All the latest news from the racing world!
F1
Testing has begun today, and as per usual; it is easy to read too much into what we are seeing. Hints are being made though as to the strength of Ferrari and McLaren compared to Red Bull and Mercedes, it could well be 4 teams in the fight for the title. What is clearer, is the struggles of Alfa Romeo and Haas, who both found it difficult to log laps out there. Haas are sporting a radically different car to what was shown for the livery reveal, which could suggest hope for a better year for them.
The biggest news of the week, is the intention for Andretti to launch their own F1 team, in time for the 2024 season. This was quite the bombshell when it broke a few days ago, and was maybe unsurprising given their attempt to buy Sauber last year. Their application is currently being reviewed by the FIA; however, they do apparently have the funds to pay the $200 million entry fee. If this does all go through, it would be huge for the sport, and really boost the American market of the sport, especially with American drivers.
IndyCar
Rahal believes that he will be in title contention this year, after not really being able to do so since 2015. Each year he has shown pace at some races, but through a lack of luck, or other reasons, it has never translated into the consistent results needed to launch a title hunt. Personally, I think it will be hard for him to be in that title fight, as there are so many strong outfits in IndyCar, who can fight for the title, and outside Indy, RLL don’t seem strong enough to do that.
Formula E
Teams like Nissan and Mahindra are trying to make deals with potential customer teams for the start of the 2023 season. There are 4 teams without powertrains for next year, however Maserati may take up one of those teams, and the future of the Mercedes team could go anyway. It is not easy for the customers to choose where to go, as it is a clean slate for Gen3, and a team like Nissan could go straight from the back to the front.
Other News
It was the Daytona 500 over the weekend, which kickstarted the real NASCAR season. The Next Gen car held its own fairly well, although there were issues with the single nut tyres, and we saw Burton flip onto his roof, due to the flat underside of the new cars. On the other hand, the racing did seem better, with cars being able to make runs and push the cars in front. It was the usual melee of incidents, but luckily, we had no interference from mother nature. At the end, it was Cindric, in his first full NASCAR season, who won the race, after pushing his teammate into the wall. It was a harsh move, but it is becoming normal in races like these. He has shown pace on these tracks before, so it wasn’t a huge shock either.
In rather shocking news, for the credibility of the open wheel junior series, Chadwick has had to return to W Series for a third year, despite winning the title twice. The idea of the series, was to give the winner enough money to progress into series higher up the ladder, to promote diversity. So, the inability of her to do this, shows the blatant issues there still are in the industry, and that real changes need to be made in the culture of the sport.
-M
Meaning of Motorsport 