Motor Sport Magazine April 2022

A MID THE EXCITEMENT OF A NEW Formula 1 season getting under way, and buried beneath detailed explanations of aero management on websites, was the announcement of a brand new racing series. Extreme H is set to become the first hydrogen championship when it launches in 2024 and, it is hoped, will drive innovation in hydrogen engine technology. The championship would run alongside Extreme E, the electric off-road series that had its debut season in 2021 and which attracted high-profile teams including those formed by Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg and Chip Ganassi Racing. It would race in the same locations, on the same days with the same format and would also use Extreme E’s back-office kit like the St Helena, the refurbished ship which transports all the cars and equipment and…

We hear a lot about ‘patina’ when it comes to historic race cars and classics. This usually refers to the bodywork retaining the unique scars of a life lived rather than having them buffed out. It is rarer to see the inside of the car being retained so faithfully, hence our delight at seeing this interior of Juan Manuel Fangio’s Mercedes 300 SL (see page 17), unrestored since the great man drove it 60 years ago. Squint and you can even see the scuff marks where Fangio’s knees rubbed against the dashboard.…

MICHAEL MASI, THE MAN AT THE centre OF the controversy that tainted last year’s Formula 1 World Championship season finale in Abu Dhabi, has been sacked from his role as FIA race director for this coming season. The FIA launched a full investigation into the events of the Yas Marina finale, when some key calls from Masi essentially decided the fate of last year’s world championship on the final lap. Having manipulated the safety car rules, Masi was accused of creating ‘a Netflix ending’ to the season by clearing the way for the fresh-tyred Max Verstappen to breeze past long-term leader Lewis Hamilton and snatch the title on the final tour, sparking outrage from fans around the world that the FIA’s own rules were deliberately not followed to instead stage a Hollywood…

AS 37-YEAR-OLD LEWIS HAMILTON returns for his assault on what would be a record eighth world championship he faces a subtly different challenge to last year. His age is not yet a barrier to achieving his aim. There are way too many case studies of sustained world-class performances even from drivers in their forties to suggest there’s a physiological reason why there should be any performance drop-off at this age. Forty-year-old Fernando Alonso’s performances in the latter half of last season were just yet another example. The crucial physiological factors that make one driver intrinsically faster than another are clearly not degraded at this relatively early stage of the ageing process. Defence technology company Qinetiq used to sponsor Williams a few years ago and shared with the team some of its…

WHEN THE 2022 MOTOGP world championship roars into action under the Losail floodlights on March 6, eight of the motorcycles on the 24-strong grid will be Ducati Desmosedicis. The other factories are worried, not so much by the number of bikes but by their speed. Ducati’s desmodromic-valve 90-degree V4 has been MotoGP’s quickest machine pretty much ever since the first iteration was unleashed at Suzuka, the opening race of the 2003 season. MotoGP rights-holder Dorna has six manufacturers signed up to its championship – Aprilia, Ducati, Honda, KTM, Suzuki and Yamaha – to create a maximum grid of 24 riders. Each of those brands must put a minimum of two riders on the grid. Honda, KTM and Yamaha each have four riders (two in their factory teams and two in factory-supported independent…

THIS YEAR ABSOLUTELY BULGES with anniversaries, and one of the most spectacularly exciting Formula 1 races ever run took place on May 12, 1962. The 14th BRDC International Trophy at Silverstone was the most important preseason non-Championship race, and this edition saw a classic confrontation over 52 laps between Team Lotus’s Jim Clark, and BRM’s Graham Hill. Jimmy was driving the spaceframe-chassised Lotus 24 with 1½-litre Coventry Climax V8 engine, while Graham was in the latest BRM P578 with its fuel-injected BRM V8 power unit. Jimmy had already won the season-opening Snetterton race in his works 24, finishing more than 50sec clear of Graham’s latest misfiring BRM – on seven cylinders much of the way. The following Easter Monday race at Goodwood saw Graham score his first win in the BRM V8,…