Motorsport News 14/10/21

The World Rally Championship’s new hybrid era will kick off next year with a wealth of homegrown talents at the helm for two of the elite teams. M-Sport has signed Ireland’s Craig Breen to lead its Ford squad on a two-year deal, while Welsh title contender Elfyn Evans has been confirmed to remain with the works Toyota squad in 2022. Toyota has also named Kalle Rovanpera and Takamoto Katsuta for next season, with seven-time World champion Sebastien Ogier stepping back to share the season with Esapekka Lappi. Irishman Breen is Cumbria-based M-Sport’s lone confirmed signing, although Gus Greensmith is expected to complete the British Isles’representation in rallying’s top tier, with the Manchester driver strongly linked to a second M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1. Ogier, meanwhile, will undertake his reduced schedule with a new co-driver after…

There is something very appealing about the union between Craig Breen and M-Sport for the 2022 World Rally Championship. They seem almost made for each other. I remember following Breen’s totally incredible journey to the WRC Academy title in 2011, which was the longest of shots. From that point on, we’ve kept tabs on his progress through the dark and the glorious times. As much as we have tracked Breen’s success in all the categories he has tackled since, it has been hard to ignore the top-flight presence of M-Sport and its collection of silverware too. While it has proven itself at the very pinnacle of rallying, there has always been a sense of injustice that Malcolm Wilson and his team from Cockermouth have been without proper factory support since Ford reversed…

In the Istanbul Park paddock, near the back of the Mercedes garage, all eyes were on the worn Pirellis that had come off Lewis Hamilton’s car towards the end of the Turkish Grand Prix. The question was whether they could have lasted another eight laps, in addition to the 50 he’d already driven on them? At the time, Hamilton felt he should have stayed on them, but both Mercedes and Pirelli didn’t think they would have held out. The gamble could have had a pivotal impact on the World championship outcome. By not pitting, Hamilton might have secured third place and an extra five points, but as the rubber looked to have worn down to the canvas, a failure could have been catastrophic and would have handed Max Verstappen a huge…

Fernando Alonso was delighted with his highest starting position for seven years – but lost out after he was pitched into a spin at the first corner of the Turkish Grand Prix. The two-time World champion started fifth on Sunday, his best grid slot since 2014, but the Alpine driver was hit by the AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly under at Turn 1, which netted Gasly a five-second time penalty. A frustrated Alonso resumed the race towards the tail of the field, then picked up his own five-second time penalty for hitting Mick Schumacher in a bid to recover lost positions. After such a strong Saturday, 16th place was a disappointing outcome for the Spaniard. Ironically, after his first corner incident, Alonso had courted controversy in Turkey when he made remarks suggesting drivers are…

The Andretti name could once again feature in Formula 1 as discussions between team owner Michael Andretti and Alfa Romeo are at an advanced stage. According to sources, Andretti is looking at taking a majority stake of the Swiss team, which would expand his current roster from IndyCar, Formula E, Australian Supercars and Extreme E. The United States is a key market for F1, with a new race in Miami joining the calendar next year and a growing audience thanks to Netflix’s Drive to Survive series. “I’ve been working on it [taking over a team] for a long, long, time,” said Michael Andretti to Reuters. “When the right opportunity comes up I’m going to jump at it.” It wouldn’t be the first partnership between the Andretti name and Alfa Romeo, as Michael’s father Mario…

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has defended the team’s unsuccessful gamble of trying to get Lewis Hamilton to complete last weekend’s Turkish Grand Prix without a tyre stop in damp conditions. Hamilton, on his team radio, criticised the decision to swap his intermediate tyres for a new set on lap 50 of 58, which dropped him from third to fifth and then he was unable to regain places after experiencing graining on his fresh rubber (see race report, p4). OnlyAlpine’s Esteban Ocon completed the race without a change, and finished 10th, though lost over 30 seconds to the more freshly booted Ferrari of Carlos Sainz in the period after Hamilton pitted. Wolff said: “The intermediate obviously looked really scary but we thought that we could maybe hang out there and finish third with not…