers, while both from the past, were based on two very different cars and our Issue 3 cover is no different.

In this issue we are showcasing an incredible talent who is also a man in demand right now: Oliver Solberg. It’s our first main rally feature (one of many we hope) and it was great to sit down with him and understand how he has got himself to where he has in such a short space of time. I have no doubt that he will be a World Rally champion at some stage and I can’t wait to see just where his career takes him over the years to come.

We also attended our first event of the year a few weeks ago, when we pitched up with a stand at the Yorkshire Motorsport Festival. It was great to talk to many of you who stopped by and get feedback and ideas about the magazine and content. It was great to hear from you directly about what you think of the magazine and we will always listen to any ideas you have on how to improve and provide content that you love to read. After all, this magazine is for you and without you, we wouldn’t exist.

So please don’t be afraid to email us, contact us through our social media channels or come up and chat to us if you see us out and about. In the same way that a driver will never complete the perfect lap, we also believe our magazine will never be 100% perfect and that there is always room for improvement. We want to work outside of the box, doing things different from the norm so we are always open to ideas. They may not always be practical to take on, but we can guarantee we will always listen and give each idea full consideration.

We have lots of exciting things planned for the future and I can’t wait to tell you more about them when we are in a position to do so. We also have a digital element in the pipeline to compliment our analogue magazine, something that will be entirely free of charge for our annual subscribers. More about that soon!

But for now, enjoy the latest issue, enjoy the racing that is in full force at the moment, be it F1, WEC, MotoGP Indycar or local national and club level events and let’s see what the next six months has in store!

Rob Hansford Editor

EDITORIAL Editor Rob Hansford Photography Editor Brian Smith Contributors Adam Proud, Ash Miller, Edd Straw, Ian Page, Andy Parr, Adam Dickinson, Nick Faure, Andrew Wright, William Holmes, John Scoltock, Lauren Marshall Photography Contributors PHD Photo, DLV Photos, Stacy Guiney, Matt Widdowson, Jakob Ebrey, Indira Flack, Jordan Lensson, Peter Heil, Daylon Barr Photography, Matt Wood, Honza Fronek THANKS TO Ian Cunningham Art, Alex Easthope, Girardo & Co, Honza Fronek, Matt Wood, Paul Davidson, Sandra Evans, Nick Faure

COMMERCIAL ENQUIRIES Enquiries commercialenquiries@thepitstopmagazine.com 6 THE PIT STOP

IMAGE BY PHD PHOTO

SELLING THE

DREAM WORDS BY IAN PAGE IMAGES BY JAKOB EBREY / JONA JACOB

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better place because, at the end of the day, you can’t build a relationship with somebody overnight.”

Bart can see the benefits of building commercial relationships early on. As with any business relationship, these things take time but it’s an aspect to racing that can leave most young drivers in the dark. “The hardest part, I think, is if you haven’t raced before: it’s a sport where there isn’t a huge amount of information for people getting into it”, Bart explained.

“Say you were a karter trying to get into F4; if you don’t have some big management company or someone supporting you, or somebody guiding you who’s done this all before, I can imagine it would be quite difficult to know where to start.” Even at his young age, Bart has Australian Formula Ford, British F4 and F3 to his CV with ten podiums in F4 to boot – that is an attractive selling point. For someone coming into the sport cold, how do you sell yourself when you have nothing to go on?

Of course, it’s not just financial help that parents can offer in those formative years. Connections in the business world are just as important in the modern motorsport world and often parents are the gateway into this. “I think a lot of people might want to be in a situation like Lance Stroll or Lando Norris and have the ability to keep driving and testing and spending whatever they need to get to Formula 1,” Bart explained. “If they’ve the ability like those two, they can make it at that level. It’s not necessarily just money

Jakob Ebrey

T

here’s no shying away from it, motorsport is expensive. We all know the problems faced by not only those trying to climb the ladder, but those who are currently competing at the very pinnacle of the sport. The finances needed are eyewatering and this isn’t exclusive to the sharp end of the ladder; those who are climbing the formulas face ever-increasing financial constraints in order to chase their dream.

Australian driver Bart Horsten, currently competing for Hitech in the BRDC British F3 Championship, is one of many young racers who are forced to become pseudo-business people in order to fund a drive, with sponsorship and commercial development just as important a skill as driving itself.

“I think for a lot of people, sponsorship is something that should be considered as you start or before you even start”, the 19-year-old began. At the beginning of his career, Bart was fortunate enough to have the backing of his parents, but as his career progresses that direct financial support is winding down and other revenue streams are needed in order to compete. “I regret not pushing harder two or three years earlier”, Bart continued. “I know if I did do what I was doing now, if I was doing that then, I know I’d be in a much

Jakob Ebrey

that companies and sponsors can bring in but who they know and what they know.” It was difficult for Bart in the early days, as the young Australian’s parents had no experience in motorsport. Bart’s Dad, originally a fan of the sport, didn’t know that much about the business behind it, so it was always Bart who was the leading force, and father and son learned together. “It really was a world we didn’t understand”, Bart said.

“The other thing is the age factor”, Bart continued.

“I’m always learning, and I enjoy what I do, but I still feel very young against a lot of the people I’m talking to. I still feel very inexperienced and sometimes overwhelmed a bit, and I’m 19. Imagine if you were 15 or 16, it would be extremely difficult without the backing of either your parents or someone near you to provide that support in, at least, the first few years.

Born in Sydney and raised in Western Australia, Bart was drawn to the UK and Europe not only because of the level of competition it offered, but because of greater commercial opportunities. “I think in Australia, and especially where I come from, even the people who do know about motor sport, it’s very limited compared to here”, Bart started. “I think we’re always a few steps

behind, and it was harder to learn. Whereas now that I’m [in the UK], I can speak to the right people. I know who to ask if I need to ask the questions (most of the time,) if I want more information about something in partcular. There’s a big difference if you know which direction to head in.”

That being said, it was not as if there was no alternative. But Bart thought moving to the UK was the best chance he had to make a successful career and was encouraged by a lot of people he trusted. “I guess it’s a historic thing, the UK being the home of motorsport, or Europe specifically”, Bart exclaimed.

“It’s just the opportunities - there’s a huge number of series that you can compete in here, whereas in Australia, it’s very limited.” Other options for Bart lay in the emerging markets of Asia and America. “There are some opportunities there and I think they’re both growing markets at the moment but there are still not the same opportunities you can access in the UK. I’ve seen a lot of drivers who end up in Asia or America, but they learn their craft in the UK and they’re successful because of that. You’re surrounded by motorsport a lot more, and you learn a lot faster, and so

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“THE MOST EFFICIENT WAY IS DEFINITELY NOT EMAILING 500 COMPANIES A DAY” - BART HORSTEN it gives you a lot more opportunities.”

Take a trip to Bart’s website and you will see the Hitech man has a very comprehensive commercial section to the site, showcasing an impressive commercial prospectus with several differently-priced packages offering a range of perks – depending on how much cash you want part with. These methods are not unusual in young drivers and the level of business acumen these young people have to show just goes to illustrate how difficult and frustrating the sport can be.

“We spent a long time on the website”, Bart explained. “ I believe it’s good to have a very professional presentation.” If you were to ask Bart, the real art lies in talking to people who are interested in motorsport or their business has a link with motorsport.

There are of course a few different ways you can do that. Getting people to the track or just talking to people in the industry. Social media plays a big part these days too. “I don’t mean in terms of just blowing

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up an account and then having 10,000 followers. I mean interacting with people on sites like LinkedIn.” Bart explained that, more than anything, it’s interacting with people he meets through social media or through mutual connections online, that he had no prior knowledge of. “Maybe I meet them at a race track or over Zoom and then just build a relationship from there.

Some people who I’ve had sponsorship with, originally, I may have been paying for a service from them or I have just talked to them, and then a few months later down the line, I think, ‘Okay, are you interested?’

The most efficient way is definitely not emailing 500 companies a day and getting two responses back and then maybe getting something out of those two responses.”

Having the set packages is all well and good, but the way Bart sees it, businesses don’t really want to buy a set package, they want whatever works for them.“More than anything, they act as a guideline

because that reflects on me and then I know I’m doing something positive and I’m helping them out.”

“There are a lot of different things a driver can offer, and it’s hard to picture that until you start doing it yourself and understand what’s involved in the process.” And the more Bart has made mistakes, the more he has learnt. It’s about finding what a business wants and if there is anything Bart can do for them in return for some investment in his career.

Something Bart has had to come to grips with is businesses completely unrelated to motorsport approaching him and then having to find a way to make their investment in him and his career beneficial so as to hopefully encourage more investment. “The most important thing is spending the time to try and understand what they actually want for the partnership”, Bart begins. “Take a cake store or a bakery, if they come up to me, I think, ‘Well, what’s the link between that and cars?’, but it doesn’t matter.

You can’t think like that, and I think that’s the way I was originally approaching this idea of sourcing sponsorship. I was struggling to make links with a lot of businesses. Now I think of it from a completely different perspective, ‘Okay, what can I do? What does this person need, or how do they want to brand themselves and how can a partnership with me bring them the best outcome?’”

The main thing Bart focuses on now is, “How can I help them?” Because the way Bart sees it is every time these businesses grow, it’s a huge positive for him.

He knows he is building a positive relationship with

Jakob Ebrey

for us because then we can work out what things are worth, and it gives a business owner or a company an idea of what’s possible”, Bart said “I think there are a lot of things in the motorsport industry that haven’t been explored yet in terms of what you can sell and how you can sell. ”That was the biggest learning curve for Bart and his team, what are they actually selling?

You’re selling the dream - that you’re going to make it to Formula 1. Some people sell shares in themselves, like a racehorse. It’s not a path Bart has gone down yet.

Businesses buy shares in a driver’s future, and they get income back once the driver starts being successful.

It’s a method some of the young driver academies do.

There are also people who just want to just support a driver because they love motor racing. They want to come to the track and so they pay for that experience.

They’re paying to get close to the cars and maybe a driver and often bring people or clients to the track so they can get up close and personal and do some networking at the same time. But this has obviously been a really hard thing to sell in the last year with the impact of closed paddocks due to the pandemic.

Another tool for drivers is relying on B2B: businesses meeting each other. “That’s actually the biggest thing I’ve had recently”, Bart explains. “Being able to put completely different businesses and industries in contact with each other, and then they’ve managed to save money or do business efficiently. It’s really exciting and very important to me because if they speak to a business or person that I know – and they have a positive experience out of it – that’s really great for me,

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“The Briston and Time and More UK collacoration was an interesting one as it was in the pipeline for sometime and we needed to keep working away at it and identify exactly what would work best for the brand and the exclusive distributor. Over a number of months we had discussions via telephone and then I was finally able to meet the Time and More UK owner at a test day and things really went from there. We have so many exciting plans for the year and I am so thrilled to work with a brand that is reflective of the sporty and classic motorsport style.”

With the cash that is needed to secure a racing seat and to continue to pursue the dream, drivers often find they come to the end of the road when backing and sponsorship doesn’t materialise. It can dictate the path some drivers go down and they choose other series and other disciplines that require less financial backing.

It’s a problem that Bart is aware of but so far hasn’t directly affected him. “I guess I could argue if I had a sponsor that would have given me a huge amount of money for this year, maybe I would have wanted to do FIA F3”, Bart explains. “Realistically, I think British F3 is probably the best place for me, and with Hitech, I think I’m in a good position right now, and it’s probably what I need to do. I think maybe I need a bit of stability and do a year in the same series. I think it’ll help me a lot. I think I’ll learn a lot this year no matter what happens.”

Bart has seen a lot of drivers who wanted to aim for a series but couldn’t get the budget across the line. But opportunities do come up. Maybe a cheap drive in a series or a drive with the team you didn’t really factor in or weren’t your first choice. “There are lots of different avenues that you can go down and opportunities that are there, but it’s definitely a limiting factor. I think the main limiting factor for a lot of drivers is funding, and that’s no secret.”

Taking a drive with a team who are, politely put “not at the sharp end of the grid”, but allow you to race in a higher formula or move your career in the right direction without the need for so much financial backing is an interesting point. Lots of drivers do it.

The Haas F1 team are a good example: its German sponsors wanted a German driver and so they secured the services of Mick Schumacher. A driver who is part of the Ferrari Driver Academy and who has been courted by a couple of F1 teams, but took a drive with a less competitive team to get a drive on the F1 grid for the season, whereas other teams might have required a bit more time and money. Would a driver be willing to sacrifice success in order to progress in their career?

“It’s all based on circumstances, right?”, Bart says.

“If you can afford to drive with who you want to drive for and that opportunity comes to you, then there’s no reason why you shouldn’t. But if that keeps your career afloat, that one year, and perhaps you don’t quite get money across the line for this season but you think maybe next season you could, then that opportunity Jakob Ebrey

these people, and if he does something good for them, they’re going to come back and continue to support him because they know it’s worthwhile. “It’s about not just asking for ten grand and then giving them X-much space on the car”, Bart says. “It’s about what we can build for the future, then building something that actually lasts and building something important.

If I started this two years ago, I would have been a lot happier because I would have a lot bigger influence now.”

In Bart’s opinion, motorsport has to find a new way to survive, as it’s growing and changing with all the different energy sources at the moment. “I think some people have almost given up, thinking ‘Oh, there’s no cigarette sponsorship’”, Bart explains. “It’s hard to get alcohol sponsorship now and stuff like that. It’s all fuel or oil… what do we do?” If you ask Bart, the young racer thinks the sport is actually opening up, and it’s just having the ability to pick out the right companies, businesses and markets and sell it in the right way.

“We see a lot of the companies on the F1 cars now, you got a lot of different technology companies and just a broader range of industries getting involved with the sport.”

It’s important to remember when dealing with your career and collaborating with companies that although money is the name of the game, the companies and brands you choose also need to fit your image, your own brand and the message you are trying to convey about how you go about things. Bart keeps an open mind when it comes to choosing businesses and brands to work with. “I never turn people down. I always want to see what’s possible”, Bart said. At the time of writing Bart had just announced a number of new sponsorship deals as well as a continuation of ones with existing sponsors The Web Guys, - Low Cost Pay Monthly Websites, EP Warmfloor, who do underfloor heating and Kapow! Business Coaching.

One of the new partnerships is with Sim Rigs UK, a company that builds bespoke simulator racing rigs.

“It was really important to me for us to come to an agreement”, Bart said. “There’s a lot of ways where we can have a beneficial relationship with me supporting their products and doing events for them and I can obviously use their products when I’m racing and start coaching people as well on the sim. For myself, that was one parnership where I wanted to push that and I think there can be many exciting developments in this relationship, for myself and te Sim Rigs UK brand.”

At the same time, you can’t just push someone away because you don’t see an instant link. “You’ve got to think what is possible”, Bart continues. “At the end of the day, you don’t usually choose the businesses that you want to work with.”

His other new sponsors include Briston Watches with Time and More UK, a French sports watch brand and watch distributor as well as Carld Ford Accountancy.

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Jakob Ebrey Jona Jacob

could be a lifesaver.”

Formula 1 is of course a bit different. Competition for the very limited seats available on the grid means drivers frequently jump at the chance to race for backmarkers and Bart agrees. “I think in F1 in general it’s different”, he begins “You’ve got to jump at any chance you get because being able to be an F1 driver is what you put everything towards.”

Bringing it round to the here and now, it goes without saying that the current COVID-19 climate makes undertaking commercial endeavour much harder. Nearly impossible. This is having a significant knock-on effect to those young drivers who need the financial support to continue doing what they love.

“The hardest part is that there is less sell”, Bart states. “The fact is there’s no fans walking past the car… it’s a lot harder to get people into events.” It’s a very good point. It’s hard to sell a track day or a race day VIP experience when you are so heavily restricted in what people can do and how close they can get to the action. Bart cites another example in former BTCC driver Andrew Jordan who, despite competing well in the championship, had to pull out because of the pressure the pandemic had on his budget. “I think that shows the harsh reality of it”, the Hitech man explains. Businesses which twelve or eighteen months ago might have been in the position to offer up ten or fifteen grand are now laying people off and struggling to survive themselves.

Bart remains ever-optimistic, like so many drivers

battling to keep their careers on track, he has to move the goalposts and think outside the box. “It’s a different challenge”, Bart explains. “It becomes, what can I do for you for this price? What can we do to help you get back on your feet and maybe support the business a bit during this time? It’s just how you look at it more than anything. I’m just here waiting for things to get a bit better. At the end of the day, people love motorsport, and that won’t change, so it’s not an impossibility. I think things have just changed so you have to adapt how you go about it.”

At the time of writing, it’s a busy period for Bart with testing schedules well underway and the British F3 season opener at Brands Hatch fast approaching. Bart is having to balance his time between preparing in the car and preparing in the boardroom. “I could just not do the test days and just be on the phone or something like that”, Bart says. “Realistically, I know that the most important thing is driving as well as possible and doing everything it takes.”

For Bart, it’s a case of managing your time, a skill that seems to be somewhat exclusive to motorsport drivers rather than a footballer or a cricketer. “It’s so important when you’re driving a car that you’re focusing on driving a car”, Bart explains. “A little bit on sponsorship and a little bit of social media, but at the end of the day, I’m lucky enough to have people supporting me and helping me do some of that when that comes up.”

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IMAGE BY PHD PHOTO

A LEGEND ON TWO WHEELS AND FOUR THE WORD LEGEND IS USED ALL TOO OFTEN, BUT JOHN SURTEES IS A MAN DEFINITELY WORTH OF THAT TITLE. STILL TO THIS DAY HE IS THE ONLY MAN TO HAVE WON WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS IN BOTH GRAND PRIX MOTORCYCLING AND FORMULA 1.

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53 TARGA FLORIO A

4 MAGGIO 1969

A FIRST HAND ACCOUNT OF THE ICONIC ROAD COURSE ON THE ITALIAN ISLAND OF SICILY. WORDS & IMAGES BY NICK FAURE

T

he Targa Florio was a real racer’s race.

Being the oldest continuous motor race in the world at the time, the event was the pinnacle of road racing. There were 69 Targa Florio races in total and whilst racing the ex-Vic Elford Porsche 911 race car under the Porsche Cars GB Ltd I

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banner in 1969, I was given the opportunity to be one of the lucky few drivers to compete in this legendary race.

The company accountant of Porsche Cars GB Ltd was Alan Smith. He had dreamed of racing round the mountains of Sicily as a privateer and he approached me and asked if I’d be interested in joining him. Of

course, I didn’t have to ponder it for long. As you can imagine, the answer immediately leaving my lips was “yes”.

It was a hugely exciting event to be a part of, but I knew it also had to be respected and taken seriously.

The race required intense concentration and to be competitive you need to have knowledge of the circuit.

A single lap of the Targa Florio was 45 miles long and the circuit meandered its way through the mountains of Sicily. There were 800-900 corners to make my way around and only one three mile straight that ran parallel with the sea towards the end of the lap.

In order to be fully prepared, I decided that I would drive down from the UK in my little Porsche 356 and learn the circuit during the five or six days before the race. The journey down through Europe was a beautiful trip, crossing through France and over the Alps before heading down the Italian autostrada as far as Naples.

The journey was a little harder from that point on due to the fact that the Italians had not completed the road down through the mountains of Calabria to the top of Italy. The road was incredibly tortuous following the contours of the mountains and it became frustrating because we could see the massive construction of bridges and tunnels diving under and over the mountains ahead of us. It seemed like forever and a day to finally reach the straights across to Sicily, but once we made it, Mount Etna was there to greet us, quietly bubbling away and throwing out little puffs of steam.

On arrival at Cerda, the location of the famous pits, we decided to drive a few hundred metres up the road to a convenient layby and join the truck that had transported down the car I was going to race from the UK. We opened the Bedford TK21 that Alan had obtained and there before us was the Triumph TR5. We got the car unloaded, pitched our tent and set up camp for the week, before getting ready to tackle the track for the first time the following day.

It was certainly a daunting challenge to set about learning the circuit. The scenery is spectacular with the beautiful backdrop of the mountains, but the circuit doesn’t take any prisoners. The next morning we set off around the circuit which climbed quite sharply in places.

The crash barriers had markings on them, indicating to the drivers of different teams what sharpness the bends were: Fast, medium, slow and hairpin. But I knew that to be quick around the track I couldn’t rely on these.

I was determined to memorise it as much as possible regardless of the difficulty.

Memorising the track was certainly a daunting challenge and it was made even more difficult by the distractions at various villages and towns we drove through. Whenever we ended up in a village or a town the locals came out, keen to meet the “piloto”.

In one village we consistently met a dark haired, thin faced man in Ferrari red overalls, reeking of garlic who invited us back to his local hostelry. We nicknamed him ‘Firestone Fred’ in reference to the Firestone badges he had fitted on his Ferrari overalls. He was very keen to introduce me to his daughter, saying “coma meeta mi daughter, she speeka di English!”

Early every morning the works teams would set off before any traffic or animals were let out, so they could get their practice laps in and hearing the cars echoing around the mountains was music to my ears. It was

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OVERNIGHT SPECTATORS FROM ALL OVER ITALY AND SICILLY HAD DESCENDED ON TO THE CIRCUIT TO SOAK UP AND ENJOY THE SPECTACLE CREATED BY SUCH WONDERFUL MACHINERY. absolutely magic and simply the best way to start the day.

In the build up to the race we managed to complete 20 practice laps of our own and after that I could honestly say that I had learnt every corner on the circuit. I am fortunate in having a photographic memory, which at Targa Florio is a huge asset. So when it came to the race, I managed to lap several minutes faster than Alan as he could not entrust his memory to reality.

There were several corners which you approached with similar mountainous backdrops that had identical shepherd huts on the apex, but some of these corners were virtually flat-out, while others were hairpins. You

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need the layout etched to the back of your skull so you could avoid making any major mistakes and by the day of the race the locals had changed the markings on the crash barriers, rendering them useless, so one’s memory was absolutely essential!

But it wasn’t just the barrier markings that changed on race day. The scenery in the mountains next to the track was also completely different, with the bridge parapets lined with locals and the trackside grass verges taken over by Fiat 500s.

Overnight spectators from all over Italy and Sicily had descended on to the circuit to soak up and enjoy the spectacle created by such wonderful machinery.

The cars lined on the verges all had their sunroofs open,

giving the occupants the best view of the cars passing within inches of their wing mirrors.

The race still had world championship status at this point, but in reality it was similar to a tarmac rally, with the crowds parting as the noise of the racing cars approached. Our problem was only realised when we started the actual race to find that the spectators had not heard the TR5 approaching, and only at the last minute did they just lift their legs as we dived under them around the bridge parapets at high speed.

Everywhere was painted VIVA VIVA Ferrari or Abarth or Alfa and the fervour for anything painted red was frenetic. At one point during the race an Abarth had broken down in the mountains so the crowd flooded onto the road to stop any others overtaking until the problem was fixed!

The night before the race all of our team decided to go into the local town square to have a meal in a local cafe. Unfortunately, one of the team drove over one of the young local’s toes as he was parking his car and the local was not amused. Our friend for some reason did not understand the seriousness of upsetting the young local mafiosa and within minutes of us sitting down for our meal a young group surrounded the exit and were pressing their faces against the windows in a very threatening manner. Our friend thought it best to go outside and apologies but the owner of the cafe told us that in no circumstances should any of us go outside as they would kill us! Frightening stuff, as coming from the UK one would not expect such a dramatic reaction.

So we stayed inside and the cafe owner called the Police as the young kids would not enter another villager’s place as this would have broken the unwritten law of respect. They were going to wait for us to come

out and then sort us out! Thankfully the Police came in force and when we were finished they formed a barrier between us and the kids and escorted us to our cars. I remember driving away feeling like I was in the actual race already. My heart was pounding. It really was quite frightening and a big lesson to learn that there were other cultures beyond our own and that we as Brits needed to respect that.

The race itself was six hours long and the winner was the car to have completed the most distance in the time. We duly set off at one minute intervals and I watched Alan disappear up the road into the mountains. It was agreed he would do the first stint and then we would change drivers two laps later. It seemed like an eternity before he arrived back at the pits, but we swapped over and I set off full of eagerness, winding through the video of the circuit in my memory as the course unfolded before me. It was almost ethereal and I got into a great rhythm.

The road surface was treacherous compared to the practice days as the organisers had been making small random repairs with tar and chippings, filling any holes that they deemed necessary. Race day was on a boiling hot May day, in bright sunshine, and when hurtling at speed through little towns and villages it became apparent that some of the tarmac had melted and these patches had no more grip than ice. It made some of the tight narrow bends winding through the buildings and a number of braking areas particularly hazardous.

Flying through the villages and towns, I was aware of the hundreds of people hiding in doorways and hanging over balconies, with the odd Policeman keeping watch on the pavements. It was truly an experience that I had not appreciated at the time that

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would die forever just a few years later - the freedom of the open road for 75km at a time, driving as hard as one could.

My first lap, I later learned, equalled the time set by Moss in the 300SLR in 1955, in a virtually standard TR5.

To be able to memorise the whole circuit and being able to “race” on it was obviously a massive advantage over “rallying” the course. They’s why Vic Elford was such a Targa specialist.

We put a limited slip differential in the gearbox to prevent the inside wheel lifting and the wheels trying to “clap hands” and we ran the latest Dunlop R7 tyres.

The roads were very narrow all around the circuit and in places I needed to be very aware of this, as when drifting the TR5 it might well hit the bollards on one end and the wall on the other! We could top

130mph along the straight, but when I saw a fast red car in my mirror I had to go down into the bottom of the highly cambered road to let them by without easing off the throttle. All new experiences for me. I was also astounded at how I was able to catch and pass some of the red Italian sports racers, like Abarths, in the mountains.

I passed the pits at the end of my first lap and we were leading our class. I was feeling very confident by then and the car was responding to my every command, but right up in the mountains I forgot that I did not have enough room to drive the car too much out of line on opposite lock and I hit a concrete bollard with the underside of the sill and hit the back of the car against the wall. It shot the car down a concrete gully and I came to rest in an orange orchard. Now, if I

I PASSED THE PITS AT THE END OF MY FIRST LAP AND WE WERE LEADING OUR CLASS.

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had understood the historical importance of my current position, I would have commandeered the help which appeared from nowhere and got the crowd to push it back up onto the road as there were only a few small dents. The car was still driveable, but instead I accepted the hospitality of a local farmer who invited me into his old farm house for a spot of local wine and lunch. Then stayed and watched the race from there until the finish.

Once the race was over I got the car pushed back onto the road and drove it back to the pits. Of course, nobody had seen the car as it was down a gully and the only report that got back to poor Alan was that there was a wreck of a car near to where I had retired that had burnt out.

The following day the truck packed up and we left for the UK in my Porsche 356. We were driving through the mountains, back on mainland Italy, heading to the Autostrada, when the throttle cable broke. We were only sitting by the side of the road for a few minutes when Dennis Jenkinson, the legendary journalist who accompanied Stirling Moss to victory in the 1955

running of Mille Migila appeared around the corner and stopped to help.

I told him the problem and being familiar with 356 Porsches, he said: “Have you got a wire shirt or jacket hanger?” It was a fairly common piece of mens luggage in those days and I happened to have one, so I handed it over and he joined the two ends of the cable together, allowing me to get back on the road again. We thanked the little bearded wizard for his help and set off back to the UK without a hitch. In fact, the throttle worked so well that I never bothered to change the temporary fix and later sold the car in perfect working order.

To this day not finishing the Targa Florio is one of my biggest regrets and not to have realised the significance of the part I was playing in motorsport history. Sadly, the last real Targao Florio was held in 1973, so I never got another chance to take part in a competitive car.

I look back now wishing I had done it again as I know that this race could have had my name all over it!

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IMAGE BY STACY GUINEY / SUBERASHI AUTOPHOTO

READY AND WAITING THIS PORSCHE IS JUST ABOUT TO HEAD OUT OF THE INFAMOUS GOODWOOD PITLANE TO TAKE PART IN THE INAUGURAL GOODWOOD SPEEDWEEK EVENT. THE EVENT WAS HELD INSTEAD OF THE FESTIVAL OF SPEED AND GOODWOOD REVIVAL AFTER BOTH WERE CANCELLED AS A RESULT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC. 28 THE PIT STOP

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WORDS BY ROB HANSFORD IMAGES BY INDIRA FLACK

GREAT BRITISH RACING DRIVERS

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retty much since its inception, Great Britain has been the epicenter of the motorsport industry. It is the place to be for drivers trying to cut their teeth in the lower levels of racing, it’s the hub of engineering and manufacturing, with a large portion of racing teams and manufacturers basing themselves in the Midlands, and the country plays host to some of the most iconic race tracks in the world.

It therefore makes sense that over the years Britain has produced some of the most successful names in the industry. Stirling Moss, Graham Hill, Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart, James Hunt, Nigel Mansell and Lewis Hamilton. All Formula 1 champions, some on multiple occasions and all from one small island located in between the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.

Of course, these drivers are household names because of their achievements in Formula 1, but there are many other superb British drivers who have competed in a number of different categories over the years.

At some point in their careers, all of these drivers will have been photographed. When you spend your weekends at a race track, with the many photographers lining the circuit and paddock trying to get the perfect shot, it’s impossible not to have been photographed.

But, until now, nobody had attempted to put together a single collection of Britain’s greatest racing drivers.

Having spent a number of years focusing on portrait

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photography for the likes of Woman & Home, Country Life and Mayfair Times, after suffering an injury as a result of an altercation with a Range Rover whilst out cycling, Indira Flack decided the time was right for a new project to sink her teeth into. The only question to be answered was what the subject would be.

At the time, Indira didn’t know a huge amount about the world of motorsport. She knew who the main Formula 1 drivers were and had photographed at Goodwood on a number of occasions with her partner, Paul, but at that stage, that was the extent of her knowledge.

“I’d already decided that I was going to go to Festival of Speed in 2014 because I hadn’t been for ages and I thought it’d be quite nice to do something a bit different.” said Indira.

“Paul suggested that I could base my next project around the world’s best racing drivers. He said, ‘Well, you’re gonna be surrounded by the world’s best racing drivers and they’ll be at Goodwood, so it’s the ideal place to speak to them. Why don’t you do something with them?’ So I thought now there’s an idea.

“A couple of years back, I had been commissioned

by Country Life magazine to shoot a project -The Great British Hobby, which was great fun and I thought, ah ha, Great British Hobby - Great British Racing Drivers.

There we go! Idea! So that’s where the title came from.”

Although Goodwood Festival of Speed was the obvious place to start, there was still a snag. There were a lot of drivers that Indira knew she wouldn’t recognise and so she embarked on researching all of the drivers who would be attending the event so she could

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approach as many as possible whilst she was there.

“I knew the obvious F1 lot because I had watched F1 a bit and a little bit British Touring cars, but I didn’t really know who anybody was. The only other driver I really knew was Roger Clark, the rally driver and of course, he is no longer around.

“So the main drivers I really knew of and would recognise were Stirling Moss obviously, Jackie Stewart, Damon Hill and Jenson Button.

“I went down the Goodwood list of drivers, which told me what everyone had achieved, and just picked out the British guys. After I had researched a little bit I thought I actually don’t want to do just champions because that rules out a whole load of drivers who are very good and should be included for other reasons.

“So I decided not to do just champions because, of course, Stirling would have been ruled out as he’s not a champion and you can’t not have Stirling Moss!”

Indira decided that her subjects would be either motorsport champions or inspirational in one way or another. She wanted to capture drivers who were worthy of being included as the best of British drivers and she wanted it to be fully inclusive.

To ensure she would recognise the right drivers, Indira printed off a crib sheet of headshots of the drivers she was after and she then made a beeline for them when she spotted them in the Goodwood paddock. She was surprised at just how receptive the drivers were to the project, especially since she was relatively unknown in the paddock, with every driver she spoke to agreeing to be photographed.

Indira knew that having portraits of Stirling Moss and John Surtees was key to the porject’s success, so they were approached in a different way: “Paul was going to the press launch for the Festival, which was Bonhams that year, and he knew that Stirling and John Surtees would be there. So he said, ‘I’ll ask them.’” explained Indira.

“If they agreed, I’d have time to photograph them before the festival, and have two icons to show people that they said yes and I photographed them. So he asked them, and they both said, ‘yes, get her to write me a letter.’

“So I had to write letters to persuade them, bearing in mind I had no idea what I was going to do with these pictures at that point. The idea was always to have an exhibition, but I had no idea where, when or how many drivers. I thought I was going to photograph about 50 drivers or so. I’ve done 121 so far. So I had no plan really but luckily they both said ‘yes, that’s absolutely fine’, so off we went to their homes to photograph them.

“Stirling Moss was so funny and John Surtees was just brilliant. We just sat in his kitchen for an hour after we’d done the picture, just chatting to him. And we didn’t even necessarily chat about motorsport, we were just chatting about anything, it was brilliant.”

However, not every driver was as easy to pin down, with Dario Franchitti needing much more persuading.

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Having started working on the project in 2014, Indira didn’t manage to persuade him until the Goodwood Revival in 2018, but eventually he too agreed, and Indira captured a superb shot of him.

Indira was also keen to ensure she didn’t just focus on the circuit racers, with rally driver Louise Cook being one of the first drivers on her list.

“Most people won’t know who the hell Louise Cook is,” said Indira. “And have probably never heard of her, but she was the first woman to win a nongender specific championship in rallying, so she’s very important in that sense.

“It took me about four years to persuade her. She was reluctant, saying ‘oh no, I don’t really like having my picture taken’. I think she was almost the only person who kind of said no, but not in a horrible way. ”I was having a meeting a couple of years later with David Richards and I asked him if he knew Louise Cook.

He did and said ‘I’ll have a word with her’. He then persuaded her to do it, which was fantastic!”

Richards has been a big supporter of Indira’s idea and has helped her in getting a number of drivers to commit to having their photo taken, including Natalie McGloin and Aston Martin’s world endurance team. Motorsport UK’s Sarah Tibbetts was also a big

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supporter, helping Indira get hold of drivers in the lower level formulae and karting championships, while the BRDC’s Lisa Benamore was also instrumental in securing a number of drivers, including Nigel Mansell.

The BRDC also allowed Indira to photograph Derek Warrick, who was president at the time, with the BRDC emblem in the background. It was a special moment for Indira as non-members are not allowed to reproduce the emblem, but having the special permission was clear evidence that there was definite interest in her project from the motorsport community.

Shortly after that shoot it was announced that Silverstone had received funding to open the Silverstone Interactive Museum and Indira immediately knew that it could be the perfect fit for her exhibition.

Striking while the iron was hot, she emailed Warrick to see whether he thought it would work and he put her in contact with the CEO, Sally Reynolds, who then agreed to showcase the exhibition.

The exhibition at Silverstone is absolutely stunning.

Indira deliberately went about capturing the drivers in as many different environments as possible, opening eyes to some of their other interests in life.

Some images are motorsport related, such as Nigel Mansell sat with his Williams FW14B at his museum

in Jersey, and Johnny Herbert, Martin Brundle and David Coulthard captured with their commentary microphones. But others are totally away from that world, such as Chris Ingram, who was photographed with his dog and John Watson who posed in his fishing gear.

“I look at other people’s projects and think, ‘well, they clearly have a vision of how they wanted to photograph everybody’, and you can see it’s a beautiful set of photos. And I look at mine and think my god, it’s so random.

“I didn’t want to narrow everything right down to a certain style. I wanted to be able to just turn up and do what I saw. Or if I’d had the chance to talk to drivers and there was something appropriate, we tried to come up with something non-motorsport related - like Louise Cook.

“We were trying to come up with an idea that wasn’t to do with motorsport. Louise then sent me an email saying ‘I’m obsessed with two things: Rally and Star Wars’. She’d attached a picture of one of the Star

Wars characters and said ‘can we do this?’. Absolutely brilliant! It was a no brainer. We went down to the woods in Kent and ran around with a lightsaber. It was brilliant fun!

“There were other drivers who’s pictures were more related to their hobbies or favourite things. Chris Ingram, for instance.

“One of the other rally drivers, Tom Williams, said to me, ‘oh Chris really loves his dogs’, so I thought, great, that would be a lovely picture with all his dogs, low down, wide angle looking up to them. But Chris said with a laugh ‘Oh the dogs together are so badly behaved I think it’s best we use just one’. So he’s picutred with his beloved Enzo.

“Dan Rooke was photographed in his favorite place with the sunset going down behind him.”

Although Indira aimed to get as many drivers as possible in an environment away from racing, the shot with Herbert, Coulthard and Brundle is exactly what she had in mind all along, as she explained, “that was the picture that I wanted”.

“SHE’D ATTACHED A PICTURE OF ONE OF THE STAR WARS CHARACTERS AND SAID ‘CAN WE DO THIS?’” - INDIRA FLACK

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That image was taken at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone in 2018 and right up to a few hours before the shoot, Indira wasn’t totally sure if Herbert would turn up as he was the only one of the three not to have confirmed his attendance.

“Martin Brundle of course is really efficient and replied straight away and said ‘how much time do you want and don’t worry about David Coulthard, I’ll be in the motorhome next to him, I’ll organise him and yes I can have a microphone with me’, that’s fine, great.

David came back and said ‘yes that’s no problem, don’t know about the microphone’. Right. Nothing from Johnny Herbert.

“So I had two out of three drivers, one with a microphone. Three days before the grand prix I got my accreditation, there was still no word from Johnny Herbert. I thought if it’s only two then it’s only two of them. I signed on at the media post at the gate and then what we thought was a courtesy bus was actually Channel 4. They said ‘don’t worry, come with us anyway’ so we jumped in with them’.

“When I found out it was Channel 4, I said ‘oh, oh can you give David Coulthard a microphone?’ They said that was fine, so I had two drivers with microphones.

Still nothing from Johnny Herbert.

That evening in the media centre, Indira noticed that Herbert was in the pitlane for a charity event, so she immediately headed down there to get hold of him. “He went, ‘oh yeah, got your email, sorry I ignored it, but yeah, fine I’ll be there’. So they all turn up absolutely bang on time with microphones, come in, do the shoot. Gone. Absolutely amazing.”

That shoot required some planning due to the time constraints, and while Indira tried to avoid too much planning where possible, another shot that did require some thought was that of Jason Plato and it played out perfectly eventually.

“Jason’s was planned because he’d tweeted that his favourite meal was a pizza and a pint of Lambrusco, which only Jason could tweet!

“I thought that’s the image I want of him, but trying to get a date out of him was a bit of a nightmare.

In the end I queued up at Autosport International in the autograph line so I could actually speak to him. Halfway through his signature, realising I didn’t actually want an autograph he said, ‘you don’t want an autograph do you?’ I replied with a huge grin on my face ‘no, I want a bloody date!” He wrote ‘defo Feb’

“SO THEY ALL TURN UP ABSOLUTELY BANG ON TIME WITH MICROPHONES, COME IN, DO THE SHOOT. GONE. ABSOLUTELY AMAZING”

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and signed it.

“So I got a date, went to his house, did the shot but it just didn’t work. It was a complete disaster. I was thinking, oh god it’s just taken me three years to get that shot and it just didn’t work at all, what the hell am I going to do now! Don’t panic, revert to plan B, he’s gonna be at Revival. I’ll get him there and thankfully it couldn’t have worked out better.

“I didn’t actually tell him about the reshoot as he was definitely going to be there. I bumped into Craig Davis who Jason races with at Revival. Craig said ‘oh you can do it in our vintage car transporter, there’s even a little table in there’ Fantastic. “it was just perfect. There was even a picture of the queen, although sadly she got blotted out by Jason’s head. the bus was great because it meant we could set up and leave it until Jason was ready. I had confessed to Craig that I hadn’t actually told Jason what I want to do. But he said ‘don’t worry about that, I’ll tell him tonight and I’ll tell him that he has to be there tomorrow’.

It all worked out perfectly. Jason was no problem at all, very happy to reshoot and even better, he loves that

picture. Craig was so helpful and even cooked the pizza for me.”

There is a great story behind each and every one of Indira’s shoots and the playfulness and enjoyment really shines through in the images she has captured.

But although she has photographed well over 100 of British drivers, one driver she is missing is the biggest of all. Lewis Hamilton. If she can capture a shot of him and add it to the exhibition it will be amazing.

The exhibition was closed for the majority of the last year at Silverstone due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but it has recently reopened, taking pride of place in the museum, with the admission for the museum including access to the exhibiton.

And of course, with new drivers coming through the ranks every year, this project and exhibition could effectively be never-ending, but the variety of drivers Indira has managed to capture really does sing out as ‘best of British’. There’s drivers from all disciplines of racing, from both past and present and it shows just how diverse and successful Great British motorsport really is and always has been.

More of Indira’s images can be found at www.gbrd.photos.

GBRD proudly supports Sir Jackie Stewart’s charity Race Against Dementia by donating 10% of all print sales.

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IMAGE BY DLV PHOTOS

PORSCHE CENTRAL EVERYONE LOVES A PORSCHE, ESPECIALLY THE 911 AND SO IT MAKES THE PORSCHE CARRERA CUP EVEN MORE ENJOYABLE TO WATCH. THE SECOND ROUND OF THE 2021 CHAMPIONSHIP TOOK PLACE AT BRANDS HATCH AND BOTH RACES OVER THE WEEKEND WERE HOTLY CONTESTED. 46 THE PIT STOP

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the push

for change

ADAPTING AN ICONIC AMERICAN RACE SERIES FOR THE MODERN ERA WORDS BYJAKE NICHOL IMAGES BY GETTY IMAGES / KEVIN C COX / JARED C TILTON / BRIAN LAWDERMILK / JAMES GILBERT / CHRIS GRAYTH

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hether it be the laissez-faire approach to driving standards, presenting its product as entertainment rather than pure sporting contest or the tired old slur of ‘they just turn left’, the reputation of the NASCAR Cup Series has not been high, specifically among those who gate-keep and deem what is sacrosanct and what is anathema when it comes to motor racing.

While some of this lack of reputation is self-made – the addiction to intermediate ovals being exhibit A, arguably some is rooted in the stereotypes associated with NASCAR: good ol’ southern old white men larking about with their mates in their rudimentary V8 machinery as opposed to the high-tech turbo hybrids or electric powertrains deployed elsewhere in motorsport.

Once these stereotypes are planted in one’s mind, they blossom and, like an old oak, becomes impossible to shift, rooted forever, standing as a monument to a top-level motorsport series which has almost come to embrace this parochial corner it has been banished to.

Media portrayals, such as the Will Ferrell film Talladega Nights did little to burst the stereotypical bubble, only reinforcing, and strengthening the prejudices against those who race, work, or watch the top level of stock car racing.

As is well known, NASCAR’s hub is the deep south of the United States. Many of the most popular tracks,

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Charlotte, Darlington, Talladega etc… lie in what was, 160 years ago, the Confederate States of America.

Legendary drivers such as Cale Yarborough, Darrell Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt Sr all hailed from this neck of the woods. The fact that the series was born out of those who bootlegged moonshine racing their vehicles during and after prohibition added an extra layer of rebel to the community.

The Confederate flag was often flown in the infield at races and despite attempts to ban it, it always crept back in. Not even the voice of the series’ most popular driver, 15-time award winner Dale Earnhardt Jr, saying he believed it belonged “in the history books,” could disabuse those who flew the flag.

But NASCAR’s uneasy relationship with race would spin 180 degrees on its axis after the events in Minneapolis last May. George Floyd’s murder prompted a lot of soul-searching, and NASCAR realised, that as the only major sporting championship back in competition after the first wave of the pandemic, it had a unique opportunity to start to increase awareness of racial and societal injustice.

Bubba Wallace led the campaign that ended with the flag being permanently banned, fully backed by heavyweights such as seven-time champion and elder statesman Jimmie Johnson, and the then-Richard Petty Motorsports driver ran with a Black Lives Matter livery at Martinsville, as teams and drivers started to take the knee. In itself this was a seminal moment in those few

Jared C Tilton

weeks the Cup Series was in the world’s spotlight.

Petty, nicknamed ‘The King’ is arguably NASCAR’s biggest icon, the 200-time race winner still as popular with fans as he was when he finally retired after 1,184 race starts over 35 years at the end of 1992. His words carry as much weight as anyone’s in NASCAR. And so, when NFL player Colin Kaepernick started to take the knee in 2016 at racial injustice, Petty stated at the time that should any member of his team kneel during The Star-Spangled Banner, they would be sacked.

In today’s climate of people wanting action and not word spaghetti in platitudes, Petty allowing his car to be decked out in a Black Lives Matter special livery was a powerful and symbolic moment.

But was it all worth it? It has been a year now since NASCAR started its programme to drive an increase in equality and diversity whilst driving racism out, but has it worked?

It is all good and well taking a stand, but the impact on viewership and fans’ reactions must be taken into account when judging whether NASCAR, the only sport in America which could perhaps have the positive effect needed, has been a success.

NASCAR president Steve Phelps spoke earlier this year about how the series ignored the ‘stick to sport’ comments from those afraid of change, and decided to use its platform for the greater good.

“One of the most important things that happened

last year was our stance on social justice,” he explained. “We had talked about being a sport of action. We were at that time. We continue to be. I’m happy to talk about that moving forward. It’s important for us.

“I think if you look back to what happened in early June to mid June [including the noose incident in Wallace’s garage at Talladega which fortunately turned out to be nothing sinister], probably those moments, that two and a half weeks, was the seminal moment for our sport. It opened up an aperture to a brand-new fan base.”

“There was a question at the time: did NASCAR go too far to ban the Confederate flag? Social justice, is that something a sport should do, NASCAR should do?

Do we have permission to do it? The answer is yes. The question was: How is that going to affect our core fan, our avid fan?”

To answer those questions, in February NASCAR received its brand-tracker report for 2020, which Phelps describes as taking a look “at a number of different things including the health of the sport and the health of the brand.

“One of the most important questions that was in there was a question about how our avid fans felt about the stance that NASCAR took on social justice and the banning of the Confederate flag,” added Phelps.

Chris Graythen

“ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS THAT HAPPENED LAST YEAR WAS OUR STANCE ON SOCIAL JUSTICE.” - STEVE PHELPS

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Brian Lawdermilk

Kevin C Cox

“These are all avid fans broken into three segments of time spent: 16 plus years as an avid fan, four to 15 years as an avid fan, or zero to three.”

The data recorded showed that those fans who had been watching the longest showed three-to-one favourability towards the banning of the flag, rising to six-to-one for the middle demographic and a further steady increase to eight-to-one for those relatively new fans experiencing NASCAR for the first time.

Let’s imagine our racism-denier friend hiding behind a social media account spewing out their hatred. One argument they could make is ‘Oh, NASCAR just jumped on the bandwagon at the time. They don’t mean anything of what they’re doing.’

But they would be wrong. Very wrong. Since the events of last summer, the organisation has worked hard to give drivers, team members and those who work for NASCAR itself mandatory sensitivity and unconscious-bias training, to cultivate a welcoming and inclusive community.

“I made a promise back on Thursday after the Talladega race with Bubba Wallace and the situation with the noose, that when people walked into the [2021] Daytona 500, into that garage, every single one of them would be trained in sensitivity training. I can say that that happened. That was important.

“What we do in the areas of social justice and diversity equity inclusion is going to be authentic to who we are,” explained Phelps. [It] may not be the right thing for the NBA, but it’s going to be the right thing for us.

“We’ve broken our D and I (Diversity and Inclusion)

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strategy into three pieces: what are we going to do for ourselves internally, what are we going to do as an industry, and what are we going to do with the partnerships we can secure. Those things I’m proud to say are working well.

“For us it really is about making sure that we continue to act, and act in a way that is consistent with where our brand DNA is. You’re going to have critics no matter what you do. You’re not going to please all the people for sure. We’re going to do what we believe is right for the sport.”

Despite all the good work NASCAR done behind the scenes to get its own house in order, there was still the lack of diversity among team owners and drivers, with Wallace being the only full-time black driver on the grid, and indeed the first since Wendell Scott in 1971.

But as the season headed into the final stretch before winter hibernation, news came through that one American cultural and sporting icon would be entering a new team into Cup, with 23XI Racing and Michael Jordan’s arrival being supplemented in the new year by Grammy-award winning rapper Pitbull joining the new Trackhouse Racing squad as a co-owner.

Jordan’s co-owner is three-time Daytona 500 champion and perennial title contender Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing with the 23XI machine effectively being a fifth JGR runner, while Trackhouse has pursued a technical alliance with Richard Childress Racing.

Both Jordan and Pitbull did not enter NASCAR as a cheap publicity stunt. Two of the biggest household names in America would be joining a sport in highprofile and visible positions, both coming from groups

lot in common with the incarnation of the series even 10 years ago. When Gordon arrived on the scene in the mid-1990s and took it to Earnhardt Sr, the Californian in the rainbow coloured #24 Hendrick brought a flash of colour and sophistication to the otherwise frozen in time series. But slowly over time, Gordon became just another drop in the ocean of the closed nature of NASCAR. The door that the likes of Scott and Willy T Ribbs put dents in was kicked ajar when Wallace joined the series full-time in 2018, and very nearly won the Daytona 500 at the first attempt.

That door has been resistant to swinging fully open and allowing the fresh air that NASCAR has so badly needed for a number of years to blow through.

Undoubtedly, NASCAR would have got to this stage at some point in the future, but the events of summer 2020 at the circuit and around the world gave the series the forward momentum it needed to pull it off.

The result has allowed ethnic minority owners to join the Cup Series and literally give the push for diversity and equality in stock car racing that is required.

That is not to say the work is done now, nor that it rests alone on the shoulders of the likes of Wallace, Jordan, Pitbull, or Suarez, but NASCAR has finally embraced outsiders and opened itself up.

Add that to the mix of a fresh 2021 calendar, a new car for ’22 and the next generation starting to take over on the track, NASCAR can now build whatever future it wants.

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historically underrepresented in stock car racing.

While Jordan has been happy to take a step back, with his first on-site appearance being at Sonoma in early June, Pitbull has been actively involved in the running of Trackhouse, which is being used as a vehicle to help promote STEM education in his already established SLAM school system for young minority children.

Fellow co-owner Justin Marks takes up the story: “We have the only foreign-born champion in NASCAR’s history – [2016 Xfinity (think Formula 2 to Cup’s Formula 1) champion Daniel Suarez] the story of our driver is someone who came from Latin America, couldn’t speak the language, had a dream to win championships at the highest level of American motorsport and achieved that dream.

“That’s a story that we want to use as part of our mission and so I think Pitbull identifies so much with that story, he identifies so much with the initiatives that we have around STEM and everything that it just fit so well, and I think he can so get out in front of this brand, too.

“I mean he can really be a part of what we are doing, when you join an organisation like Penske or Gibbs or Hendrick, you are a cog in a huge machine, we’re among the popshop.

“It really is how I think about our race team. We are a small group of dedicated people, and everybody has got a voice at the table and I think it was a really great fit for him, and he is super excited.”

The NASCAR Cup Series of today does not have a

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Brian Lawdermilk

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IMAGE BY PHD PHOTO

THE LUFFIELD ENTRY THERE ARE MANY GREAT CORNERS AT SILVERSTONE, BUT ONE THAT IS UNDENIABLY TRICKY IS LUFFIELD. AS THIS PORSCHE WAS ABOUT TO FIND OUT, THE ENTRY INTO THE CORNER CAN BE DIFFICULT TO NAVIGATE, WITH AN EXTREMELY LATE APEX. GET IT WRONG AND YOU ARE INTO THE GRAVEL ON THE EXIT OF THE CORNER. 58 THE PIT STOP

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19 T H E

L A S T

T R U L Y

WORDS BY ASH MILLER

95 D I V E R S E

F 1

S E A S O N

IMAGES BY PETER HEIL / GIRARDO & CO ARCHIVE

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mid the thickness of the subtly desert-tinted evening air, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix circuit at Yas Marina is eerily silent. The lasting effects of COVID-19 have ensured that the 2020 version of one of the most popular events on the calendar is a largely spectator-free affair, with the Formula 1 circus itself outnumbering the specially selected fans lucky enough to get a glimpse of the latest edition of the championship.

With the post-session interviews in full swing around the paddock, the cool night air is suddenly shattered with a furious cacophony; the interviewers stammer, and their subjects crane their heads towards the noise now blistering the surroundings. Many stop altogether, and the echoes of a time long since past rise from the dead, to the delight and wonderment of the assembled Yas Marina cohort.

Adorned with classic flashes of Mild Seven blue and Renault yellow, and with only a handful of hard-driven display laps, 2021 F1 returnee Fernando Alonso enticed and bewildered an entire event’s worth of people to the pit wall, hanging over the precipice to witness the fury, nimble aggression, and ear-splitting drama that were part of the scenery for what was 2005’s F1 entries.

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The question was bounced around the paddock on repeat; where did F1 lose that passion, rawness, and freedom of innovation? Where did it lose the romance?

The revisit to resonating, reverberating eardrums cast many back nearly a quarter of a century - a year when Alanis Morrisette was discovered, the movie Toy Story premiered, and when the last truly diverse season of F1 unfolded. In the ongoing debate on the ‘best seasons ever’ among F1’s 70-year history, 1995 seems to be a year that has slipped between the cracks in the annals of time with fans and anoraks alike. However, in a season of contrasts, it was a vintage year, for more than just the championship battle - a fascinating melting pot of changes that produced a very different, vastly unique year in F1.

The first wave in a storm of technical changes following the tragic deaths of Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger at Imola in 1994 saw F1 enter an unprecedented period of safety-inspired change for the following season, a trend that continued throughout the remainder of the 1990’s. Cockpits were elongated and higher, engine capacity had been restricted from 3.5 litres to 3, and a slash in overall downforce tested every technical mind up and down the grid. Pump petrol-type fuel regulations had been introduced, spelling the end to rocket fuel-esque

WITH THE AERODYNAMIC WAR SETTLING IN FAVOUR OF A SPECIFIC DIRECTION, THE DIFFERING PHILOSOHPIES OF THE CARS MADE THE GRID’S LANDSCAPE BREATHTAKING TO BEHOLD. special concoctions of benzene and toluene fuel blends that characterised the era preceding. On top of the multitude of mechanical component changes, however, the cars became longer, sleeker, and proportionately more pleasing on the eye, with cockpit heights a halfway house before they would sprout head-hugging growths for the following season.

However, these turbulent regulation amendments were introduced at the height of a defining period in motorsport, adding to the intrigue of a time when safety was stepped up, and yet technical freedom was yet to be reigned in. This was never more evidenced by the glorious spread of engine specifications; Ferrari with it’s howling V12, Renault, Peugeot, Mercedes, Yamaha, and Mugen-Honda with their V10 efforts, and the remainder of the grid powered by ageing Ford and Brian Hart-built V8 power units - all of which created an auditory crescendo of pitches, wails and reverberations that meant that not only were you treated to the varying resonance of mechanical music, but you could also largely still pick the car based solely on what your ears were receiving.

Visually, too, the cars were stunning; with the aerodynamic war still settling in favour of a specific

direction, the differing design philosophies of the cars made the grid’s landscape breathtaking to behold.

Definitively raised noses on the Williams and Benetton contrasted to the equally recognisable low nose variant of the Ferrari, with the Minardi’s widely-spaced front wing struts demanding a share of the visual pie. All these paled in comparison to the attention grabbing McLaren silhouette, with a sharp-edged nose cone and prominent mid wing dividing the opinions of motorsport personalities and fans globally. Added to this, the brightly-coloured adornments of cigarette advertising across a large majority of the grid meant these visual masterpieces were also dressed in a plethora of iconic colours and designs - the blues of Mild Seven, the darker blue hues with flashes of red and gold for Rothmans, rich Marlboro red on the Ferrari, and the deep French blue of Gitanes across the Ligier. Even those without the lucrative backing, though, sported iconic combinations, with Minardi’s black, green and white contrasting well against Forti’s sunbeam yellow creation towards the back of the field.

1995 would also be the last time the F1 grid was at its’ full 26 car capacity; the unfortunate demise of the Simtek team following that year’s Monaco Grand

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Prix signalled the initiation of a grid shrinkage that has afflicted the sport until the current day. Within six months of Simtek’s disappearance, the age of the back marker would suffer it’s death knell. The 107% rule would be introduced, putting pay to a class of tail-end battlers that, although devoid of much silverware, won the hearts of fans for their accessibility, pluckiness and at times giant-killing performances. Teams like Simtek, Pacific, and Forti, whose car still had a manual gearbox and a chassis derived from the 1992 Fondmetal, would face their final breaths in a guise that saw the ‘everyman’ F1 team challenger become a footnote in championship’s history.

1995 would also be the final year for the longstanding and familiar Grand Prix weekend layout.

The vast refresh of F1 at the end of the 1995 season would see the end of the traditional layout of a Grand Prix weekend - a single one-hour qualifying session would replace the pair of Friday and Saturday efforts that lead into the event, meaning that the anticipation of whether conditions would make for a revised grid after Saturday also went the way of the history books.

The start procedure was another element that failed to escape the reformations, with the traditional ‘red-green’ start sequence replaced with the current five lights format so widely known today.

The implementation of the new measures, however, would also deem memorable for some less favourable reasons - 1995 would see a dilution of many circuits, with Imola in particular being heavily revised to curb the speeds of the cars. The ‘old school’ feel to a lot of the circuits was at the inception of being hacked up, with chicanes being a new buzz-word across the calendar. Even the Canadian Circuit Gilles Villeneuve ran a unique and one-off configuration, introducing a chicane that would slow cars down before the long back straight. Despite the chopped and unfavourably changed circuits, perhaps the biggest tragedy would be losing Adelaide from the calendar; a traditionally exciting end to the season around the challenging and familiar streets that would give up its’ sparkling 11-year tenure to the vastly more open, if not bland, Melbourne venue for 1996.

Then, of course, there was the star-studded battle at the front - a classically gladiatorial tete-a-tete between the two most prominent protagonists of mid-90’s F1, resuming their fuelled fisticuffs for round two of their volatile championship bids, backed up by their own pairing of sidekicks who themselves supplemented the championship chase with their own popular victories.

Fresh from the physical sparring that concluded the 1994 championship in famously dramatic fashion, the car clashing would continue throughout the season as Damon Hill buckled under the double-pronged pressure of an unreliable Williams and a Michael Schumacher at the peak of his Benetton period powers. The might of Williams being upended by the almost ‘garagiste’ Benetton underdogs was one of the prevailing stories of the season, with mechanical gremlins and the

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duo of race-ending entanglements punctuating a season that was more lost by Hill and Williams than won by Schumacher. Like a Hollywood blockbuster, the characters all over the grid played their roles in a script that oozed of elated triumph and devastating heartbreak; the likeable pairing of Johnny Herbert and David Coulthard picked up wins when chaos reigned around them, yet drama such as Coulthard spinning off on the warm up lap from pole position in Monza, and crashing out of the lead in Adelaide, fuelled the

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enticingly unfolding narrative. A euphoric and endlessly popular maiden victory for Jean Alesi in the gorgeous Ferrari in Canada, contrasted a heart wrenching retirement from the lead on Ferrari home turf at Monza, only serving to embolden the storyline. Further down the grid, there were many notable and impressive points-scoring surprises, as the underpowered Red Bull-livered Saubers and the oddly-named Footworks were dragged into the points on a handful of occasions, with the entertaining Gianni Morbidelli scoring his

only podium for the latter team at the season ending Australian Grand Prix. Even Minardi scored a point thanks to Pedro Lamy, all when the points system was still capped at the top 6 positions. Of course, like the true blockbuster it was, 1995 wasn’t without big accidents. The Argentine Grand Prix saw most of the field wiped out at the first corner. Michael Schumacher had a pair of sizeable barrier-bending shunts in Brazil and Imola. And Ukyo Katayama, not to be outdone, spectacularly disassembled his Tyrrell on the start line at the Portuguese Grand Prix.

With a full grid of world-beating front runners blended with underdog minnows, a ream of past stars like Nigel Mansell and Roberto Moreno shoehorned in beside legends in the making such as Michael Schumacher and Mika Hakkinen, a sensory overload of diverse and elegant cars, and a classic championship battle around the last of a breed of genuine drivers circuits, few could argue that the season would indeed be the end of an era. As the teams packed up their array of paraphernalia in the Adelaide paddock for the final time November 1995, a true ‘end of an era’ feeling descended. With the new rules starting a newer-look Formula One from the following season, the improvements in safety, as effective and welcome as they have been, deemed parts of traditional F1 that we grew to love, no longer relevant. The V10 era would arrive (save for Tyrrell and Minardi running V8’s for 1997), and by 1998, all teams had bolted 10 cylinders

onto the back of their chassis, heralding the end of truly experimental engine configurations and design outside the V10 mould. Tragically, the stupendously aggressive tones of the famous Ferrari V12 would be perhaps the most missed victim of Formula One marching steadily onwards.

Some still remember; in the Russian Grand Prix in 2019, suffering from a frustrating Ferrari retirement, Sebastian Vettel uttered the famous words “bring back the f**king V12s”, as he disconsolately abandoned his V6-Turbo-powered smokestack. Although time has marched on and many in Formula One are of a younger breed, there are those who look back on the drama and raw energy exhibited by F1 as we used to know it in 1995.

As the mechanics, assembled media, other drivers and guests lined the pit lane to welcome Fernando Alonso back into the pit lane amid a rousing applause for only a handful of laps, eliciting a response to F1 not seen in years, casting memories back to the bygones eras and waxing lyrical on classic seasons remains a comfort for a big majority of Formula One fans. In the discussions of the 80s turbo era, the Jim Clark and Jackie Stewart days, or even the Mika versus Michael battles of the turn of the Millennium, for a true visit to a single season that encapsulated the essence of a F1 that once was, cast your senses toward the uniquely flavoured, often forgotten season of 1995.

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IMAGE BY DLV PHOTOS

THE VECTRA VAUXHALL HAD A THREE CAR LINE-UP FOR THE 2000 BRITISH TOURING CAR CHAMPIONSHIP, INCLUDING JASON PLATO AND YVAN MULLER. THE THIRD CAR WAS DRIVEN BY VINCENT RADERMECKER. THE SEASON WASN’T AS FRUITFUL AS THE TEAM HAD HOPED, BUT MULLER AND PLATO FINISHED A CREDIBLE FOURTH AND FIFTH IN THE DRIVER’S STANDINGS AT THE END OF THE SEASON. 72 THE PIT STOP

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HOT

PROPERTY WORDS BY ROB HANSFORD IMAGES BY RED BULL CONTENT POOL / HMSG

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W

hat were you doing when you were 15-years-old? If you were anything like me you were still at school, dreaming of your 17th birthday, the day you could drive a car on a public road for the first time. It was the ultimate teenage dream for any petrolhead. But at the same age, Oliver Solberg had already surpassed that dream, and by a long way too. He was already on his way to making his dream of becoming a professional rally driver a reality, and boy, what a driver he is turning out to be.

Solberg may have had an advantage on most of his peers, being the son of 2003 World Rally champion, Petter, but family connections only get you so far. You still have to prove you are fast enough and capable of competing despite being under huge amounts of pressure and Solberg immediately demonstrated that he is extremely talented in both areas.

Being so young, there were few places where Solberg was actually allowed to compete, but the Latvian Rally championship was one place in which he could go about learning his trade. To the average fan that may seem like an odd place to make your debut, but the championship is well known for nurturing young drivers and so it was the perfect place for him to get his initial rallying education.

And Solberg wasted no time in making an

impression. He won two rallies that year, ending the season second in the championship standings.

That achievement was quickly followed by his first championship win in 2018 in RallyX Nordic, before then winning the 2018 Latvian Rally championship.

It was an immense start to a rallying career.

Although these were effectively regional championships, winning them at such a young age meant it was a big achievement. Not only that, it was the first warning to the World Rally championship elite that a new contender was coming for them, and quickly.

Just a year later, in 2019, Solberg made his debut on the World Rally championship stage, taking part in the WRC2 class of Rally GB. The event, held in the Welsh forests, was the final rally of the season and although it wasn’t the debut Solberg had planned, he achieved his ultimate target - proving that he was capable of competing at the highest level of rallying.

His first stage didn’t get off to the greatest start after struggling with visibility due to a misted windscreen, and in the second stage he smashed a wheel rim which ruled him out for the rest of the Friday. But, on the Saturday he entered a league of his own, consistently hurtling through the stages as the fastest R5 driver. In the 26km Dyfi stage he was 9.1 seconds faster than the next nearest R5 driver and 24.7 seconds faster than his father, Petter, who was also competing in the

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same category. It was mind-blowing. He was driving with such maturity and with so much composure, you’d be forgiven for thinking that he was a seasoned veteran. Unfortunately, the then 17-year-old was hit by a reliability problem which prevented him from completing the remaining stages that day, and although he managed to take part again on Sunday, he crashed on the final stage, meaning his WRC2 debut ended in retirement.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused havoc to the motorsport industry in 2020, meaning multiple calendars had to be adjusted and changed. But Solberg made the best of it by taking part in the shortened European Rally Championship. Driving a Volkswagen Polo R5 for the majority of the season (He drove a Skoda Fabia R5 in Hungary), Solberg finished second in the driver’s standings, having grabbed a podium in Italy with a third place finish and victory in Latvia. He was beaten only by Aleksey Lukyanuk, a ERC veteran

who had previously won the championship in 2018 and finished in the top three of the championship for four out of the previous five seasons.

Once again, Solberg had coped with pressure, had managed to adapt to a new car, new championship, new rallies and still excelled. It put him firmly on Hyundai’s radar and shortly after signing him on a multi-year deal, they gave him the opportunity to make his full WRC debut in Finland, and once again, he failed to disappoint.

Finland is one of the hardest rallies on the WRC calendar. It is hard enough to cope with the snow, but the stages encourage you to push your car to eye watering speeds, on studded tyres to cope with the ice, all while being no more than a metre or so away from a thick line of trees for the majority of the time. It is notoriously difficult, even for drivers that have prior knowledge and experience of the rally.

At first glance it might seem unusual that Hyundai

ONCE AGAIN, SOLBERG HAD COPED WITH PRESSURE, HAD MANAGED TO ADAPT TO A NEW CAR, NEW CHAMPIONSHIP, NEW RALLIES AND HAD STILL EXCELLED.

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would test their young protege on the calendar’s toughest rally, but with no expectation for Solberg to get a result, it was also the perfect place to really gauge his current level of ability and assess his weaknesses.

But not even Hyundai could have foreseen what Solberg achieved.

Despite having never competed in a full WRC

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spec car before, Solberg ended the first stage 10th fastest, just eight seconds behind seven-time WRC champion,Sebastien Ogier, who was ninth. It was an impressive start, but Solberg was only just getting going, and the following stage was the moment he made everyone sit up and take notice.

Winding his way through the 31.05km Sarriojärvi 2

stage, Solberg ended up fourth fastest. He was the third fastest Hyundai and not only that, he was faster than team leader Thierry Newuville. But Solberg wasn’t done there. On Stage 3 he went one better, ending the stage third fastest, only 4.6 seconds off the stage win. Solberg was solid in the first half of the 24.43km Mustalampi test, but stepped up a gear for the latter part of the

stage to make it a Hyundai 1-2-3 and put himself eighth overall. Not only that, but it firmly locked him into a rally-long battle for the position with Ogier. And as the rally went on, that battle only intensified.

By stage six, the pair had moved up to sixth and seventh, Solberg edging the champion by just 7.9 seconds. On the seventh stage, Ogier managed to jump

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ahead after Solberg ended up a disappointing ninth fastest, a result that before the rally would have been seen as a great performance, but one stage later, the tables completely turned again in Solberg’s favour after Ogier crashed out at the final corner of the stage.

That crash put an end to that particular battle for the rest of the weekend, but Solberg pushed on with two strong performances in the final two stages to finish the rally ninth overall.

“It was a great experience and for sure it was a dream come true to be able to drive a race like that especially with the WRC car and snow is also my favourite surface.” said Solberg when asked about his debut. “It was just a great opportunity to be able to start my career in WRC in such a fantastic event and together with Hyundai it was amazing.”

His result caught so many by surprise. A one off top five stage finish would have been impressive enough, but the fact he kept finishing well within the top ten, despite the fact that he had very little experience of a WRC spec car prior to taking part really caught the

eye of everyone watching the rally. But while everyone on the outside were flabbergasted by Solberg’s pace, it came as no surprise to him, although he admits he didn’t expect to be as consistent as he was.

“Overall, the result didn’t really matter for me, it was more to try and show some good pace and for sure I got into it quicker than I expected and to get already on the top three times and average about P4 it was quite incredible. I had some expectations to maybe do a few good stages, but to manage to do almost every stage very good, it was for sure very surprising for me.”

Solberg’s primary aim in his first year as a fully-backed Hyundai driver is to win the WRC2 championship in the Hyundai i20 R5. To the general public, the R5 looks fairly similar to the full WRC spec, but it is noticeable that the R5 isn’t as wide and as aggressive as its bigger brother and it obviously has less power. And Solberg admits that there is a big gap between the cars and that it took some time to adapt to the WRC car.

“The step was quite big for sure and the main thing

“THE STEP WAS QUITE BIG FOR SURE AND THE MAIN THING IS PROBABLY THE AERODYNAMICS, WHERE YOU CAN REALLY FEEL THE DIFFERENCE UNDER HIGH SPEEDS.”

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is probably the aerodynamics, where you can really feel the difference under high speeds. I think it was maybe one of the most difficult races to start with because of the aerodynamics and the power it has in that kind of event. So, it was not easy and then for sure also the engine, the speed, the active centre differential and paddle shift, there’s so many things to learn but it was good fun anyway.

“The R5 doesn’t have so much aero package and it’s basically the rear wing and a little bit on the front, but you know the WRC has a massive rear wing and big aerodynamics both on the front and the sides, and for sure the rear. It has a big diffuser and everything so for sure, there’s a huge difference especially under high speeds where the car just pushes down and you can keep completely flat so it’s quite an incredible feeling.”

Solberg is fortunate in that he has backing from Hyundai. Many drivers at his age are still fighting their way to factory status and so budget is a major issue, especially when it comes to getting experience away from the rallies. Hyundai on the other hand didn’t want to send their protege into his first fully fledged WRC event without any knowledge of the i20 WRC car and so arranged for him to shakedown the car in the weeks

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before.

“To get prepared for WRC you just need some testing and some experience,” explains Solberg.

“For sure the test was not ideal for that kind of event because [Finland] was very slow speed, but at least I got a shakedown luckily and I maximized the experience out of it and got a proper feel of the aero.

“The shakedown was really fast, so it was important for me to get that in to get prepared for the race. Then before the start of the race, normally you prepare with videos and also with the trainer to prepare yourself and then for sure testing for the car side.”

Solberg also acknowledges that the factory support provides him with a lot of confidence, knowing that his future is secure for the short to medium term at least, and the extra facilities they have available will enable him to continue his development for many years to come.

“It helps with stability and confidence that you will do a lot of driving and a lot of testing, and you can get even better. For sure the cars are all the same so if it’s an R5 you can’t do much with it so basically, it’s a nice confidence [boost] that we can get testing and also a cool thing to be in the development of the new R5.”

There was never any doubt that Solberg was going

to have his first taste of a full WRC-spec car this season after signing with Hyundai, but the now 19-year-old admits that Finland was never the original plan. The opportunity to compete there only came about after his impressive performance in the WRC2 class at Monte Carlo, where despite retiring (after he made a mistake which caused him to slide off the road and literally get his Hyundai i20 R5 stuck in the mud) he showed impressive pace, enough for the South Korean manufacturer to want to try him out at rallying’s highest level on one of the toughest surfaces -snow.

“It wasn’t the plan to go to Finland with the WRC, and we did a snow rally earlier in the year with the R5 to get prepared for that event to do the R5 and try to win it. Then after Monte Carlo the team bosses were so happy with the speed and what we had done during the two first races and the preparation. They were so happy and just said that you know, ‘why not jump into the WRC in the Arctic and start to get used to it basically, and just have fun and do your best’, and he was also very surprised and happy about the speed I think, so it was good fun.”

There’s no mistaking that Solberg’s start to life as a Hyundai driver has gotten off to a great start. It is clear he is at home with the team and appears to be comfortable in most conditions. But it is also true that he is not the finished article. How could he be in such a short space of time? Gravel is his favourite surface and his performance in the Arctic Rally demonstrates that he is also capable of handling the snow, although he already knows that there’s areas where he could have improved in Finland.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s snow or gravel, I think it was important for me to first of all start in an event I feel a bit more confident on. Maybe not tarmac, but for sure, it was very difficult. The high-speed areas are incredibly fast and the other guys have so much experience with pace notes and commitment with the car so I could really feel I lacked a little bit on the very high speed [sections] to properly commit. Then for sure there are other areas to improve but that was probably the most difficult.

It is all part of the learning process, but this is also where the family connections can play to Solberg’s

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advantage. Whilst many drivers at some stage in their career will enlist the help of driver coaches to point out where they are losing time, or what they can do to go faster, not many are able to call on their Dad and his mates for help. It would be silly not to really, wouldn’t it? Especially when your Dad has won a world championship, like Petter did in 2003 with Subaru. It would be easy for Solberg Jr to be narrow-minded and

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stubborn, adamant to do things his own way, but he knows that would be fool-hardy and he’d effectively be shooting himself in the foot.

When speaking about this subject, Solberg says: “He has so much experience and for sure I have to listen to it. He knows right and wrong and tries to make me make as little mistakes as possible, and yeah he knows he’s done all the mistakes and he knows what it takes

in this sport.

“For sure I also have to do my own mistakes, but it definitely helps to have my Father around to help me on the journey to make less mistakes and know which way to go.”

It’s not just his Dad that Solberg has been able to call on for advice though. Tarmac is a clear weakness for Solberg and knowing that he enlisted the help of

one of the greatest tarmac rally drivers in history - ninetime World Rally champion, Sebastien Loeb.

“I’ve done a bit of testing on tarmac with Loeb, and he helped me for sure a little bit on that point. He has a lot of experience so I am trying to look at everybody and listen to everybody, try to get some info from everything.

“There’s always something to learn from everyone so I’m an open guy and just trying to look at everything and try to improve myself as much as possible that I can from everybody else.”

For the 2021 season, four of the 12 rallies on the calendar are run on tarmac and so those events will no doubt be tougher for Solberg to be as competitive as he was in Finland, but he believes that his struggles with tarmac is simply a case of him lacking experience on that surface and that his previous performances on the surface, especially in the European Rally Championship shows that he is capable of battling the front-runners in any event.

“I’ve done good races last year in the ERC and it was, I have to say, quite important for me to be able to learn on tarmac and the speed has been very good already. But for sure there’s a lot of experience lacking if I want to come up in the big level against the top guys. I guess Ogier and all those. For sure, it takes a lot of driving and experience and as I said that’s probably where I feel the weakest.

“I have to say actually, gravel is probably one of my strongest. Snow I have not done so much except just in the garden at home. Snow is probably my favourite, but gravel is my strongest and then tarmac is where I have to improve the most definitely.

“For sure experience is something about it. You have to learn pace notes and new races all the time and as I said switching cars. So it’s a lot to take in all the time, but I did very good races last year against some of the fastest guys in the world on tarmac so, for sure, I’ve beaten them, but of course to beat them every time it takes experience.”

There is no doubt that Solberg possesses all of the qualities that a world rally champion requires. Of course, he won’t suddenly become champion overnight.

It will take time, mistakes, nurturing from Hyundai and improvements on his side, but it is abundantly clear that he has the potential to fight for world titles in the future. Hyundai is fully aware of this and it’s why they snapped him up on a two year deal, preventing Toyota or M-Sport from luring him away.

Solberg has said that his primary objective this season is to win the WRC2 championship. But is that ambition going to be realised? Perhaps not. At the time of writing this article Solberg has only completed one out of the four rounds in the championship and currently sits 14th in the standings. On the face of it, that doesn’t sound great, but after spending Monte Carlo and the Arctic Rally racing in other machinery, he went out and finished fifth in Portugal, the first gravel

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rally of the season.

And once again plans deviated. Hyundai decided to give Solberg another shot in the WRC car for Rally Italy, but due to Petter Solberg testing positive for COVID-19 in the week building up to the rally, he was unable to take part.

That intention from Hyundai to test him out again in the premier class shows that they are not overly worried about the WRC2 campaign. Of course, a championship win will be of importance for Solberg, especially when it comes to his CV, but the team knows in its heart that he will be in the fully-fledged WRC car sooner or later and they want to make sure that he has the best preparation possible. And let’s face it, regular outings in the best machinery won’t do you any harm, and if he can get some giant-killing results along the way, it will

only boost his reputation further.

Hyundai has played the game well. They have some great drivers already in their ranks, such as Thierry Neuville and 2017 WRC champion, Ott Tanak, as well as Dani Sordo, but all of these drivers are now in their 30’s and so realistically, they only have 10 years or so of their career at top-flight rallying left. But with Solberg, they have a driver who is just at the beginning of his and is already proving to be a match for even the fastest drivers.

There’s a lot of hype around Solberg, partly because of his family name and young age, but there is no denying his ability and if he continues his current trajectory it won’t be long before he is knocking on the door of his first title. He really is rallying’s hottest property right now and deservedly so.

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IMAGE BY MATT WIDDOWSON

ON THE STANDS BARWELL MOTORSPORT HAD A GREAT START TO THEIR 2021 BRITISH GT SEASON. THE TEAM HAD A SECOND PLACE AND TWO THIRDS, MEANING THAT AFTER THE OPENING TWO ROUNDS, THEY ARE LEADING THE DRIVER’S AND TEAM’S CHAMPIONSHIPS.

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SUCCESS AND

FAILURE

THE ALFA ROMEO 179C OFFERED SOME SUCCESS FOR ONE OF ITS DRIVERS, BUT FOR THE OTHER, IT ENDED THEIR F1 CAREER FOR GOOD.

WORDS BY ROB HANSFORD IMAGES BY PHD PHOTO / GIRARDO & CO ARCHIVE

A

lfa Romeo has had a chequered history in Formula 1. Officially, the Italian manufacturer has never won an F1 world championship, thanks to there being no constructors’ title when Giuseppe Farina and Juan Manuel Fangio won the 1950 and 1951 driver’s titles whilst driving Alfa Romeo 158s, but there is still a sense of romance surrounding the team and its connection with the series.

After their success in the first two seasons of F1, Alfa Romeo disappeared from the championship as a manufacturer until 1979 and they only did so after the infamous Italian designer, Carlo Chiti persuaded them to let him design and build a car on their behalf. It was a shaky start, but on paper 1981 should have been the year that they made a real impact. And while for one driver it was the best season of his entire F1 career, for the other, it led to him retiring and switching focus to another category entirely.

Despite struggling with its competitiveness in 1979 and 1980, Alfa Romeo managed to land a huge catch by signing 1978 world champion Mario Andretti from Lotus for the 1981 season. Andretti had been in talks

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with Alfa and McLaren during 1980 but after assessing both teams, Andretti decided he didn’t want to spend another year racing with a Cosworth engine, which McLaren were using.

“At the end of the 1980 season, I was ready for a change, and I had the opportunity to either join McLaren or Alfa Romeo.” Andretti told The Pit Stop. “I chose Alfa Romeo because of their potential, reliability of their engines and so forth. I had so many issues with Cosworth for a few years, I think I hardly finished a race where I was even leading.”

Unlike Lotus and McLaren, the Alfa Romeo 179 was fitted with a naturally aspirated V12 Alfa Romeo engine - the 1260. It was more powerful than the Cosworth DFV that McLaren had, producing around an extra 30bhp and the 60-degree V-angle meant it was also narrower than its rival. It was a thirsty engine, but a strong one and so with the lure of racing for an Italian team again that also had a strong power unit, Andretti signed a contract that he felt would be full of potential.

Alfa Romeo must have been thinking the same.

Alongside the loyal Bruno Giacomelli, who was entering his third season with the team, they now had a world champion in their ranks and not only that, but also a

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driver who pioneered the ground-effect cars alongside Colin Chapman. And in a time where ground-effect was still the main aerodynamic philosophy in F1, Alfa Romeo had all the ingredients to make 1981 a successful year.

That optimism looked to have some substance at the first round of the season, with both Giacomelli and Andretti qualifying in the top ten for the opening round at Long Beach in their 179Cs, and Andretti went on to finish fourth in the race. It was a promising start, but for Andretti, that result would end up being his best of the year.

Despite the fact Andretti felt he was moving to a team that had better reliability, the Italian-born world champion ended up retiring from eight of the 15 grands prix that year and more often than not, it was due to power related issues. However, although Alfa Romeo were one of the only teams on the grid still using naturally aspirated engines, it wasn’t the lack of turbo power that Andretti felt was the issue. It was the fact that teams were using a loophole in the regulations to run their cars with a lower ride height, but Alfa were not exploiting this.

“In 1981 there was an introduction of a new rule in Formula 1, and that is about ride heights,” said Andretti.

“They increased the mandatory ride heights of the cars

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to reduce some of the downforce and they instituted that they had to clear a box in the exit of the pits and the entry to the pits to make sure everybody would adhere to that.

“Low and behold, at the start of the season in Argentina, we saw Brabham all of a sudden just killed the field. We found out they had a hydraulic system where as soon as they cleared the box, they would drop the car to the best spot for the ride height. And when they came back in [to the pits], they would pump it up and be legal, so it wasn’t too long before everybody caught up to that.” All of them apart from Alfa.

Despite Andretti’s and Giacomelli’s pleas, Carlo Chiti was adamant that he would not follow suit and alter the 179C’s ride height, believing it was cheating and not an honest way of racing. It was an ethical approach and in reality it was one to applaud, but Giacomelli thinks it actually was more to do with the fact that had Alfa been found in breach of the regulations it would have brought embarrassment on to the team, one which was owned by the Italian state at that time.

“Chiti didn’t want to use that system because he said then that Alfa Romeo are to focus on the history and the prestige and so on. They couldn’t really cheat.” explained Giacomelli.

“I ALMOST WALKED OUT ON HIM AT BELGIUM AFTER WE HAD THIS ARGUMENT” - MARIO ANDRETTI The politics took control of the team. Chiti had convinced Alfa Romeo into rejoining F1 and so if anything major were to happen, like being found in breach of the rules, it would have blown up in his face and he simply wasn’t prepared to take that risk.

“It was extremely political for sure,” Andretti said when talking about the state of the team at that time. “I suppose you just didn’t dare face the top management at Alfa Romeo in case there was a protest or whatever.

“I don’t know what to say, but again, everyone else was doing the same thing. Everyone was, they had to.”

The decision not to circumnavigate the rules hurt the team badly. Both Andretti and Giacomelli struggled to qualify in the top ten over the course of the season and when it came to race day, they rarely finished. The car was uncompetitive and simply unable to match the speed of Alfa’s rivals, but Andretti knew there was potential in the car and if Chiti had listened to him, the car could have been successful. Chiti refused to budge

on the matter and the atmosphere became so tense that Andretti thought about quitting at the Belgian Grand Prix, such was his frustration.

“I almost walked out on him [Chiti] at Belgium after we had this argument about that.” explained the world champion. “And I can tell you this, we had a test at Paul Ricard, I think it was in June and pretty much all of the teams were there. I told Marelli, ‘let’s drop the ride height to where we know it’s optimal and where everybody else is in the test.’ In the test you didn’t have to clear that box system, and I was right there in the times. We were absolutely right there, competitive.

“Under equal circumstances with the field, the car would have been absolutely competitive and it’s unfair that it had to go through the season like that.”

“I knew what downforce and ground effects value was and I knew when it was lacking. I had gone through all that you know, I was at the forefront of that development. That’s why I knew what I was talking about. I hate to say it, but I was more of an authority

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than Carlo Chiti was. He would not budge, and it was just amazing that he was so entrenched in the political aspect and so scared to be able to defend it. He was on a planet of his own there and not in reality. It cost dearly.”

What should have been a fine swansong for Andretti turned into a season of nightmares. He had a car he couldn’t race competitively, despite the fact it was fundamentally a fast car, and a team manager that wouldn’t listen. All the while, McLaren were proving they did have a strong car, claiming three podiums in three races, including one victory for John Watson halfway through the season at the British Grand Prix.

There was no way he could help feeling unjust at the situation.

“At the end of 1980 what just about influenced me to make the choice between McLaren and Alfa was that Bruno Giacomelli, at Watkins Glen, had led every lap until he had some issue. I think it was ignition or something and he dropped out. But it showed the promise of that car, finally reaching a level of competitiveness. And then I was looking again at the reliability of Alfa Romeo. I know all the DNFs that I’d had with the Cosworth powered engine, with the ownership and so forth, I was getting tired of that, so I really thought I’d made the right move, but obviously that was one of those times that it was so unfair.”

Andretti never got a chance to score points again that season and being so disenchanted with the

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situation was in, he decided to leave the team and retire from F1 for good. It was a hard decision and had he been elsewhere he would have likely continued, but after suffering such a difficult experience and with a lack of options for 1982, he felt the time was right to walk away.

“I thought ‘I cannot continue with this’ and that’s when I decided,” said Andretti when asked about his decision to leave the team. “If I would have obviously opted for McLaren, I would have probably stayed in Formula 1 for a few more years. But again, I was somewhat disillusioned and I said all the good seats are occupied so I decided to come back to resume my IndyCar career.”

But while 1981 was doom and gloom for arguably America’s greatest F1 world champion, for Bruno Giacomelli it was the best season of his career. Like Andretti, Giacomelli’s season was full of difficulties and struggles. He struggled for pace in qualifying and also struggled to break into the top ten for the majority of the season, but at the back end of the year he had a breakthrough with the car achieving some stellar results in the final two races and proving that he was an incredibly quick driver when he had the right machinery underneath him.

Monza was the first time in 1981 that Giacomelli was able to show his true pace. On paper, being classified eighth and two laps down on the winner, Alain Prost doesn’t make for exciting reading, but he only ended up

“I WAS DOING QUITE WELL, I WAS THIRD AND VERY CLOSE TO THE SECOND POSITION, THEN I HAD PROBLEMS WITH THE GEAR LEVER AND THAT STOPPED ME.” - GIACOMELLI there after issues with his car late on.

“I ran with the 179C modified by [Gerard] Ducarouge. I tested it and drove for the first time in Italy, in Monza,” said Giacomelli. “I was doing quite well, I was third and very close to the second position, then I had problems with the gear lever and that stopped me.”

Having got frustrated with the lack of competitiveness from the 179C, Alfa Romeo signed Ducarouge after he was sacked by Ligier and he immediately got to work, altering the car and introducing the lower ride height that Andretti had been asking for all season long. It worked, for Giacomelli anyway. Fighting at the front around the high-speed natured Monza, despite having a naturally aspirated engine when most of his rivals had turbos, proved the car had the potential that Andretti had been shouting about. And although reliability let Giacomelli down in the closing stages of the race, he went on to have a superb performance next time out at the Canadian Grand Prix.

The Italian had only qualified 15th for the race at Montreal, one place higher than his team-mate, but on Sunday he came alive. The race was delayed by over two hours due to a dispute between the organisers and

drivers regarding public liability insurance and when it finally got underway, the heavens had opened, making conditions difficult to drive in. But Giacomelli revelled in them, scything his way through the order and by lap 37 he was passing Nelson Piquet for fifth on what was at that stage a drying track after the rain had stopped.

A few laps later, he then took advantage of a collision between Alain Prost, who was ahead, and Nigel Mansell who was being lapped at the time, to go fourth.

From there, the Italian driver clung on to the position crossing the line behind the Ferrari of Gilles Villeneuve in third and ahead of the Brabham of Piquet. It was a great drive in difficult conditions and gave Giacomelli a platform to work from for the final race of the season at Caesars Palace.

Alfa Romeo had one of their best qualifying sessions at Caesars Palace, with Giacomelli putting his 179C eighth on the grid and Andretti in 10th. The sun was beaming on race day and as the lights went out, Giacomelli had the perfect start, getting himself up to fifth going into the first corner, behind the Renault of Alain Prost. Alan Jones had the lead in his Williams and he left the rest of the field for dust, soaring off into the distance. It meant Giacomelli was left in a battle for the final two podium positions with Prost, Carlos

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Reuteman, and Gille Villeneuve.

Early on in the race Reuteman fell down the order and Prost managed to pass Villeneuve for second.

Giacomelli was then left to battle against the Ferrari for third but on lap 21 Villeneuve spun off the track. It was game on for the Alfa Romeo driver, but then everything started to go wrong.

Shortly after gaining third, Giacomelli was passed

by Jacques Lafitte who was driving for Ligier, and two laps later Giacomelli spun off the track. Fortunately he didn’t damage the car and was able to rejoin the race, but by the time he rejoined the track he had fallen to 10th.

“We started the grand prix with the 701 compound from Michelin which was a little bit harder compared to the 305 compound,” said Giacomelli. “So, to stay with the top cars at the beginning of the race we had to struggle a bit and I spun with the car but not completely.

“When I came back onto the track, Alan Jones was lapping me and from that moment on to the end of the

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race, I actually went away from him.”

Giacomelli’s pace once he rejoined was nothing short of phenomenal. Luck fell his way in that a number of cars ahead of him, including team-mate Andretti retired, but he still had to work hard to catch the cars in front and he did just that. In the final few laps of the race, he had caught up with Prost who was in second and looked set for a last lap showdown for the runnerup spot.

Unfortunately for Giacomelli the finish line came one lap too early for him. He crossed less than a car length behind Prost to end the race third, but in all reality it didn’t matter. He had still claimed his maiden podium result, a result he would never repeat again in Formula 1.

“I just finished side by side with Alain Prost, and I was much faster than Prost and also Alan Jones. I was much faster than both of those guys, but the race ended!

“But the car was incredible, that was a very tough race physically and I could have done another grand prix without any problems, because when you drive

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a car that is well set-up and it does what you want, physically it is much less energy and things are much easier. So I could have done another grand prix, I was sweating but not tired.

“A year after, at the end of 1982 on the same track, things were completely different. I think I finished 11th and my teammate finished 10th. We got out of the car at the end of the race completely, physically knocked out. That was just a year after, so you understand the cars are so important, the balance and the grip and those things.”

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That race was the final grand prix for the Alfa Romeo 179C and in some respects it was both a blessing and a disappointment. There were clearly issues at Alfa throughout the entire season both on and off the track and the political elements no doubt held the team back. If Chiti had listened to Andretti then it’s likely that the team would have had a much better year and it’s also quite possible that the American would have continued his career in F1 as a result. That’s backed up by the fact that the car was much better in the latter part of the season when Ducarouge came

onboard and made the exact changes Andretti and Giacomelli had been asking for, and it all resulted in a podium result in the final race of the season. It was clear the car was fast and that it had a strong chassis but that higher ride height was clearly the thing that held them back from achieving better results.

The 179C is a frustrating car. It clearly had unfulfilled potential and while you want to love it for its undeniable beauty and the fact it rewarded Giacomelli with a well earned maiden F1 podium, it was also the car that ended the career of one of the all-time greats

of the series. That maybe more to do with the team behind the car, but it is that team that puts the car together and so the two are inextricably linked no matter which way you look at it.

Alfa Romeo bailed from F1 just a few seasons later, having never achieved the success they were hoping for. But looking back, they will no doubt see the 179C as a missed opportunity, one that could have changed their fortunes had they done things differently and it’s a shame we never got to see them reach the heights the car and the drivers were clearly capable of.

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IMAGE BY PHD PHOTO

LE MANS THERE IS ALWAYS SOMETHING HAPPENING AT LE MANS, NO MATTER WHAT ANGLE YOU ARE LOOKING DOWN ON THE TRACK FROM. IN 2021, THE 24 HOUR RACE HAS MOVED FROM ITS USUAL DATE IN JUNE TO AUGUST, AS A RESULT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC.

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BULL IN A CHINA SHOP H OW A N E N E RGY D R I N KS C O M PA N Y T U R N E D A FA I L I N G F 1 T E A M I N TO A WO R L D B E AT E R

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WORDS BY EDD STRAW IMAGES BY RED BULL CONTENT POOL THE PIT STOP 117

R

ed Bull Racing has made its longawaited return to Formula 1’s top table in 2021, re-emerging as a championship-challenging force after spending the rest of the V6 turbo hybrid era as only an occasional race winner. It feels so natural for Red Bull to be at the top of the F1 world that it’s difficult to recall those days in the middle of the first decade of the 21st century when the idea an energy drinks manufacturer could conquer grand prix racing seemed risible.

Today, not only is Red Bull Racing an F1 powerhouse, but it’s also committed enormous effort and resources to its nascent powertrains operation.

This will make it, along with Ferrari, one of only two teams with a combined car/engine facility on the same site. Red Bull Racing has come a long way since the days it bought an underachieving, underfinanced team based in an ex-ball bearing factory on a Milton Keynes industrial estate for a nominal $1 fee.

That team was Jaguar, owned by Ford and the victim of a combination of its own failures and first mismanagement, then dwindling interest, from its parent company. Ford announced it was pulling the plug on its F1 team after a year of drastic cuts on 23

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September 2004. Six weeks later, Red Bull saved the team – and around 340 jobs – although Cosworth was not part of the deal, with that being sold to CART coowners Kevin Kalkhoven and Gerald Forsythe.

This gave Red Bull a functioning, moderately well-equipped F1 team but one that was far from the level needed to run at the front either in terms of facilities or on-track performance. The recruitment drive started immediately, both in terms of the bolstering of the staff at the factory and big-ticket signings like McLaren refugee David Coulthard – who would never have countenanced joining the team in its Ford-owned guise. Red Bull had promised to Ford that it would be maintaining its spending level given American corporate law meant the company had a legal responsibility to guarantee the fair treatment of its employees for the three years after the sale – but spent far more.

Initially, Red Bull co-owner Dietrich Mateschitz spoke of management stability, but Christian Horner was appointed team principal. Only 31, he was ostensibly an unusual choice despite his success running the Arden International Formula 3000 team but was on Red Bull’s radar through fielding its drivers and also a putative bid to buy the Jaguar team with Russian investment – as well as having the all-important

backing of Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko.

Horner was an inspired choice, for while he had showed insufficient ability to make it into F1 as a driver (his finest hour was a victory at Pembrey in Formula Renault UK and he subsequently reached F3000), he had shown serious business and commercial savvy off it. He also fitted in with the team’s youthful vibe better than the incumbent management team of Tony Purnell and David Pitchforth – both of which had worked tirelessly to ensure the sale happened.

On track, things started surprisingly well. The Jaguar R6 became the Red Bull RB1 and produced improved results. Fourth and seventh the Australian Grand Prix for Coulthard and Christian Klien (the latter initially sharing the seat with reigning F3000 champion Vitantonio Liuzzi but ultimately contesting all but four races) was a good start. Red Bull finished seventh in the championship, matching Jaguar’s achievement of the previous season but with a big hike in points – 34 compared to 10 in 2004. A respectable start.

But the real work was being done off-track. New recruits were arriving at an impressive rate, bolstering the rank-and-file but with some big names also being tapped up. Red Bull’s aggressive recruitment didn’t go down well with rivals, who were unimpressed with the disruption this did to the F1 job market, but it paid off.

The halo signing was announced in November 2005 –

the arrival of Adrian Newey as chief technical officer in February 2006.

Newey had come close to joining the team in its Jaguar guise, going so far as signing a letter of intent for a move that would have paid him 2.5 times his McLaren salary. He knew Bobby Rahal, then team principal and the move was announced in June 2001. In the end, Newey agreed a new McLaren deal and while matching the Jaguar pay had been key, so too had the fear that Rahal was about to be elbowed out of the team. But the negotiations with Red Bull went well and Newey signed on the dotted line, after some initial reluctance to shell out the cash from Red Bull’s side. It proved to be an inspired move.

Simply bringing in Newey and sitting him in front of a drawing board doesn’t give you success in F1. The key now was to continue to build the facilities of the team and recruit the senior personnel to work alongside him.

Retrospectively, the key target was to have the team ready to fight at the front for the new aerodynamic rules in 2009, which were on the horizon and originally scheduled for a year earlier. Unsurprisingly, Red Bull was among those that lobbied for the delay.

There was much to be done. During this period Red Bull started to expand its facilities from the initial two buildings (today it’s up to eight) with new equipment such as gearbox dynos, a driver-in-loop simulator

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THIS ENGINE APPEALED TO NEWEY GIVEN ITS TIGHTER PACKAGING, BUT IT WAS AT A POWER DISADVANTAGE project, commissioning a ‘race room’ to provide live operational support to the team on race weekends and working to speed up a sluggish design and production process.

Red Bull also inherited the former DERA windtunnel just north of Bedford, acquired by Jaguar in September 2003. This wasn’t operation but Red Bull took over the project to refit the 114-metre windtunnel. Under the direction of head of aero Ben Agathangelou – who today has the same role at Haas – the windtunnel was a costly and time-consuming project but a necessary one. It was up and running in time for the 2007 car – RB3, the first Newey car – to be developed using it.

That allowed Red Bull’s other windtunnel, the 50% scale one in Bicester, to become a full-time Toro Rosso tunnel, while the Bedford tunnel has been continually upgraded over the years.

There was also the problem of engines to be solved.

Red Bull used Cosworth engines in 2005, but the acquisition of the ailing Minardi team to create Toro Rosso had allowed it to switch the Ferrari engine supply to Red Bull Racing for 2006. That proved unsatisfactory given the limited updates, resulting in a deal for Renault engines in 2007. This engine appealed to Newey

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given its tighter packaging, but it was at a power disadvantage.

While the 2007 car was disappointing in terms of aerodynamics and reliability, there were a number of factors aligning off-track that would help transform Red Bull into a winner by 2009. One crucial factor was the engine.

This was the time of F1’s first engine freeze, with the 2.4-litre V8s frozen from the start of 2007 based on the specification used at the previous year’s Japanese GP. That locked in a power deficit for Renault. Red Bull supported Renault in lobbying for dispensation to make changes, which proved successful and mitigated that power disadvantage, albeit leaving it with a deficit of around 30bhp.

Another key factor was the introduction of new aerodynamic regulations. These were originally slated for 2008, but Red Bull was among those that successfully lobbied for a delay to ’09. This bought it crucial time as, despite the rapid rate at which the team was evolving, it simply would not have been ready for 2008.

The team’s technical structure had evolved at a fast rate. Newey brought Peter Prodromou with him

from McLaren, Paul Monaghan joined as head of race and test engineering, Jonathan Wheatley came in as team manager, Rob Marshall was recruited from Renault as chief designer and, in mid-2007, Geoff Willis joined from Honda. They all played key roles in structuring a team around the visionary abilities of Newey. Marshall led a department that consistently rose to the challenging packaging demands of Newey, while technical director Willis knew Newey well having first been brought into F1 by him as a consultant for a nascent CFD programme at Leyton House in 1990.

Red Bull did break through as a race winner in 2008, although not in the way that was expected. This was the last season before the rules changed to prevent teams running customer cars, meaning that Toro Rosso was running the 2008 RB4, rebadged as the STR3 but with customer Ferrari engines. A young Sebastian Vettel had a stellar second half of the season and took a sensational victory at Monza that helped Toro Rosso finish ahead of the senior team in the constructors’ championship.

But the behind-the-scenes ructions caused by the junior team’s success were insignificant in comparison with the shape the team was now in. Huge effort had been put into designing the 2009 car for the ‘skinny’ aerodynamic regulations designed to improve the ability of cars to follow each other and Red Bull was ready. Vettel was promoted to replace the retiring Coulthard, whose contribution to Red Bull’s early years cannot be underestimated, alongside Mark Webber, who had joined in 2007.

Heading into 2009, Red Bull was still regarded

with suspicion by the F1 establishment but there was a clear shift in tone from party team to serious contender.

That season, Red Bull proved it was ready to win, with Vettel leading home Webber for a one-two in a sodden Chinese Grand Prix three races in, but still not quite ready to win a championship.

Things might have been a little different but for Red Bull getting caught up in a political maelstrom around the double diffuser. While it was easy enough to create the architecture for the double diffuser, the difficulty was feeding it. What the Brawn, Williams and Toyota teams worked out was that, despite the rules intending to make the floor “impervious”, you could argue that the transition between the reference plane and the slightly higher step plane towards the rear of the car wasn’t governed. Newey was unimpressed, but dived into the task of adding the double diffuser to the Red Bull.

It made its debut in the sixth race of the season at Monaco. The speed of its introduction showed just how far the team had come given it required substantial reworking of the rear end of the car. While it wasn’t the fastest to incorporate the double diffuser, Newey and his technical team faced a tougher challenge than many of Red Bull’s rivals. And it worked.

The Red Bull RB5 was arguably the strongest car that season, certainly as the season progressed and the Brawn team’s development funds dried up completely.

But six victories, including the final three races of the season, proved that Red Bull had arrived as one of F1’s top teams. And it was innovating, adopting the pushrod rear suspension that subsequently became

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popular. There was also a switch to exhaust exits low in the engine cover bodywork that was a precursor to the hugely significant arrival of the blown diffuser in 2010.

While often characterised as an innovation, it was perhaps more accurate to call it a comeback. Newey had worked with blown diffuser technology in his Williams days and at the start of the process he asked Renault to dig into its archives for some of the engine mode work it had done to optimise the design. In 2010, the RB6 featured a blown diffuser that boosted downforce and made a formidable package.

This coincided with Red Bull coming of age, winning the drivers’ and constructors’ championship with Vettel taking the first of four consecutive crowns. Despite rules introduced to curb exhaust blowing through this period, Newey and Red Bull always found ways to stay ahead of the game. In 2012, it even held back its Coanda Effect exhaust to the penultimate day of testing – although its innovative interpretation took some time to get on top of and required significant car changes during an erratic first part of the season.

But this was symptomatic of what Red Bull had become – innovative and fast-moving, with the resources, in terms of personnel, facilities and finances – to set new standards in F1. It regularly deployed upgrade packages that in earlier times would have been considered full-blown B-spec cars and by the end of 2013 had grown to a staff of almost 700 with an annual budget of £240m.

It continued to be disruptive during this period, playing a part in F1’s resource restriction agreement becoming unworkable, which earned it criticism from some rivals but didn’t fall outside of what was allowed. At this stage, Red Bull had set new standards

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for what an F1 team could be – and crucially earned itself preferential commercial terms that ensured it became established as one of grand prix racing’s few powerhouse teams alongside Ferrari and Mercedes.

But times were changing. The arrival of the V6 turbo hybrid era and Newey’s switch into a wider Red Bull role that incorporated other technology projects changed the dynamic of the team. And while the weakness of the Renault power unit package was Red Bull’s biggest weakness, it wasn’t its only one. Still, the quality of the team shone through, bouncing back from a dreadful pre-season in 2014 to finish second on the road in the Australian Grand Prix with new signing Daniel Ricciardo, who replaced Webber.

While that result was subsequently lost owing to exceeding the 100kg/h fuel-flow limit, it showed the tenacity of the team but also set the tone for what would be years of struggles and recoveries. It was also the beginning of its relationship with Renault taking a downturn, which eventually led to its 2016-18 supply deal only being possible on the basis of it not using the name. That led to it running ‘TAG Heuer’ engines, with a financial penalty for criticism of the product.

Alongside this, there were regular attempts to land a Mercedes engine deal, which unsurprisingly the works team blocked.

Poor starts to the season also became a common theme. In 2017, when F1 regulations switched to wider cars it exposed windtunnel limitations that led to modifications, while the change to front wing rules two years later also created problems that took the first part of the season to resolve. And in 2020, the change to a narrow-nose concept was the right move but created problems in the car that were ‘baked-in’ and led to

what the team considered was a wasted opportunity to beat Mercedes.

During this period, the team also evolved from Vettel’s team into Ricciardo’s team before Max Verstappen’s promotion during 2016 laid the foundations for it becoming his domain. And with McLaren dispensing with Honda, Red Bull gambled on the Japanese manufacturer by taking its engines at Toro Rosso in ’18 with a view to a possible expansion to its main team the following season. This was an inspired move, coinciding with Honda getting its act together and led to a breakthrough win at the Red Bull Ring nine races into the 2019 season.

Finally, this year, things have come together. It has the power unit in Honda, the driver in Verstappen, an outstanding facility packed with high-quality personnel

and a car concept that it believes is superior to the lower-rake Mercedes.

It’s been a long way back to the top for Red Bull, but this year it could realistically join F1’s group of elite teams by having two distinct periods at the top of F1.

It’s already F1’s sixth-most successful team in terms of wins, but another title would establish it beyond question as one of the greatest teams in grand prix history.

And with its powertrains division hugely ambitious but, based on Red Bull’s previous record in F1, likely to succeed, it has the building blocks to stay at F1’s top table as long as the company remains interested in F1.

Not bad for an energy drinks company that bought a failing team all those years ago.

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IMAGE BY JORDAN LENSSON

IMSA IMSA IS A SERIES GAINING IN POPULARITY AND IT’S NO WONDER WHEN THERE IS AN ARRAY OF DIFFERENT MANUFACTURERS COMPETING. FROM LE MANS PROTOTYPES TO THE GT CARS, THERE’S ALWAYS PLENTY OF ACTION TO WATCH.

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CHASING THE

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AMERICAN DREAM

WORDS BY ADAM DICKINSON IMAGES BY DAYLON BARR PHOTOGRAPHY

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H

ow do you land a dream job that’s halfway around the world, against millions of competitors, with no training, contacts or pathway to get there? It’s a strange proposition, but that’s exactly the position Alex Sedgwick found himself in after having watched his first NASCAR race, as a kid in karting in 2012.

Hailing from Southam, Warwickshire, and sporting a softly-spoken British accent it’s fair to say that Sedgwick isn’t your typical NASCAR driver.

Because he is indeed a NASCAR driver, having made his American debut at Phoenix in the 2020 ARCA Menards Series West – equivalent to F4 – and he crossed off another bucket-list item earlier this year by racing in a pre-season test at Daytona.

In Phoenix he put in a strong performance, finishing 13th out of 17 and ahead of team-mate and series champion Jesse Love. He also has two seasons of the Euro Series under his belt, less than ten years since he first saw a NASCAR race: “I came across NASCAR and started seriously watching it sort of 2012, 2013 so the last kinda two years of when I was in karting.” said Sedgwick.

“For whatever reason I just thought it was the coolest thing ever: big stock cars with the aerodynamics of a house, nearly a thousand horsepower, manual gearboxes, no aids, anything like that, super heavy, I just thought it’s one of the most pure forms of racing.

“I think it was right at the period of when I first

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seriously got into it and started to watch pretty much all of the races, looking into it more and more, looking at how I can start driving in it as well, that was the point where it was like ‘ok, maybe I can make a career in racing.’”

Sedgwick is now aiming to be the first full-time European driver in the Cup Series, no mean feat considering last year the only non-American racing in the series was Daniel Suárez - from the Nuevo Leon province of Mexico that borders Texas. Meanwhile the only driver from outside the Americas to ever win a Cup race is Australian Marcos Ambrose.

Sedgwick’s largely had to forge his own path, finding a way to jump from Ginettas and Clios to finding NASCAR experience in Europe before finally making his debut in America. And all this without having any prior contacts in the States - he first spoke to a NASCAR team in 2014.

When we sit down to talk over a Zoom meeting, his setting’s not quite a Monaco flat à la Charles Leclerc or Max Verstappen. We’re both sat in our bedrooms, and he gets up almost immediately to sort out the lighting – his racing sim setup is apparently in the window.

Perhaps showing the difference in reaction times between a professional racing driver and a normal human, by the time I start to tell him that it’s alright, the video doesn’t need to be good quality and it’s not going anywhere - he’s already out of shot.

His room does a good job of recounting his career on and off track - a big ‘1’ trophy from his British Karting championship win is flanked by pictures of him racing in NASCAR - you wonder how many

“I WENT FROM NO PLANS FOR THE YEAR, EFFECTIVELY FEELING LIKE RETIRED FROM RACING, TO LATER THAT YEAR OBVIOUSLY MAKING MY DEBUT IN THE US.” - ALEX SEDGWICK of his competitors for a Cup Series seat have that combination.

It’s not all racing-related though, one decoration that sticks out is a target from a gun range: “I needed something to fill a frame and I had that from when I was in America. I think I put it up two years ago and I’ve just never replaced it with a proper photo.”

The Daytona experience capped a rollercoaster twelve months that started with the disappointment of his second NASCAR Euro season being cancelled due to lockdown enforced by the COVID-19 pandemic: “In some ways it slowed everything down, in some ways it generated a lot of new opportunities to be where I am now.

“I went from no plans for the year, effectively feeling like retired from racing, to later that year obviously making my debut in the US. “I just tried to take the time, especially the first

lockdown we had to be like ‘what are my options, what can I do now to figure these things out.”

Talking to Sedgwick is an education in the trials, tribulations and triumphs of the off-track life of a racing driver. 2020 and 2015 are two key years he pinpoints in his career so far.

Like last year, 2015 started with a disappointment that looked set to put paid to at least 12 months of racing.

By this point Sedgwick had finished karting, having been crowned British Champion in 2011, and was coming off his first season of Ginetta Juniors - courtesy of being awarded a scholarship to compete in the series.

Going up against a strong grid that included Lando Norris, Jamie Chadwick and Billy Monger, Sedgwick had a solid season placing tenth overall, with a highest finish of fourth at Silverstone - one place ahead of

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Norris. Even having that year was unexpected, with the scholarship providing an unexpected opportunity to make the step up: “All the way through karting, going to race in cars was very unattainable in a way, we’re not a super-rich family so we could scrape by to race karts every year but to go and race cars, we don’t have 50, 60, 70, 80k that we can just go ‘yeah cool we’re going to spend that on my son’s hobby’.”

Sedgwick was preparing to do a second year of Ginettas when a sponsor bailed on him just a couple of weeks before the season started, sending his plans into a tailspin.

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He had to adjust to putting his feet up on the couch rather than down on the pedals, with the next step uncertain.

But he was able to turn it around in the second half of the year, competing in a weekend of French F4 and the last two rounds of that years’ Clio Cup - where he qualified fifth on his first outing.

For Sedgwick it was quite a defining year, both in further honing his skills and range of experience on the track and maturing his headspace off it: “At that point I’d raced a full season in something since I was like 8-years old so at that point where you’re young, dumb and immature, it becomes kind of

expected that that’s just what happens so obviously it was a big disappointment.”

“Looking back at it now I’m really grateful for it because they got to experience, albeit in very short periods, so many different series, so many different types of cars and do a lot of things where if I was tied to one series I wouldn’t have been able to do it and I probably wouldn’t have learnt so much even by racing more.

“So yeah it’s that weird, like now in hindsight I’m really grateful for it and obviously it’s kind of, made me grow up faster and made me figure out OK how can I make this not happen in the future, what can I do you

know make this situation better.”

Sedgwick was introduced to racing aged eight when his dad was Peugout’s PR manager at the 24 Hours of Le Mans: “One of my very first ever experiences of real motorsport outside of watching it on the TV was going to Le Mans for the test weekend in 2007, and yeah literally as an 8-year old sat in the Peugeot garage, radio on, listening to the drivers in the car, like the coolest thing ever.”

But the PR relation hasn’t dulled him as a conversationalist at all, throughout our chat he speaks candidly and stays away from cliches. The biggest

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“I WENT IN AND THERE WAS NEVER ANY PRESSURE. I COULD STILL KIND OF BE A KID RATHER THAN A KART-DRIVING ROBOT” thing that shines through is Alex’s appreciation of the position he’s in.

Whether it’s that memory of sitting in the Peugeot garage, sharing the Euro Series paddock with Jacques Villenueve and Bobby Labonte in the Euro Series or his debut at Daytona, the word ‘cool’ gets mentioned repeatedly.

That’s something that started when he first drove a kart, just viewing it as a hobby without any thought of making a career from racing: “It was just a fun kind-of weekend hobby that we did as a family, my dad was my mechanic, we’d sit at the garage every evening building the kart and that kind of thing. Like most things obviously over time you get more competitive, it gets more serious, you start doing better and then it spirals out of control to where I am now.

“You see both approaches as well and all the kids that are like superstars by the time they’re 9 years old, they get to 14 and either dad’s run out of money or they’ve got so sick of just being at a kart track every day of their lives that they want to do anything but race.

“I went in and there was never any pressure. I could still kind of be a kid rather than a kart-driving robot that just do what they’re told.”

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Away from track, in 2019 he started a business with a schoolfriend. Set up as an events company, Vertex, hosting track days that he said offered smaller grids and therefore more track-time for all involved.

While they intend to branch out post-pandemic, he’s hosted iRacing events during lockdown that have given Sedgwick a chance to see the effect he’s already having as a trailblazer: “We ran some iRacing events over lockdown and they were all NASCAR-based, filled with guys from the UK and Europe. Some were like 14/15-years-old maybe doing a bit of karting or maybe wanting to go into something in racing.

“To be able to talk to these guys and help them out, I’ve spoken to them quite a lot about what they want to do and what they need to put in place. When I was in the Euro Series I was the only UK driver and the second year I did there I had a lot of people obviously either coming and giving it a go or asking me what it’s like and obviously showing a lot of interest in NASCAR. “So it is cool, but obviously I can think about that when I’m far enough ahead that no-one’s gonna beat me to the Cup!” And the last point is a crucial one - while he’s made it onto the path, there’s no desire for him to be a onehit wonder - making it onto a grid for a couple of races

before vanishing.

The long-term plan remains to be the first full-time European Cup Series driver so he’s taking the long road for it, stepping up through the series so when he does get a shot, there’s scope to turn that into a full-time drive.

There’s plenty of pitfalls - not least the fact that his competition is almost exclusively Americans who’ve been building for this since they were old enough to reach the pedals.

Sedgwick’s oval experience is limited to his Euro Series, Phoenix and Daytona appearances so the aim is to add to that, but he’s also picked the best possible time to come into the sport, with more road courses his speciality given his background - coming onto the calendar: “In the cup level, Xfinity level they’ve been stuck at you know two road courses a year for the last 15, 20 years so obviously there’s been a lot of fan interest in having more road courses and this year they’re up to 7.

“I think it will probably stay around there which it’s just under a third of the year on road courses or a quarter of the year so yeah I think it’s cool and obviously the new Cup car, the next Gen car for next year is a lot more suited to road course racing as well.

“When you’ve got a car more built towards it there’s a lot more things you can do because the car’s

supposed to do it, you’re not going to melt your brakes in four laps!”

And whilst his oval experience is limited, his experience jumping into different series and cars makes him better suited than most for it. Coming from his road course background, at Phoenix he used the brake more to control the car, and he said he prefers to race with his feet rather than rolling the car into corners.

But however much he can adapt the car to his driving style there’s one problem that’s out of his control - he’s starting from zero in the NASCAR approval process, which limits his ability to add to that experience - this year more than most.

The majority of races this year at ARCA and Xfinity level haven’t had qualifying sessions which makes them impossible for Sedgwick to enter, and in the latter he’ll need to start from scratch again, building his way up from road courses to short track ovals and upsizing from there.

He’s heading back to the Euro Series race at Brands Hatch at the start of July, and from there is hoping to compete at more events stateside in the ARCA and Xfinity Series, with conversations ongoing with teams.

But his career to date shows that wherever he goes, he’ll have the experience to be up to speed, and the chance of fans being able to watch a British driver on the Cup Series grid feels closer than ever.

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IMAGE BY BRIAN SMITH

LANCIA FULVIA BEFORE THE STRATOS, LANCIA RALLIED WITH THE FULVIA AND IT HAD A LOT OF SUCCESS. WINNING EVERY ITALIAN RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP FROM 1965-1973 BAR 1970, THE FULVIA WAS THE CAR TO HAVE. THE CAR ALSO WON THE 1972 INTERNATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP FOR MANUFACTURERS.

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WORDS BY ANDY PARR IMAGES BY SHILOH PR / CAROL GLENN

T

he world changed in 2020 not only because it battled with a pandemic but also because of what happened on 25th May over 9 minutes in Minneapolis, USA. The death of George Floyd inspired World F1 Champion Lewis Hamilton and millions of others to say “Enough is enough” and work to address inequality. Lewis summed it up in interviews with statements to address the challenges faced when he said “People have been happy with the norm here of how life and society has operated but the world and the younger generation in particular are more conscious that things aren’t equal and that change is needed.” The Mercedes star also realised this was no instant fix when he said “It’s not something that is going to change overnight, it will take a long, long time. It won’t be over in my career or even in my lifetime but the goal is to change things for future generations.”

At the same time inspired by events and by Lewis Hamilton’s actions Carol Glenn decided that the time for action has arrived and she needed to do something to help the younger generation.

As a Black woman in motorsport, Carol, like Lewis, was eminently qualified to speak out and to help. Her interest in motorsport started with watching James Hunt in Formula 1 on TV and being inspired by Murray Walker’s enthusiastic commentary. Carol will also tell you of her excitement at seeing rally cars on the RAC

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Rally and from there she decided to get involved. She started out by joining “the Orange Army” as a marshal and went on to be part of the marshalling team at Le Mans for five years as well as the World Touring Cars at the Nurburgring. Her enthusiasm for the sport meant Carol became a visible presence as a paddock marshal at BRSCC, HSCC and Masters Historic racing events.

Her love affair with the sport progressed and in 1988 Carol became the first ever black licensed motor racing official. Later Carol progressed further and became a Secretary of the Meeting at events over a 15-year period. In 2015 she gained her Clerk of the Course qualification and is one of only two women of colour to hold the Clerk of the Course licence. As Carol says, “there are less than a handful of people of colour in motorsport at official and competitor level and that simply does not reflect the world we all live in”.

As a Black woman Carol found she had to be both resilient and persistent to progress. It is a pattern that minorities experience, that they have to address to become the best they can be at what they do and create opportunities that might come easier to others.

Carol has seen stereotypical tropes expressed in her direction in terms of banter about “watch out she’ll steal your wheels” or representations of her as a “South London Gangsta” and the like, which are less visible nowadays, but the challenges are still there. In those early days she vividly recalls comments from spectators who saw her at marshals posts at various circuits and often questioned why a black woman “had the right”

“PEOPLE HAVE THIS WAY TO PRETEND YOU’RE NOT THERE, YOU MIGHT GIVE UP, YOU’LL GO AWAY. BUT I DIDN’T.” - CAROL GLENN to be there.

Carol expressed her attitude recently when discussing the challenges she faced.

“People have this way to pretend you’re not there, you might give up, you’ll go away. But I didn’t.” By not going away Carol continued her journey in motorsport with her progression to become a Clerk of the Course.

Even so there were challenges as Carol was given her provisional licence as Clerk of the Course but struggled to find a club to mentor her for the full accreditation. Eventually, she had to go to the Motor Sports Association who were able to find her a mentor club.

With over 30 years of experience in motorsport, Carol knew it was time to try and share some of that expertise and Next Racing Generation (NRG) was born to help young people progress in the sport. As the initiative’s website reveals, NRG has the aim “to take young ambitious people, in particular those from underrepresented groups, into the world of motorsport, accessing all areas from race mechanics, marshalling, Esports right through Karting in Bambino to F1 rookie status and onwards.”

The initiative is currently involved with over a dozen youngsters between 18-19-years-old and the level varies from karting to cars, but ambitions extend, and it could

be helping make that step to F1 or as an administrator, following in Carol’s footsteps to become a Clerk of the Course.

The initial goal is for NRG to become pivotal to students from diverse backgrounds who are studying STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics) subjects at University. The vision is ambitious and NRG’s desire is to become the “go-to Academy for all those who aspire to work within the motorsport sector.”

NRG is also aiming to help parents to obtain information and access for their youngsters including guidance to navigate choices for education and interviews. The youngsters involved are 14-yearsold and upwards so there is a focus on helping them choose both the right subjects and the right Universities and Colleges to suit their aspirations.

To help achieve these goals the initiative is split into two separate but complementary parts.

NRG Motorsports is the part that looks at driver development. The offering to youngsters is currently focussed upon the drivers NRG are attracting and has a fourfold framework consisting of race management, media training, driver coaching and personal mentoring and coaching.

Race management is to give students that skills to

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monitor and supervise practice sessions, the qualifying sessions and the race itself including things like making the best use of any testing days at circuits or developing their ability to manage every phase of a race.

Media training is an obvious necessity in this day of fast moving social media, when accidentally saying the wrong thing can be heard by millions of people in seconds without any real context. The training will include the “do’s and don’ts” when dealing with the Press, how to improve interview technique and the importance of media exposure as well as a look at social media and how to manage social media presence.

Driver coaching is about those marginal gains that make a difference to improve existing driving skills to help reach faster lap times and get every potential second out of the car. This will start with understanding the best racing lines, car positioning and braking points.

The whole NRG motorsport package is wrapped in the principle of providing mentoring and training that will help talented people develop through a tailored programme of support, encouragement, guidance, and networking contacts. This is where the second part of the organisation comes in to play. This is the NRG Academy, which is the charitable arm of the venture and is leading on more holistic training for young people looking at helping and mentoring them as they develop their life choices into education and career moves.

This includes providing help and choices for

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areas such as careers development, apprenticeships, especially in areas like mechanical engineering and auto design, as well as towards other areas like journalism, PR and events work in addition to other areas that can be associated with the autosport world.

NRG aims to be that extra aid to signpost young people to courses, colleges and University starting between the ages of 11 and 14, when adolescence and the prospect of finding a path into the world of work means young people are more in need of help than they often realise.

There is a realisation that help is needed with educational placements, as youngsters from some areas and backgrounds do not necessarily have the same networks to access opportunities. Carol has a mantra that NRG is “trying to raise aspirations by helping dreams become reality”. That might sound a little corny, but it does sum up what is driving the organisation to be a persistent voice in enabling young people to have the choices that have been difficult to access to date.

The NRG officially launched ahead of the 2021 Motorsport Season at the Autosport International Connect (ASI) event in March and already is working in collaboration with Red Bull. NRG accepted an invitation from Red Bull to collaborate on a film provisionally called “Made in Britain” and has enabled young people from inner city areas to be involved as film extras. The opportunity doesn’t stop there though, as NRG has accessed the opportunity for a select number of participants to see and experience what it would be like to be a part of the full production of a

film. This includes involvement in both the pre and post production editing process.

“I am delighted with this opportunity created by Red Bull.” Said Carol. “We are looking forward to the release of this film which will also showcase the young people who have been collaborating with them on this incredible venture.”

Filming commenced on 30th May with a release date pencilled in for late July. Carol is optimistic that this has been an involvement in something that might open doors and change the life of those involved. Initial responses from the young people have been wholly positive. Although not all the youngsters involved wanted to be involved in motorsport, it gave teenagers from inner city London the opportunity to be part of a film set at Goodwood in Sussex and Carol has received messages from many of the participants.

Subject to the relaxation of COVID-19 regulations as expected in mid-July 2021, the next event currently, in the planning stage, is an exciting Esport event, which will take place in Shoreditch at the Red Bull Gaming Sphere between 29th July and 2nd August 2021. It is an opportunity for anyone aged over 16 to learn about professional Esports and Sim rig racing with the added chance to show off their skills behind the wheel. The event is effectively a four-day takeover of the centre by over-16s from different backgrounds culminating with a mini grand prix on the Sunday.

Carol has also been involved in a Hamilton led piece of research. Hamilton commissioned the Royal Academy of Engineering to carry out research as “The Hamilton Commission”. This is a standalone piece of research which aims to improve the representation of Black people in Motorsport. NRG forms part of the report as a case study for the potential opportunities that might be accessed with the right approach and support. The report itself is due to be published during the summer period of 2020 and Carol is pleased to have been involved from the beginning. It has also helped her in the development of NRG and she is keen that the work being done is not just seen as an organisation for people from diverse backgrounds but as an opportunity for people from all backgrounds to receive the help they require to make their choices.

Hamilton is an ambassador for change in becoming the first Black person to win the F1 World Championship, and in the same way, Carol Glenn is a pioneer being the first Black woman licensed as a motorsport race official. Whilst the glass ceiling may not yet be destroyed you can be certain neither Hamilton or Carol will be the last in their position. The challenge is to make progress to enable opportunities that exist to be available to all youngers irrespective of background and to help those youngsters take advantage of those opportunities.

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EPIC FINALES AT ABU DHABI

THE END OF AN ERA The curtain comes down on the hybrid era at this year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix YAS ISLAND - ABU DHABI

Yas Marina Circuit 10th - 12th December 2021 Formula 1 racing is set for major changes in 2022. Sweeping regulation changes will come in that are designed for closer racing, more action, and create a tighter field. But the changes will come as the 2021 season looks to be one of the most exciting in recent memory.

Since the hybrid era began in 2014, there has been one team at the top. Mercedes has won the last seven consecutive championships, with Lewis Hamilton winning all-but-one. But 2021 is already building towards an epic send off for the hybrid machines.

Max Verstappen looks as fast as it’s ever been the Red Bulls look to take the title challenge to the Silver Arrows for the first time since their last championship in 2013. As the season moves on, neither Hamilton nor Verstappen look like they’re going to take their foot off the gas as the season goes down to the wire.

And all signs are pointing to an epic season finale in Abu Dhabi. The Yas Marina circuit has been the site of some epic title-deciding races of the past – including Red Bull and Mercedes’ maiden championships.

2010 The duel in the desert saw four drivers – Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber – all with a shot at the championship at the final race. It was Vettel who prevailed with Red Bull, and became the youngest ever world champion.

2011 Having won the first two Abu Dhabi races, it looked a dead cert that the pole man and newly-crowned double world champion Vettel would walk away with another win. But a puncture saw him out before turn 3, and Lewis Hamilton held off Alonso for the win.

2014 Double points were on offer for the first and only time ever as Nico Rosberg chased down teammate Lewis Hamilton for the title. The German put it on pole, but Lewis led the first lap, and mechanical issues for Rosberg means Hamilton was crowned a double-champ.

2016 The Silver Arrows were back at it again, but this time Rosberg had the upper hand. Hamilton led from pole, and would slow his pace to allow other drivers to catch his rival, but it was Rosberg who took 2nd and the title.

2020 The end of a Mercedes-dominated season saw Max Verstappen and Red Bull lay down the gauntlet.

Mercedes had won every Abu Dhabi race of the hybrid era, but Verstappen’s pole and win proved there was plenty to come in 2021.

It’s a fitting setting for the final race, as the incredible Yas Marina circuit tests the drivers who will require the upmost skill and bravery to make key overtakes. Only the victor will be spinning donuts under the bright lights before lifting the winners’ trophy.

With the race taking place in mid-December, fans will be able to witness not just the final race of the era, but what might be an era-defining battle between two greats. Tickets are now on sale for premium hospitality packages which not only get you closer to the grid, with priceless views of the chequered flag moment, but the opportunity to get the inside line from teams.

Aerial view of the Yas Marina Hotel. A key feature of the Yas Marina Circuit.

Yas Island - Abu Dhabi

All images used under license from Motorsport Images

Max Verstappen winner of the 2020 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Yas Island - Abu Dhabi

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TOBY’S JOURNEY

In his last column, Toby Trice had announced that he was embarking on a full season in Ginetta’s new championship, the GT Academy. In his latest column, he explains what has happened since the last issue and how the first race of the season went for him.

H

ello everybody! The last time we spoke was just before the launch of the inaugural Ginetta GT Academy and what a whirlwind it has been since then! It has just been overwhelming.

Obviously, I announced I was going into GT Academy but at the time of writing my last column, I hadn’t even seen the car!

I got my first look at the car in April at a private media day with Momentum Social and I was simply amazed with the way it looked. My sponsors, Purpletasche, did a great job on the livery and I couldn’t be happier. It was the perfect way to kick off my start to the new season and made me even more motivated to have a competitive year.

I was hugely excited to join the first year of the Ginetta GT Academy championship. Obviously I hoped to be competitive but I didn’t really expect to get the results that we got at the opening round.

I only had three days of testing prior to the start of the season. One of those days included the media day at Blyton and the other two were at Brands Hatch in the build up to the opening race weekend.

That meant I went to the first race of the year in May at Brands Hatch with very little experience of the

car. The practice sessions on the Friday were in mixed conditions and so I worked hard to try and build up my confidence in the car and by the end of the day I felt comfortable and thought I had a good chance over the weekend.

Qualifying took place on a wet Saturday and I couldn’t believe it when I looked at the timing screen and saw that I was on pole position by a tenth of a second. It was the perfect start to my campaign. It was absolute madness!

We had a strategy throughout qualifying to do a few tests, looking at what the car was going to be like throughout the race weekend because it was quite mixed conditions on-track. I had a good banker lap which put me three tenths off pole, but my final flying lap was mega. I knew that lap was good enough for pole position, but I wasn’t sure how the tight the margin was. So getting back to the pits and seeing that I clinched it by a tenth was immense and to chuck the car on pole in the first round of the championship, it felt incredible. There will only ever be one first pole position of the Ginetta GT Academy and my name is written on it, so happy days!

All three races took place on Sunday and in the first three laps of Race 1 I managed to build up a nice Jakob Ebrey

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Jakob Ebrey

lead. I was really happy about that start because the conditions were very tricky as a result of the rain earlier in the day. The safety car then came out as a result of an accident further back in the pack, but when the safety car returned to the pits I was able to get away from the field and build that gap back. The safety car was called out again at the end of the race after another crash on track and the race finished under safety car conditions, so it was a bit of an anti-climax.

But nonetheless I had the measure of the field, so I was really happy with it.

That was my first ever race win in a car so that was of course a wonderful moment, because that only happens once! That felt absolutely amazing, it was so good. And of course, that is the first ever race win of the inaugural Ginetta GT Academy, so it’s special that I’ve written that first bit of history!

Race 2 and Race 3 of the weekend were both very challenging. I had two very bad race starts which dropped me from pole position back in to second or third in both races, but I just kept my head down, got stuck in and had some amazing racecraft. I was able to make some overtakes and in both races I brought the

win home.

Admittedly, in Race 2 I left the move for the win very late on, but Want2Race’s Angus Whiteside left the door open on the final corner on the last lap and so I went for the gap and managed to get the move completed to win.

Even one victory was enough, but to get three was brilliant. It gets me valuable points for the championship. Getting regular points is the long-term goal this year, but to take three wins, I’m speechless and almost lost for words!

We managed to almost get maximum points from the weekend at Brands. We only dropped one point for not getting the fastest lap in Race 2. So it was almost a maximum-points start, which is the best way. It means I now have a really healthy lead in the championship with a 21 point advantage over Roy Alderslade and the fight for the title is well and truly on.

I’m now switching focus to the remaining rounds of the season and hopefully I can be just as competitive at Donington Park in July, my favourite circuit and the one where I got my first ever podium in a racing car.

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IN SHORT

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Image credit: Rob Gray (Polarity Photo)/KTM Media Library

A FUTURE STAR GONE TOO SOON

BY ADAM PROUD

Motorsport is dangerous. Everyone who follows or is involved in the industry knows that. But when you are confronted with a tragedy, it leaves you shaken.

During qualifying in the Moto3 class ahead of the Grand Prix of Italy, Jason Dupasquier suffered a crash at the Arrabbiata 2 corner and after receiving treatment both trackside and in hospital, the Swiss rider sadly passed away.

Being the same age as Jason, just 19-years-old, his death really shook me, knowing that the young star’s life was only just beginning, and it was so cruelly taken away from him.

Straight after the crash, every rider, be it Moto3, Moto2 or MotoGP, sent their wishes to the Swiss rider, with Fabio Quartararo dedicating his pole position in the Italian Grand Prix to Dupasquier, and other riders taking to social media to give their thoughts and prayers.

At the time of the announcement that Jason had sadly passed, bikes were on the grid ready for the Moto2 race, meaning understandably, the intermediate-class riders were not told of the news until after the race.

But ahead of the MotoGP race, a minute silence was held on the grid and across the paddock. Quartararo took an emotional victory and stopped at Dupasquier’s crash site to pay his respects with a Swiss flag. Putting an end to what was a weekend in Mugello that finished with a dark cloud over the sport we all love.

Dupasquier was born on September 7, 2001, in Bulle, Switzerland. Being the son of moto-cross rider Philippe Dupasquier, the youngster’s racing career naturally began when he competed in SuperMoto. It was in this discipline where he became a multiple-time Swiss National champion, and eventually switched to circuit racing in 2016.

This switch to tarmac paid off well, as Dupasquier claimed the title of the ADAC NEC Championship Moto3 in only his rookie year, which set him up to race in the Junior World Championship

the following year. After a steady season, the young rider looked set for a seat in the Red Bull Rookies Cup in 2018, which is the gateway championship in the MotoGP junior classes. However, a femur injury picked up during Round 2 of the Junior Moto3 World Championship delayed this debut until 2019.

During his first and only year in the Cup, Dupasquier was very impressive, finishing all but one race, and in every race he finished, it was inside the top-ten. With a best finish of fourth in Jerez, the Swiss rider racked up a total of 102 points and ended eighth in the overall standings, leading to Prüstel Grand Prix taking him on in the Moto3 category for 2020.

In such a competitive category, Dupasquier learned the ropes of the Moto3 class quickly. In his rookie year, he had a best finish of 17th, and was increasingly getting quicker as the season passed, closing up to the leading pack with each race that passed.

Come the 2021 campaign, the Swiss talent started off strong, with his first tenth-place finish in the Grand Prix of Qatar and continued to back this up with points finishes in every other race he took part in up to the Italian Grand Prix.

Being one of MotoGP’s fast-rising star’s, Dupasquier had a career-best finish of seventh, which he achieved in the Grand Prix of Spain this year. As the MotoGP paddock came to Italy, the Moto3 sophomore sat in tenth in the World Championship, collecting 27 points after five rounds of the season had passed.

The death of Dupasquier sent shockwaves through the MotoGP paddock and the entire motorsport community. It was the first death in a MotoGP championship category since Luis Salom lost his life five years ago during a Moto2 practice session in the Catalunya Grand Prix.

A future star in the MotoGP paddock, Dupasquier will always be remembered by the entire MotoGP community, who was tragically taken from us too early.

Ride in Peace, Jason.

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Image credit: Mercedes AMG F1 / Sebastian Kawka

IS TIME UP FOR BOTTAS?

BY ANDREW WRIGHT

It can’t be easy being Lewis Hamilton’s team-mate.

Undoubtedly one of the best drivers ever to grace the Formula 1 grid, challenging him on odd weekends and acting as rear gunner is nothing to be ashamed of, especially in an era of team dominance.

But what happens when that dominance comes under threat?

Do you pull the plug on someone who has been a faithful servant and obeyed orders many would have disregarded? As the saying goes, there can be no sentiment in business, and as is wildly rumoured, it appears Bottas’ days at Mercedes are numbered.

So let’s take a closer look as to why – ignoring the fact Mercedes has a potential superstar waiting in the wings – the Finn’s future is likely to lie away from the German marque.

Much was made of Bottas’ Saturday pace in 2020. Despite losing out 12-4 in the head-to-head battle, six of those defeats were near misses and led many to heap praise where perhaps it wasn’t warranted - in hindsight, of course.

The 31-year-old has had somewhat of a disastrous start to this campaign but, surprisingly, the gap to his team-mate in qualifying has actually come down from this year to last. Averaged out across the 16 races in which they both lined up for in 2020, Hamilton had an advantage of 0.250s on pure one-lap Q3 pace.

In 2021, it currently sits at 0.237s.

What’s different, though, is the level of competition. In 2020, Bottas only lined up outside of the top three on two occasions: the Styrian and Turkish Grands Prix (both in the wet, coincidentally).

His average grid slot therefore was a typically trouble-free 2.4.

However, as a result of the pack tightening up, that has almost doubled to 4.7 in 2021.

As is well known, the effect of qualifying further down the order is massively accentuated when it comes to Sunday, and that is what we’ve seen play out in the first handful of races this season.

There is no denying Bottas has serious speed – you don’t make it to F1 without it – but he does seem to lack the racecraft of the two men he regularly shared the podium with last year: 150 THE PIT STOP

Hamilton and Max Verstappen.

That can be accepted when you still experience the sweet taste of champagne more often than not but when it then translates into an inability to scythe through the midfield in superior machinery, questions get asked and speculation mounts.

Granted, Bottas has been on the receiving end of some misfortune this season – at Monaco in particular when a wheelnut face was machined off during a disastrous pitstop and ultimately led to retirement – but some of his performances have been alarming.

At Imola the Finn’s wet-weather struggles were once again laid bare as he spent the first half of the race unable to pass any of Lando Norris, Carlos Sainz, Lance Stroll or Pierre Gasly who jostled for position right in front of him. And worse was to come when he was involved in a huge incident with the man tipped to replace him, George Russell, as the youngster came blasting past in his Williams.

A semi-stabilising run of performances followed before a terrible qualifying session at Azerbaijan was usurped only by his Sunday showing as he trailed home in 14th. On the streets of Baku, not even the sport’s longest straight could help Bottas in his bid to recover through the field.

He has picked up three third-place finishes and two fastest laps but that can’t be good enough in a car that might wind up being the best of 2021.

All this has him sitting sixth in the Drivers’ Championship on just 47 points, which equates to little over 7.8 points per race.

Compare that to Hamilton, who has more than double that haul despite losing out on what was a near-certain victory because of a bizarre error on the restart in Azerbaijan.

As the season progresses, the nine-time grand prix winner’s performances will likely revert to form, but in a car that has been hampered by this year’s regulations and is now under threat from not one, but two charging bulls, is that really going to cut it?

Image credit: Hill Speed Images

CREES: FROM BTCC TO MONACO

BY WILLIAM HOLMES

Very few racers have had the career Michael Crees enjoys – despite starting karting in his early 30s, just five years later he now finds himself driving on the world stage alongside the Formula 1 superstars.

In 2019, the Kent-born campaigner entered the British Touring Car Championship for the first time, competing against the UK’s best in front hundreds of thousands of fans, and did not disappoint; fast-forward a season, Crees bagged himself a seat with multiple race-winning team BTC Racing.

2020’s efforts were enough to keep Crees on with the outfit for another season, but only a few months down the line a shock announcement was made, as the 37-year-old recalled: “It was all working really well and the times in the BTCC’s preseason testing showed that – I was around the top six in the field.

“I have a very strong commercial group around me and tend to leave that side of things to their better judgement. We had done the deal with the team [BTC Racing] around Christmas, but then the goal posts changed as we got closer to the start of the season. My team couldn’t agree terms with theirs and we left that’s how it ended.”

Naturally, the meteoric rise shown in Crees’ ability behind the wheel piqued many teams’ interests, which he also reflected on: “The gossip started in the motorsport world when they saw my split with BTC Racing, and Team Parker Racing actually contacted me about racing in the Porsche Supercup before it went south. We knew it would be on the world stage, and was I ready for that? Considering my growth in my career, we thought maybe, and commercially it made sense.”

After two years and a pre-season’s worth of national touring car racing, Crees now faced a campaign of rear-wheel-driving around Europe. On top of this, the year kicked off with arguably the toughest race of the campaign – Monaco.

“I wasn’t really thinking about it – I knew being in Monaco would be a great experience, but when I arrived, I thought ‘have I bitten off more than I can chew here?’ It was like an outer-body experience, it was surreal - I was in a dream. I was the only one

there who had never raced in a Porsche championship before and to put it on P19 out of 28 was not bad going.”

Another benefit of racing around the infamous streets of Monte Carlo was the company alongside Crees. The Porsche Supercup acts as a support category for F1, so rubbing shoulders with the best drivers in the world was part and parcel of the experience.

“I spoke with Valtteri [Bottas] on the track walk and I asked for some tips – he just said ‘send it’!”

Partnering Crees throughout the year is none other than Harry King, a proven master piloting a GT3-spec Porsche 911.

However, unknown to many motorsport fans, the new teammates have an established history together throughout both of their hasty careers.

“Not many people know this but when Harry [King] was racing in Ginetta Juniors at Silverstone, he defended all race and it was some of the best driving I’ve ever seen. Next year, we were both in the GT4 series and did some television interviews together, and I’d like to think we became good mates from then on.

“I kept an eye on his Porsche racing, and he the same on my BTCC efforts. When he heard that I was to be his team-mate this year, he said ‘do whatever it takes to get him in’ – it’s been a bit of a gamechanger. Let me tell you that this kid is a serious driver on the way to stardom.”

The British duo are most definitely a force to be reckoned with, with both targeting their respective class titles by the seasonfinisher at Monza in September. To conclude our conversation, Crees noted on his stance regarding British Touring Cars: “I’ve definitely got unfinished business in the BTCC. If I could split myself in two and race in both categories then I would, but I can’t and 2021 is fully committed to Porsches. Let’s see what the future holds.”

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Image credit: Mitsubishi Motors UK

DON’T EXPECT RALLIART TO RETURN TO THE WRC

BY JON SCOLTOCK

The news that Mitsubishi is set to revive its legendary Ralliart brand has set plenty of pulses racing, particularly in rally circles.

Mitsubishi, much like their compatriots at Subaru, benefitted hugely from success on the stages, particularly in the late 1990s, where they won four driver’s championships and one manufacturer’s crown.

Much of this success was driven by Ralliart Europe, which was led by Andrew Cowan, himself a successful rally driver. Cowan’s relationship with Mitsubishi began in the 1970s and, in 1983, he established a UK base for the marque’s European competition activities. Cowan’s outfit joined the World Rally Championship full-time in 1989 and success would soon follow, with Mikael Ericsson winning the 1,000 Lakes and Pentti Airikkala winning the RAC Rally in that first season.

There would be a handful of further victories during the early part of the 1990s, but it was when a young Tommi Mäkinen arrived on the scene in 1996 that things really blossomed.

Piloting the Lancer Evolution III, the Finn would score five wins that season, taking the first of four consecutive titles, as well as a manufacturer’s title in 1998.

All of this success had come as Ralliart had continued to develop its Group A car, even when their rivals had gone down the World Rally Car route. When they did finally introduce their own WRC machine in late 2001, it only seemed to compound the problems they had been facing with the aging Group A car. Mäkinen moving to Subaru for 2002 dented their ambitions further and, even though Mitsubishi took control of the WRC programme for 2003 (with Cowan still acting as a consultant), they would never score a win with the Lancer WRC. The entire programme was canned at the end of 2005, so it was left to the Group N Lancers to represent the brand in the lower categories of the sport – something they did with great success.

So, what of a return? The changes to the WRC for 2022 would certainly make it possible; with manufacturers able to build scaled down (or up!) cars around a new FIA-designed safety cell.

The use of the “Global Race Engine” regulations means there is 152 THE PIT STOP

no need for the homologation of an appropriate road car engine, while the addition of hybrid technology could make the WRC more appealing to manufacturers looking to promote electrified vehicles.

However, while it sounds like there could be cause for hope, it isn’t that simple in reality. In the Autumn of 2020, Mitsubishi announced it had frozen plans to launch any new models in Europe. While there are rumours of limited return with some new, Renault-based products, there is no plan for a return to the UK, so any new, Cowan-style operation looks unlikely. Furthermore, the focus of the WRC calendar on European events would seem at odds with the brands refocus on their core markets – Asia and Australia.

Questions would also surely have to be asked about how well a series based around small hatchbacks would fit Mitsubishi who, like so many others, are focused on the burgeoning growth in demand for SUVs and crossovers. Rumours that M-Sport may switch to the Puma crossover for 2022 could give Mitsubishi an opening, but it’s difficult to imagine a business that has faced such significant financial challenges investing in a motorsport discipline that may not fit so comfortably with its brand values and growth plans.

On top of all of this, doubt remains about the attractiveness of the WRC as manufacturers move headlong into the electrified future. The use of a spec hybrid system and increasing use of standardised components leaves little room for brands to promote their own technological innovations.

Far more likely for Mitsubishi is a return to off-road racing and the Dakar. With 12 Dakar victories to their name, it’s hard to imagine the Japanese outfit overlooking this impressive record, especially given the potential rewards of using it as a marketing tool for their SUV range. With Dakar also looking to make the switch to electrified vehicles, albeit with potentially more freedom for the engineers, it would be a brave executive that chose a return to the WRC.

Image credit: Ferrari

THE PIVOTAL CAR IN FERRARI’S DOMINANT ERA

BY LAUREN MARSHALL

The F2004 is arguably the best Formula 1 car that Ferrari has ever produced. The sublime engineering and infinite detail has given the car a spot in the motorsport headlines for almost two decades since its debut. Although the Ferrari F2004 is one fine example of ingenious engineering, its penultimate predecessor lacks the gratitude it deserves for stemming the evolution of the 2004 car.

In 2002 Ferrari debuted a car that rewarded the team with one of their best seasons: The F2002. Despite the success of 2001, Ferrari took the next step to propel themselves further ahead of any other team on the grid.

The F2002 was completely redesigned to be lighter, cooler, and more aerodynamic than the late F2001. Not only the look, but the performance of the car assured Ferrari of their future F1 success.

So, what made the F2002 so special?

One of the main engineering feats was redistributing the weight and the production of a completely new gearbox was one of the ways Ferrari accommodated this. Despite the previous gearbox contributing heavily to Ferrari’s success since the late 1990s, the engineers decided to create a new ultra-lightweight titanium gearbox.

The production of the gearbox reduced the F2002’s weight by 15%. The weight was then distributed at the rear end to lower the centre of gravity to add stability.

There was one other factor of the car that stood out compared to its competitors equivalents: The wheelbase of the car. The F2002 sat at a mere 3012mm where the Williams FW24 stretched out to 3140mm and the Renault R202, 3100mm.

Despite the known fact that the longer the wheelbase the more downforce the car gains, the shorter strategy seemed to work for Ferrari.

The F2002 went on to win 15 of its 17 races that year along with 28 podiums, 10 pole positions and 15 fastest laps. Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barichello absolutely stormed the driver’s championship with Schumacher topping the standings with 144 points while Barichello was second with 77 points. Ferrari continued its reign over the constructors for another year with 221 points – 129 points ahead of Williams BMW. Despite falling into the shadows of newer technology nowadays,

the success of the F2002 did not go unrecognised during its time, especially by Ferrari’s Technical Director, Ross Brawn.

The elation of 2002 may have been worn down when the F2003-GA fell into some tyre troubles the following year, but this appeared to have only fuelled Brawn’s desire to build another ground-breaking car.

2004 brought one of the most well-known cars in Formula 1 – the F2004. Brawn pieced together their previous work to make a hybrid of the past two Ferrari F1 cars.

Many unique and small changes were made to the F2004 car, but the most pivotal changes were simply improvements from the design principles of the F2002.

It can be argued that the tactfully designed gearbox of the F2002 is what propelled Ferrari through its glory days, and by Ferrari’s actions it appears they would have agreed.

Ferrari kept the F2002 titanium gearbox but with additional carbon fibre reinforcements. This reduced the weight of the already light car whilst increasing gearbox stability.

Another feature plucked straight from the F2002 was the short wheelbase. The F2004, although longer than the F2002, stretched to 3050mm whilst the BAR-006 (Ferrari’s closest rival of that year) had a wheelbase of 3,140mm.

That year it was another total whitewash for the 2004 Constructor’s championship as Ferrari won 15 out of 20 races, achieved 30 podiums, 12 pole positions and 14 fastest laps. The results show that taking inspiration from the F2002 was a step in the right direction for Ferrari.

As Ferrari enter their 91st year of F1 racing, it is safe to say that the F2002 and F2004 are two cars that played pivotal roles in Ferrari’s supreme years. The combination of the ultra-light gearbox and the short wheelbase is a product of engineering that has been adopted this year by not only the current Ferrari SF21 but many others including the championship leader – The Red Bull RB16B. It can be agreed that the F2004 is a magnificent car, but it goes without saying that its 2002 prototype is an equally perfect example of Formula 1 engineering.

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IMAGE BY DLV PHOTOS

FIGHTING FOR THE FUTURE BRITISH F3 IS FULL OF YOUNG DRIVERS BEGINNING THEIR JOURNEY TO ONE DAY RACING IN FORMULA 1.

INEVITABLY, WHILE SOME DRIVERS WILL ACHIEVE THEIR DREAM, OTHERS WILL ALSO MISS OUT, SUCH IS THE WAY OF THE MOTORSPORT WORLD. HERE, FREDERICK LUBIN IS RACING HIS ARDEN MOTORSPORT CAR AROUND A DAMP BRANDS HATCH CIRCUIT. 154 PIT STOP STOP 154 THE THE PIT

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