All the latest news from the racing world!
F1
Red Bull has launched their livery for the 2022 season, which is mostly the same as the now classic livery we have seen in the past. The main change is the new title sponsor in Oracle, who are reportedly paying $100 million per year for the privilege, which is rather a lot, especially in the new cost cap era. The car shown was an updated version of F1’s own version of the rules, so there wasn’t much to read into what we saw, and the true picture of the cars may only be seen at Bahrain, when racing begins.
Norris has extended his contract with McLaren further, until the end of 2025. Having already signed a hefty extension last year, this did seem a bit like overkill, however, given the rumours about other teams showing interest in him, it may have been to ward off unwanted attention.
Red Bull have said that they think the new car will be faster on the straights, which is a logical assumption to make, given the reduction in downforce for the new cars, as ground effect is not as draggy. Rather ironically, Horner has won a tour of the Mercedes factory at a charity auction, I bet he was willing to pay top dollar to have a look around, and it will be funny to see how much they show him!
IndyCar
Max Chilton was announced he will not return to IndyCar for 2022, after being in the sport for 6 years. He spent most of his time at Carlin, where he tried to help them climb the grid. It never quite worked out for either of them, and Carlin seems to have merged with Juncos Racing.
Formula E
Envision will run Jaguar powertrains for the Gen3 era of the sport, and will be the first customer of Jaguar ever in Formula E. It was clear that Envision would need to find a new partner for Gen3, as they are currently using Audi powertrains, who are no longer in the sport. Jaguar was a solid choice, as they have been one of the best over the past few years, although it is all change for next year, so who knows what will happen.
MotoGP
The testing in Malaysia did give us some hints as to what we might see in 2022, yet we can’t read too much into it. Firstly, Aprilia do look very quick, although we often see that in testing, nonetheless, their potential cannot be underestimated. Ducati are where we expect them to be, near the front of the times, and the noises coming from them is positive. Yamaha, however, may have some issues, they weren’t fast in testing, and Quartararo suggested that their engines may not be what he wanted at the moment.
Other News
The NASCAR season began with the Clash at the Coliseum, an all-new event, to try and entice some new fans in LA. I do think on the whole it was a success, given that the crowd was fairly strong, despite not staying for the whole event, and the racing was good for a first try. It was a push to pass race, yet there were not many wrecks, apart from in that last chance qualifier!
A potential issue for NASCAR is the lack of chassis and parts for the Next Gen car, most teams only have one spare chassis across 4 drivers, and going to Daytona, where wrecks are a common occurrence, it could be a real issue over the coming months. There were also clear reliability concerns for the new car, after the race in LA, these are expected when it is all new, but it doesn’t help their situation right now.
BMW have confirmed that the LMDh car that they are producing, could potentially go across to Le Mans in 2024. This was not unexpected, and just adds to the excitement for the series. In other LMDh news, Cadillac has given a preview of what its car will look like, with the shape bearing some resemblance to its current DPi car.
-M
Meaning of Motorsport 