Motorsport News 23/12/21

Three-time British Touring Car Championship title winner Ash Sutton will swap to Motorbase Performance next season to drive a Ford Focus alongside Dan Cammish. It will mark 27-year-old Sutton’s return to front-wheel drive for the first time since 2016 and he and his engineer Antonio Carrozza, who is also switching to the team, will be aiming for a hat-trick of sucessive title triumphs as the BTCC enters its new hybrid era. The attack will be backed by automotive parts firm NAPA, which will also support the sister car of eight-time race winner Cammish. Sutton, who has inked a multi-year deal, said: “This feels like the start of something very exciting and I am ready for the challenge that lies ahead. [Motorbase] are all a great group of people and just pure racers at…

Lewis Hamilton was left heartbroken after losing the F1 World championship in Abu Dhabi and that was understandable. His allegation that the result felt “manipulated” has resonated with many. Stories have begun to emerge over the last few days that the seven-time title-winner might not return to F1. His no-show at the FIA Prize Giving evening certainly added fuel to the fire, as did quotes from his Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff. While the circumstances aren’t quite the same, there is a noticeable echo to the troubles that befell Ayrton Senna after the end of the 1989 season. The McLaren driver even used the word “manipulated” when he described why the title had slipped away that year following a controversial collision with team-mate Alain Prost. Senna threatened to quit the sport. The…

Reigning Formula E champion Nyck de Vries topped the times for Mercedes as Formula 1’s 2021 on-track running was completed with a two-day post-season test inAbu Dhabi last week. Running at the Yas Marina circuit, held in the days after F1’s dramatic title finale, was split between rookies in 2021’s cars and current F1 drivers sampling the new Pirelli 18-inch tyres in modified mule cars ahead of the tyres’introduction in 2022. De Vries topped the first day with a fastest lap time of 1m23.194s set in the final half hour. This put him 1.3 seconds ofAlphaTauri’s Liam Lawson on his first F1 outing. Robert Shwartzman on the second day, the only runner that day not testing the 18-inch tyres, topped the times for Haas with a 1m25.348s mark. Other test highlights included Valtteri Bottas…

Mercedes has withdrawn its appeal over the title-decidingAbu Dhabi Grand Prix after the FIAannounced a probe into the controversial ending to Formula 1’s 2021 season-closing race. Figures at Mercedes and other observers were left angry after F1 race director Michael Masi allowed only some backmarkers to unlap themselves under a late-race safety car, and then withdrew the safety car a lap sooner than regulations outline. This left the freshly tyred Red Bull of Max Verstappen in prime position to claim the race win and World championship by passing Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes on the final lap. Mercedes’post-race protests were dismissed by stewards. Following discussions by the FIA’s World Motor Sport Council in Paris last week, the governing body announced a detailed analysis will be undertaken to look at what happened and learn the required…

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says he hopes Lewis Hamilton doesn’t walk from Formula 1 after both were left “disillusioned” by the recent controversial title finale inAbu Dhabi. Wolff said: “Lewis and I are disillusioned at the moment. We are not disillusioned with the sport, we love the sport because the stopwatch never lies. But if we break that fundamental principle of sporting fairness and authenticity of the sport, then suddenly the stopwatch doesn’t become relevant anymore. “We will never overcome the pain and the distress that was caused [in Abu Dhabi]. I would very much hope that Lewis continues racing, because he’s the greatest driver of all time. “We will be working through the events over the next weeks and months. As a racer, his heart will say ‘I need to continue’because he’s…

Rally legend Sebastien Ogier could drive in 2023’s Le Mans 24 Hours in a third Toyota according to the marque’s newly appointed team boss Kamui Kobayashi. Ogier driving for Toyota recently ended his full-time World Rally Championship career, taking his eighth title, and will contest a part-time WRC programme in 2022. He also has Le Mans ambitions and drove the GR010 Hybrid in last month’s World Endurance Championship rookie test in Bahrain. Kobayashi said: “I would say it’s [a third car] going to be very hard for 2022, because the timing is a bit short. But it could be one of the options for 2023. “And of course Sebastien when he drove in Bahrain, he was fast. Coming from rallying to asphalt [circuit racing], and sportscars, I would say it’s a big difference, but…