Motorsport News April 7, 2022

British Touring Car Championship stalwart Jason Plato will take part in his final year in the category this year after tying up a deal to race for the BTC Racing team in a Honda Civic. TheAdrian Flux-backed driver firmed up his seat last week and says he will be gunning for race wins from the start. He will join Josh Cook and Jade Edwards in the privately-owned team. “It will be a really nice thing to celebrate my time in the BTCC,” said Plato. “I have had a brilliant career and it will be nice to say thanks to the fans and let them know I am checking out at the end of the campaign. “I am going to try my best to win it and how great would it be to win…

There was the predictable fanfare as Formula 1 bosses presented their plans to return grand prix racing to Las Vegas. Last week’s announcement of a three-year deal, they proudly told those who were listening, simply underlined the increased interest in Formula 1 in the States. The race – which will, quite unusually, take place on a Saturday night (meaning an 0600hrs broadcast time on Sunday in Europe) – will take place on what sounds like an epic 3.8-mile track where speeds in excess of 210mph are predicted. It is yet another grand prix vying for a slot on the schedule, which seems ever more likely to hit 24 grands prix next season. And it is yet another production from well-heeled organisers that will take place on a temporary track designed to make…

Bosses of Formula 1 have struck a deal to host a grand prix on a new street track in the centre of Las Vegas. The Saturday night event joins Miami and Austin as US hosts in the grand prix line-up. Las Vegas last hosted a grand prix in 1982 when a course was laid out in the car park of the Caesars Palace Hotel. The new circuit will, according to a statement from Formula 1 bosses, sweep past famous hotels and casinos. It will run to 3.8 miles and feature 14 corners. Top speeds are expected to reach 212mph. Formula 1 boss Stefano Domenicali said: “This is an incredible moment for Formula 1 that demonstrates the huge appeal and growth of our sport with a third race in the US. “Las Vegas…

McLaren driver Daniel Ricciardo says there will be no immediate fix to McLaren’s pace problems after a disastrous start to the 2022 season. Ricciardo has yet to register a point while team-mate Lando Norris notched the British team’s first points in Saudi Arabia with a seventh-placed finish. McLaren is eighth of the 10 teams in the constructors’championship. Australian Ricciardo told autosport. com: “If in two races’time, we’re fighting for top five, then OK, we’ll take it and that’s a bonus. But I think mentally to remain, let’s say, calm and chill and levelheaded and sensible, you need to realise that we’re not looking for three or four tenths. It’s over a second if we want to fight the wins. So I doubt it’s going to come overnight. We have to just be…

Leaders of SaudiArabia have offered to meet seven-time World champion Lewis Hamilton to talk over his comments about his concern in racing in the country. When the first SaudiArabian Grand Prix took place in 2021, Hamilton said he was uneasy about competing in the country due to its human rights record. The 2022 event was held despite a missile attack on a nearby oil depot and government officials had to assure the leading F1 drivers and team bosses about their safety. Saudi Arabia’s Prince Abdulaziz said he was keen to talk to Mercedes driver Hamilton about his worries. “I saw the comments that Lewis had, and that he had issues with some of the things in SaudiArabia,” he said. “I told him openly and frankly that you can speak to me. Let’s sit down,…

Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner says that F1 chiefs need to tweak the DRS zones in grand prix racing to avoid drivers deliberately slowing up to take advantage of the drag reduction systems. In the recent SaudiArabian Grand Prix, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Red Bull man Max Verstappen were braking ahead of the detection points to tempt the driver behind to overtake and lose the advantage of the wing flap being deployed. Speaking to autosport.com, Horner said that the system needs a rethink. “The DRS is so powerful you could see that there was a game of cat and mouse going on between the drivers, where they’d actually brake to a point that they actually accelerated into the corner,” Horner said. “I think maybe we should look at where that DRS detection…