Motorsport News 29/07/21

Being brought up on a diet of Group C racing, there was always something special for me about Porsche. The works and customer teams that populated the endurance racing grid in the early 1980s were a sight to behold, and the line-up of drivers was nearly as good as any Formula 1 grid of the era. But, as we’ve pointed out in this Porsche Special, it is hard to define exactly why the German firm has such an appeal. Sure, the Porsche 917 was one of the best-looking racing cars of all time, but the majority of its products are like metronomes. That is perfect for long-distance events, circulating with precision and regularity to gobble up the mammoth mileage, but that’s hardly something to make the trackside fan’s pulse beat that little bit…

Red Bull team head Christian Horner says that Max Verstappen’s accident at the British Grand Prix – which it estimated could cost the team £1.3 million – might limit its ability to bring upgrades to the car later in the campaign. Horner said that the lap-one shunt at Copse after contact with rival Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes has “massive ramifications” for the rest of the 2021 contest. Hamilton went on to win the race at Silverstone and closed the gap to Verstappen at the top of the drivers’ standings to just eight points. The team is determining whether the monocoque can be repaired or the Dutchman will require a fresh one, while the engine has been sent back to Japan where boffins will determine whether it can be repaired. While Red Bull technical chiefs…

Double Le Mans winner Jean-Pierre Jassaud has died aged 84, following a major heart attack while attending a reunion of the Alpine team with which he is synonymous. Born in Caen in 1937, Jassaud first began racing in 1962 with the Jim Russell school, winning the Volant Elf scholarship and racing privately until 1965, when he was picked up by Matra. When Matra proved unable to offer him an F1 drive, Jassaud moved across to Tecno, winning the French F3 championship and graduating to Formula 2 before abandoning his grand prix racing ambitions at the age of 34 and joining Alpine’s successful sportscar programme. A key member of the team that developed the turbocharged A442B sports-prototype, he shared driving duties at Le Mans in 1978 with Didier Pironi, running second until the sister…

Mercedes’s trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin has revealed that Lewis Hamilton would not have made it to the end of the British Grand Prix to win had it not been for the early-race red flag. The race was halted after Hamilton and rival Max Verstappen collided at Copse on the opening lap. While the Red Bull fired into the wall, Hamilton was able to continue and return to the pits under the red flag. The Merc team spotted a damage on the front wheel rim and was able to replace it and that allowed the British driver to power to his 99th career victory. Shovlin explained: “We’d failed the rim where we had the contact at the front left, so that would’ve been a DNF had it not been red-flagged. “But the rest of…

Brit Alex Lynn scored his first Formula E victory at the London ePrix last weekend after his countryman Jake Dennis had claimed the opener. Dennis took the race-one triumph after overtaking Lynn, who had locked up and run wide at the midpoint of the clash. He had tracked his rival early on and, once ahead, powered clear to a comfortable victory on the track at ExCeL London, which included an indoor and outdoor section around the exhibition halls. The victor said: “It’s a nice surprise, but I think we do deserve it. We’ve had two wins now. We’ve had a few top fives, so we performed well. But we just need to now build in some consistency in these last three races.” Mahindra driver Lynn was unable to hold on to second…

Two-time World champion Fernando Alonso has been tipped to extend his stay withAlpine in Formula 1 after his recent impressive performances. Alonso, who is 40 today (Thursday) returned to the top-flight this season after two seasons away, has an option with the French team can take up for the 2022 season. The 2005-2006 title winner is 11th in the points standings after the 10 races so far this year, and his best result has been a sixth placed finish at theAzerbaijan Grand Prix at Baku in early June. The team’s chief executive officer Laurent Rossi said he has been delighted with the performance of the Spaniard so far this term. “He is doing great,” Rossi told BBC Sport. “He is as fast as ever. He is certainly extracting the most out of the car.…