Autosport 6/30/2022

British Formula 1 fans have been spoiled in recent years. Not only has Lewis Hamilton been the most successful driver of the turbo-hybrid era, but the trio of Hamilton, George Russell and Lando Norris is arguably the most talented from the United Kingdom for decades. You probably have to go back to the 1960s, to the time of Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Jackie Stewart and John Surtees, to match or better the current crop. Those four, plus Mike Spence, made it a remarkable 1-2-3-4-5 for home drivers in the 1965 British GP! As Alex Kalinauckas hears in our preview on page 16, the 2022 Brits are unlikely to get near that result, but there is optimism that Mercedes and McLaren should be reasonably competitive on Silverstone’s sweeps. The venue that hosted the very…

LOLA Lola is back! Or rather it’s on its way back. The iconic British marque has been bought together with the windtunnel run under the name of the once-great British racing car constructor with the aim of getting it back on track perhaps as quickly as within the next two years. The rights to the Lola name, the IP covering more than 400 designs built between 1958 and 2012, as well as the Lola Technical Centre incorporating the windtunnel and a seven-post rig, have been bought by US-based Briton Till Bechtolsheimer. His ambition is to re-establish the Lola name as a force in international motorsport. Bechtolsheimer, who races in the GT Daytona class of the IMSA SportsCar Championship, is reviving Lola 10 years after the previous iteration of the company, Lola Cars International,…

The new owner of Lola is a lifelong motorsport fan born in the UK to German parents who moved to Gloucestershire shortly before his birth to establish a stud farm. The family is well known in the eventing world – sister Laura is an Olympic medal winner in dressage – but Till Bechtolsheimer raced karts as a child and briefly tried the off-road Minicross discipline before focusing on his business career. Bechtolsheimer, 40, is CEO of Arosa Capital Management, an investment company specialising in the alternative energy markets and increasingly involved in emerging transport and automotive technologies. He returned to motorsport with an Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint GT in 2011 and has also raced an Allard J2 and Chevron B8. He moved into the IMSA SportsCar Challenge in 2016 aboard a Porsche…

FORMULA 1 Pierre Gasly will continue to drive for AlphaTauri in Formula 1 next year after the team confirmed him as part of its 2023 line-up last week. The Frenchman was already under contract with AlphaTauri until the end of next year, but news of Sergio Perez’s two-year deal at Red Bull led to questions about Gasly’s future, given his aspirations to return to the senior squad in the future. AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost stressed at the recent Canadian Grand Prix that Gasly was “100% confirmed” to be staying in Faenza for next year, saying: “He has a valid contract.” The team subsequently moved to officially announce last week that Gasly would be staying put for 2023. “I have been with this team for five years now and I am proud of the…

FORMULA 1/2/3 Red Bull Racing suspended its Formula 1 test and reserve driver Juri Vips with immediate effect last week over the use of a racial slur. The 21-year-old Estonian was heard using racist language during a live stream of a video game last week, prompting Red Bull to take immediate action and suspend him, pending a full investigation. “As an organisation we condemn abuse of any kind and have a zero-tolerance policy to racist language or behaviour,” Red Bull said in a statement. Vips took to Instagram to “unreservedly apologise for the offensive language used during a live gaming stream”. “This language is entirely unacceptable and does not portray the values and principles that I hold,” Vips wrote. “I deeply regret my actions and this is not the example I wish to set.…

FORMULA 1 Spanish capital city Madrid has expressed its interest in hosting a Formula 1 race in the future, believing it could “offer a great sporting and entertainment spectacle.” The Spanish Grand Prix has been staged since 1991 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on the outskirts of Barcelona, and has a contract in place with the promoters until 2026. But Enrique Lopez, a cabinet minister for the Community of Madrid, sent a letter to to F1 CEO and president Stefano Domenicali last week expressing the Spanish capital’s commitment to a grand prix project. “I believe that holding in Madrid a motor racing event, which is one of the most exciting sporting phenomena of our time, would be a success for all the professionals, institutions and companies involved in the development of Formula 1,”…