Motorsport News December 1, 2022

It is fascinating to look back at the 2022 motorsport season. It has been a year of landmarks for so many reasons, and many of them have come in the national racing sphere. Those achievements have been highlighted in our second annual Motorsport News Awards. Thanks to you, our readers, we have unearthed our National Racing Driver and National Rally Drivers of the year, while our panel of experts have selected the rest of the other six winners. The results are really interesting, and we would like to pay tribute to all of our victors. Some of their efforts have been rewarded with a championship trophy, while some haven’t. But what is common among them all is that they have gone above and beyond what was expected in 2022 and written their…

Red Bull has officially confirmed that Daniel Ricciardo will rejoin the squad next term as its third driver. The Australian, who was released by McLaren at the end of the grand prix year, will take part in testing, simulator work and commercial activities. The 33-year-old, who is an eight-time grand prix winner, said that the chance to take on a less intense role in 2023 would give him the chance to figure out if he had the motivation and passion for a full-time return in 2024. Ricciardo said: “I already have so many fond memories of my time here, but the welcome from Christian [Horner, Red Bull boss], Dr [Helmut] Marko [team advisor] and the entire team is something I’m sincerely appreciative of. For me personally, the ability to contribute to and…

Carlos Sainz, Charles Leclerc and young driver Robert Shwartzmann completed a clean sweep at the top of the timesheets as Formula 1 cars took to the track for the final time in 2022 in the Young Driver test in Abu Dhabi last week. The teams were allowed one car for regular drivers completing test work for Pirelli (some crews split the lead car between two drivers), while the other machine had to be piloted by a younger driver or new signings with less mileage – ie: those that had taken part in fewer grand prix weekends. Leclerc ran for the first half of the nine-hours last Tuesday before handing over to Sainz, who eclipsed his team-mate’s benchmark. Young driver Robert Shwartzmann took third position. Fernando Alonso made his debut with Aston Martin and…

The 2023 Chinese Grand Prix, which is due to take place on April 16, us under threat because of the country’s Covid regulations. The Shanghai race was due to be the fourth round of the contest, but China has a zero-tolerance policy on Covid. F1 staff would not be allowed to be exempt from quarantine requirements if they contracted Covid 19. The last Chinese Grand Prix was held in 2019 before the global health pandemic struck. It is not thought that the race would be replaced in the schedule and that would mean that there would be a four-week gap in the calendar between the Australian Grand Prix on April 2 and the scheduled date for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on April 30. F1 bosses have asked chiefs of the Baku race to move…

The brother of Ferrari Formula driver Charles Leclerc, Arthur, will step up to Formula 2 next season with the DAMS squad. The 21-year-old raced in Formula 3 this season and finish sixth in the standings with one victory for the Prema Racing crew, his second year in the category. He said: “[DAMS is] a very successful team that has achieved great results in the championship, and I hope I can be a part of that and continue the team’s success. [Team boss] Charles Pic has done an amazing job to help the team back to winning ways throughout the season and I’m aiming to keep that going next year. “We’ve a lot of work to do before the start of the new campaign in Bahrain in March, and I’m really looking forward to…

The Italian media has fuelled speculation that Mattia Binotto will resign from his post as F1 team principal at Ferrari and could step down by the end of this week. There were reports around the Abu Dhabi GP weekend that Binotto was on the verge of the axe but no action has yet been taken. He has overseen an error-strewn season in which Charles Leclerc relinquished an early points lead and only secured second spot in the drivers’ table at the final round. Despite that, Ferrari president John Elkann has given Binotto some tacit backing. He told the Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper: “We have faith in Mattia Binotto and appreciate everything he and all our engineers have done, but there is no doubt that the work in Maranello, in the garage, on…