Motor Sport Magazine December 2021

THE NEWS THAT THE LAST THREE RACES of 2021 will be played out on circuits in the Middle East has cast a shadow over this most glittering of Formula 1 seasons. Last month it was confirmed that Qatar will stage its first grand prix later in November, filling the slot left by the cancellation of the Australia GP. It will be followed by GPs in Saudi Arabia on December 5 and the season finale in Abu Dhabi on December 12. The 2021 Qatar race is a precursor to 2023 when the emirate will start a 10-year run of hosting grands prix. Motor Sport has written before about the stain of sportswashing on F1. But the argument against hosting races in countries with appalling human rights records and where basic freedoms are denied…

FOR THE THIRD TIME IN JUST A FEW months we have been forced to write about deaths in motor cycling. In September Dean Berta Viñales was killed at Jerez; Jason Dupasquier died after an accident at Mugello in May and Hugo Millán at Aragon in July. What is striking about these tragic deaths is not just their young ages – Viñales was 15 years old, Dupasquier was 19 and Millán 14 – but also the fact that they were, in our opinion, inevitable. That is because as long as the sport continues with the new kind of racing created by the Moto3 and Supersport 300 classes, such incidents will keep occurring. The pack racing created by Moto3 and Supersport 300 – the most dangerous class ever, according to superbike rider Loris Baz…

ASTON MARTIN HAS ANNOUNCED THAT former McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh will join the team as CEO of its Performance Technologies division. Whitmarsh was last involved in Formula 1 with McLaren in 2014 but will return with Aston to oversee the team’s “transformation into a World Championship-winning organisation within the next four to five years”. As well as involvement with the manufacturer’s F1 efforts, he will also oversee technologies across key divisions of Aston Martin. In 2014, Whitmarsh was brought in by the FIA as a consultant to inform the regulatory changes around the cost cap, introduced this year. Most recently, Whitmarsh was selected by Lewis Hamilton to join the board of the Hamilton Commission that has been set up to increase diversity and black representation within motor sport. “I am delighted…

COULD ELFYN EVANS BE ABOUT TO join the rally Gods? The likeable Welshman is on the verge of becoming the first British winner of the World Rally Championship since Richard Burns exactly 20 years ago. The Toyota Gazoo Racing driver has put in a storming performance in the closing stages of the 2021 season meaning his title hopes will go down to the wire at the final rally in Monza on November 19-21. Evans put himself into contention for the title after a brilliant win in Finland, where a stunning series of five back-to-back speed test wins on Friday night and Saturday morning propelled the Welshman from fifth to first. He survived intense pressure from Ott Tänak and Craig Breen to win by 14.1sec. The rally, always a highlight for fans,…

THE CLASSIC MOTOR SHOW AT Birmingham’s NEC makes a return on November 12-14 after its cancellation in 2020 due to Covid. As our road vehicles are increasingly switching to electric propulsion, the 2021 show has a special ‘Our Friends Electric’ showcase that focuses on battery-powered classics and how they drive. Twice daily a range of electric classics will glide around a purpose-built track within the 24,000sq m Hall 5. Models include a 1912 Baker Electric, one of just three on the DVLA database, a Porsche 356-inspired Chesil E and a Westfield XI, which is a replica of the 1956 Lotus 11. These will be accompanied by converted marques from Electric Classic Cars. “Electric cars may seem like they’re fast becoming our future,” says show director Lee Masters, “but most people don’t realise…

SHORT BUT SPECTACULAR: THE PAIRED SF Edge sprints provided tyre-smoking Edwardian spectacle at Goodwood’s 78th Members’ Meeting, autumn leaves forming an unusual backdrop to an event postponed from spring due to the pandemic. Ben Collings (left) in the Sinsheim Museum’s 200HP Blitzen Benz reels in Niall Dyer’s 1907 Mors (centre) with its V8 aero-engine and Jack Bond’s 1914 Vauxhall on his way to a blistering last-second pass to nab a victory from Hughie Walker’s Theophile-Schneider – just one high point in a special weekend ranging between Mustangs, McLarens and Minis, with sunset fireworks in-between. Next year’s meeting returns to springtime.…