Autosport 3/17/2022

The wait is finally over and we’ll get to see the cars of Formula 1’s new era battling it out in anger in Bahrain this weekend. There are lots of questions about the 2022 season – ranging from how good will the racing be in this new ground-effect age to who will set the pace – and we tackle many of them in this week’s preview special from page 18. Mercedes appears to be on the back foot, thanks to severe porpoising issues, but Max Verstappen and Red Bull could still have a fight on their hands if Ferrari’s strong testing form continues into the racing. McLaren didn’t look as impressive in the Bahrain test as it did at Barcelona (p40), but there are still reasons to think it should be capable…

FORMULA 1 Kevin Magnussen has made a shock return to Formula 1 by rejoining Haas on a multi-year deal following the exit from the squad of Nikita Mazepin. Magnussen raced for Haas between 2017 and 2020, before moving across to the IMSA SportsCar Championship last year with Chip Ganassi Racing. He had signed to race with Peugeot as part of its new Le Mans Hypercar programme in the World Endurance Championship from this year. But after Mazepin’s contract and Uralkali’s title sponsorship were terminated in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine late last month, Haas turned to Magnussen to lure him back to F1. “Walking into the paddock, I feel like I never left,” Magnussen said at last week’s Bahrain test, less than 24 hours after signing his contract. “It’s funny that…

FORMULA 1 Reigning Formula 2 champion Oscar Piastri will be available to McLaren as a reserve this year after the team struck an agreement with Alpine. Piastri will spend this year focusing on his reserve role at Alpine, putting him first in line to step in if either Esteban Ocon or Fernando Alonso are unavailable. Now the Australian will also be on call for McLaren if required. The team does not have its own dedicated reserve, instead sharing with Mercedes. Stoffel Vandoorne and Nyck de Vries are options, with ex-Force India driver and Sky Sports F1 pundit Paul di Resta another back-up. “In the spirit of offering maximum racing opportunities to our stable of young talent, we have agreed that McLaren may call upon Alpine reserve Oscar Piastri in the event one of their…

FORMULA 1 IndyCar star Colton Herta will get his first Formula 1 test this year with McLaren in its 2021 MCL35M. The 21-year-old American races for Andretti Autosport in IndyCar, and became the youngest winner in the series’ history in 2019 with victory at the Circuit of The Americas. The American was in line to land an F1 drive at Alfa Romeo for 2022 if Andretti completed its plans to acquire a majority stake, only for that to fall through at the eleventh hour. Team boss Michael Andretti has already confirmed that Herta would get a seat should his bid to get an F1 squad on the grid in the coming years be successful. Herta will build some experience with McLaren thanks to the new sporting regulations for this year, which mean any previous…

WEC Audi has cancelled its LMDh programme. The German manufacturer hasn’t confirmed the move, only that the project has been put on hold. But take it as read that the 13-time winner of the Le Mans 24 Hours won’t be ending a six-season absence from top-flight sportscar racing in the World Endurance Championship and IMSA SportsCar Championship next year. The axe fell on Audi’s LMDh hybrid prototype, the sister car to the Porsche that is already up and running, in the past two or three weeks. Multiple sources have confirmed that the project has come to a permanent end rather than the temporary one the manufacturer is insisting. “We are now taking a break of two or three months on the project,” said a spokesman for Audi Sport. “The capacities are being used…

NASCAR Ex-Minardi Formula 1 driver Tarso Marques is set to make his NASCAR Cup Series bow this season in an eight-race campaign with a Team Stange Racing Ford. Marques, who made 24 starts in F1 between 1996 and 2001, is due to make his debut at Road America on 3 July. The Chicago-based Stange team, owned by entrepreneur John Stange Jr, has mostly competed in the fourth-tier ARCA series, and was a partner on an Indianapolis 500 entry for Oriol Servia in 2019. Marques will also be entered into races at the Indianapolis road course, Watkins Glen, Daytona, the Charlotte ‘roval’, Las Vegas, Homestead and the Phoenix championship decider. His third stint with Minardi came in 2001, when he scored his best F1 finishes with two ninth places. That meant he finished ahead of…