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It was awesome to see Alpine in a MotoGP bike for the first time as part of a sponsorship deal at Pramac Racing’s Yamaha team with another Jack in it by another Aussie in Jack Miller. 

Loving the blue strip of Alpine there on the middle of their new 2025 spec bike & their race suits as yes, Pramac is a customer to Yamaha but will get factory support. 

So good news from the organisation who knows what it takes to win a championship as an independent outfit with the teams’ championship two years ago as well as last year with Jorge Martin when they were riding Ducatis at the time.

Like Jack Doohan, he’s also got plenty to prove at the same time over a one year contract, and let’s hope they can both prove everyone wrong so they can both stay at both Alpine teams for a long time.

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Still a long way to go when it comes to their results following a slow 2024 racing Toyotas for the first time, but Legacy Motor Club certainly made a lot of steps up lately mainly off-track including an ownership change now, with Tom Wagner’s Knighthead Capital just got onboard (who owns Birmingham City) with Maury Gallagher stepping back & 7 x champion Jimmie Johnson running the show more often as majority owner.

Yes, chopping and changing things can be hard especially being team owner rather than full-time racer but at the same time, it looks promising for both the 42 and 43 cars to deliver this year. If they can really be battling Top 10-15 every week plus a win or two, we could see LMC expand into a 3rd full-time car after all – as long as the price is right and they’re content using their own built cars with a Toyota PU.

Whichever one asset they would want to go with expansion, time will tell especially when the charter system has now updated a little for at least another seven years.

But hey, the fresh investment is here for Jimmie Johnson’s team to turn things around thanks to Tom & who knows if the legendary 43 or even 42 turns up in victory lane someday? Watch this space.

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This week was a huge week for Alpine-Renault’s No.7 Jack Doohan from celebrating his 22nd birthday the other day to turning up straight at work aka pre-season duty for his first seat fit in Enstone with a new-look hair cut. 

I guess he will want to go a bit more faster then who would want to stick what worked well him in the past – probably to match his personal best on raw pace through one lap, especially when it comes to a full race weekend which is very important for Jack.

Then there’s him stopping by at the office with the man currently running the show that knows about the history of Enstone all too well even though he’s not really Team Principal these days – Flavio Briatore.

Looking forward to the new car reveal soon (A525 chassis) + pre-season testing while Jack is on it working hard every day & always be in the points soon with Pierre.

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I am delighted to have Max Stauffer onboard who spent a few minutes on the phone earlier today having recently joined the Yamaha squad over the off-season alongside the series veteran and 3 x champion Mike Jones ahead of the upcoming ASBK season that will begin as part of the Australian World Superbikes round support bill next month at Phillip Island in Victoria.

We talked about his season from last year when he first stepped up into the Premier Class (Pirelli Superbike category) along with his on-track expectations for the new year of 2025 including some four-wheel crossover talk such as Supercars and Formula 1 like Jack Doohan’s step up into the big time at Alpine-Renault plus many more with his recovery, etc.

SB: First of all, you had some good Top 10 finishes last season including a few occasional podiums. What have you learned last season in the premier ASBK class, which kind of rounds you had & didn’t had success with that would make a huge difference, and how you’re able to pivot towards the front runners in 2025?

MS: Yeah, well 2024 was overall not a bad season for me. Unfortunately, it was injured a lot throughout the year in which I think some injuries might have hindered some performances. I was quite faster at the Queensland tracks that turned out to be really good for me, especially in Morgan Park Raceway – a track that I’ve struggled on on the smaller bike. It should be fast and competitive there, although I was injured on a big bike was quite a big relief. Focusing on 2025, I’ve gotta work on my consistency during races and if I can work that out, then I think I’ll be there to fight for the front row. The raw speed seems to be quite good as I seem to be pretty fast at one lap but I just need to try working on limiting the crashes and be a little bit more consistent throughout the year and throughout the races.

SB: Before you stepped into the premier class, what was the one thing you missed the most as a rider but also still keeping tabs as a spectator when it comes to the ASBK’s list of support categories? Even when World Superbikes & Supercars come over?

MS: One thing I missed is probably not really understanding how to manage a tyre when it’s easy in the smaller classes such as tyre life at the end of the races. That was probably the biggest thing when I stepped up into the premier class was just to managing the tyre and working out when to be fast in the race which was challenging & it didn’t really come too easy for me. But having the support categories there looking back, you can see that I probably could have worked on those things a little bit earlier still. And it’s great to have the World Superbikes out there because when you’re a support category to them, you can watch and learn so much just from what they’re doing by implementing it into your own weekend, so you can try and adapt in order to learn a little bit quicker as well as speeding up the process a bit more.

SB: When the World SBK Australian Round returns at Phillip Island next month, which world class riders you would like to meet in-person?

MS: Not in particular. I think all the World Superbike riders are quite cool – I’m just a big fan of all of them, really. I’m just excited to be in the paddock and sort of just be a part of the atmosphere and the atmosphere in the paddock and throughout the whole weekend, which is quite massive & cool to be part of and also a whole lot different compared to a traditional ASBK meeting. It will be cool to see Toprak (Razgatlıoğlu – reigning riders’ champion for the BMW Motorrad team) do well around Phillip Island and of course, it will be good to see Johnny Rea on the Yamaha be up front as well.

SB: Any Supercars driver you’re looking forward to see later in the year as well (at Ipswich’s Queensland Raceway as part of the support bill in early August)?

MS: The Supercars is a championship that I followed a lot & I’ve always been a bit of a fan of the Red Bull team. Not necessarily keen on meeting or talk to them but it’ll be nice to see the Red Bull team do well on it & just in general, be actually nice if I sort of be getting into the Supercars a bit more & start following the Championship a bit more closely than I do.

SB: How much do keep in touch with some riders who are now living in Europe? Also wondering if you’d be at least keen to race a the Australian MotoGP support race like the Moto 2/3 someday or have any other one-off rides lined up?

MS: I do keep in touch with the few of the riders overseas like Harry [Harrison] Voight in particular. We’re quite good mates & pretty much throughout the season, we message message each other a lot and talk about anything to do with bikes, really – Bikes and training. It’s pretty good that it’s nice to have a relationship with people over there because you always sort of kept in the loop as such and you sort of know what’s going on a little bit. But, yeah, it will be definitely be cool to do a Moto2 wildcard one day – whether that opportunity comes up, I don’t know. But for now, I don’t have really have anything else lined up at the moment as I’m just focusing on doing the best job I can for Yamaha in this year’s Australian Superbike Championship.

SB: Any race tracks would you like to race overseas like Silverstone in the UK for example?

MS: So I’ve written Assen TT (a track located in the Netherlands) before, that was a cool track. A track I would like to ride now would be Jerez which was a bucket list one – I’ve written there now. I’ve always sort of liked Valencia (Circuit Ricardo Tormo), Silverstone would be cool with a track that has a lot of corners but I think any of the European tracks are pretty awesome to be quite honest with you. They’re all so fast and flowing which is a lot different to the traditional Australian tracks, so to go over there and experience all those tracks and layouts and what not would be a fantastic experience nonetheless.

SB. Thoughts on Jack Doohan’s debut Formula 1 last month at Abu Dhabi for Alpine-Renault who is the son of motorcycle legend Mick Doohan with his home Grand Prix coming up in March at Albert Park? Any messages you would like to say to Jack? Also wondering if perusing a career with four wheels would be make sense from a safety point of view? Or why not be better off sticking with two wheels just for the thrill for it?

MS: Yeah, it’s pretty awesome that there’s another Aussie in the Formula One paddock where the Aussies seems to be quite strong. At the moment, it seems they have a strong presence anyway in the paddock with Oscar’s [Piastri – McLaren-Mercedes] doing quite well. And it’s pretty cool to see Jack [Doohan] in there now; so hopefully, he can sort of burst onto the scene and have a good year. It all comes together for him, in particular with his home round, if he could turn up & be straight on the pace by having a good race in front of his home fan base.

But yeah, Im I’m not really sure about the safety aspect of four wheels where they go as just as fast really. I’ve never really been that interested in cars as for me, it’s always been bikes and two wheels – that’s just what I like. But I know there’s plenty of other people think the opposite who just enjoy driving a car more than what they do riding a bike. So yeah, I’m not too sure about any of that as I’ve never driven a car competitively & I can’t really comment on that that too well.

SB: I wish we could see some more two and four wheel crossovers often from John Surtees to Valentino Rossi and even Casey Stoner too?

MS: Yeah, there’s definitely been a lot of great motorbike riders that have sort of made the switch which is something I’ve never really thought about. I suppose I’ve always just thought about trying to be as good as motorbike riders as possible. But one day, it’d be nice to definitely give it a go like jumping in a V8 Supercar or whatever race car and have a scoot around in order to sort of understand and appreciate more what it takes to be good in that field.

SB: Also wondering if you’re into Tennis? Especially at this time of January at the Australian Open with Alex De Minaur coming off on his career best performance to date lately other than being eliminated in the Quarter-Final the other day by Jannik Sinner? Your favourite bike & four-wheel car also? – it can be an everyday road legal or a racing-spec chassis. And like how Tennis players go off to recover after a long few hours match, how’s your own recovery holding up from race to race & season to season?

MS: I don’t really follow the Tennis that much. But my favourite sort of motor vehicle would definitely gotta be the [Yamaha] R1 for road use & for racing use – it’s just so versatile and its strengths are so strong.

For me overall, this is probably one of the best bikes out there that I’ve ridden anyway – definitely my favourite. And in terms of recovery, I just try and do a lot of stretching and eat the right foods and when I am resting, I just rest – not keep up and keep doing stuff. So just rest and let the body heal by coming out the next day to try and be better.

SB: Better than taking part in a five-set Tennis match?

MS: Yeah, for sure.

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Despite Chrysler giving us an update last week with their planned model line-up over the next few years coinciding with their all-EV ambitions through the end of this decade, it seems that the development of their brand new crossover vehicle has been suspended for now. 

Yes, it might take a while; Although there’s a possibility the production works would resume soon ahead of schedule next year.

This comes off the back of the EV customer demand being slow last year amongst other car makers while they prefer to own hybrids right now which is probably the reason why Stellantis is currently re-evaluating their EV masterplan for Chrysler. If so, they may as well have an hybrid at first with a plug-in option as no need of an ICE and then release a fully-electric model but maybe when the time is right for customers willing to buy one so they can recoup with their investment.

It could’ve been any better if they released the Airlow production made concept vehicle by now (don’t have to put anything regarding ICEs as an all-hybrid model would do it) had Stellantis been realistic with their EV goals. However, we do understand they decided to go back to square one with their top-secret production crossover by making it more modern from like the Halcyon four-door prototype last year as their design language. That way, they can translate it beautifully when the production made sedan comes out at some point alongside the next-generation Pacifica minivan (also planned to be an EV).

For now, looks like Chrysler is sticking with the Pacifica minivans as their one & only flagship model, with the second one (crossover based on the Airflow but much better) & potentially a production-made Halcyon 4-door model (an ideal 300 replacement) still a long way away.

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2025 is already in full swing with FOX Sports currently finalising their final steps for their full season IndyCar broadcast presentation ahead of their announcement early next week that includes the prestigious Indianapolis 500 race during May.

As it stands, it seems FOX would want Englishman Will Buxton onboard as their lead anchor/commentator who is very popular with Formula 1 worldwide and previously the US over the past decade at the former Speed Channel (a previous FOX Sports property now known as FS1 since 2013) and later NBC from 2013-2017 rather than Allen Bestwick or even making Mike Joy get his Indy 500 wish – the network’s current NASCAR commentator.

I guess the legendary Mike Joy is currently age 75 with two decades of calling the Daytona 500 under his belt since FOX first got into NASCAR back in 2001 as he would be great to call another 500-mile race in the form of IndyCar at Indianapolis but then the network decided to go with a fresher look that resonates with today’s viewership of the sport – nothing against him.

Although the good news is that Mike Joy is indeed going to the Indy 500 but he will most likely be there as a welcome guest of FOX Sports or in a special behind the scenes host/reporting role.

Back to Will and yes, he will have to travel to the US from his home in the UK and back if he was going to be part of FOX Sports’ IndyCar full season coverage.

At the same time, looks like he will receive a very decent salary on top of his usual F1TV duties that requires him to be present almost every race worldwide while being given the chance to call the Indianapolis 500 race – potentially as the 2nd foreigner to do so after his former Speed & NBC Sports F1 colleague in Australian Leigh Diffey who called the last several Indy 500 races when NBC was the sport’s most recent rights holder from 2019 up until last season before FOX just took over.

If he accepts that role, then kudos for him as US motorsport fans know him pretty well with Will usually an exceptionally good pit reporter but he’s also a great host too as you currently see on F1TV over the past few years when ESPN/ABC replaced NBC back in 2018 and has called the junior Formula 1 feeder series races before during the early 2010s in the previous GP2 & GP3 Series (now known these days as Formula 2 & 3 respectively).

So yeah, no problem as he will see IndyCar a perfect fit that can align with FOX’s IndyCar broadcast presentation; not only that, he will possibly have his F1TV colleague James Hinchcliffe by his side who has an excellent on-air rapport with Will no doubt and so would Townsend Bell having previously filled in for him as pit reporter a few times for NBC’s then Formula 1 coverage.

That’s probably the main reason why FOX wants to keep it up with the times by having a mix of F1 and IndyCar known talent where they know everything about open-wheel racing even when some events go very left rather than picking someone legendary who has been to a whole lot of races across America before.

Interesting…and the best part about this is that every IndyCar event will still be live and on-demand on Stan Sport this season for at least another three years along with hour-long highlights of each round via free-to-air on 9Go coinciding with the sport’s next contract expiry of their new domestic TV rights deal with FOX Sports.

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As far as it concerns Jack Doohan, it seems Alpine has finally snapped up Argentine Franco Colapinto but only as a reserve driver for now – probably on loan from Williams I guess that covers just 2025 rather than a permanent deal. Update: It seems he’s onboard on a multi-year deal then, so that means he’s under Alpine now rather than Williams unless Williams inserted some clause in his contact if and when Carlos Sainz Jr. or Alex Albon leaves at some point.

He was under the radar of Flavio Briatore for some time who was impressed by his driving ability when he was unexpectedly a replacement driver for Logan Sargeant at Williams late last season – despite the fact he crashed out during the last 2-3 races of the year that cost them additional money for repairs. At the same time though, Alpine has already sorted out a replacement for Esteban Ocon which was Jack Doohan over Mick Schumacher. But then once the Colapinto hype has begun over scoring points, Flavio thinks he has other ideas to keep him in F1 at his team.

In case you missed it, Flavio likes having someone who has raw pace & can score points, as Colapinto is the one he thinks can form a formidable part for his Alpine F1 team’s masterplan. That means, we will need to get behind Jack 100% so he can score as many Top 7-8 points as possible for the first few years of the new year, especially with the home Australian race being his first shift around the corner.

If not, he could be sacked right on the spot unfortunately after the Miami Grand Prix as per rookie contract clause. Flavio wouldn’t mind making wholesale changes midway during the season when one isn’t doing so well, even though he’s only the team’s executive advisor (a la Director of Football role) to Renault’s boss Luca De Meo rather than being Team Principal.

15th on debut isn’t bad for Jack to be honest at Abu Dhabi having been thrown into the deep end after Esteban Ocon decided to sit out the season finale in order to begin his next ride with Haas early for pre-season testing. But again, he has to be a good match to Pierre Gasly who has been doing the heavy lifting as their No.1 driver as of late, especially with the upgrades working well in their favour. 

Now Jack may not have the same capabilities as his compatriot Oscar Piastri but he has scored points and podiums before at junior formula level.

There’s absolutely no reason why he cannot be able to make the most out of his time at the highest level when there’s only 20 odd spots fighting for competition and Jack being the only guy not doing well knowing he might not make it to full season with Franco ready to return to Formula 1 through the gifted help of Briatore by taking over Doohan’s seat if things don’t work out after the first odd races.

So his full support is very, very crucial in the hope of scoring Top 10s almost every race and if he can do that, then there shouldn’t be anymore pressure throwing against Jack & we could see the very best of him by the time Alpine becomes a customer team to Mercedes in 2026.

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New year, new week coming in with some brand new Chrysler news updates coming from their CEO Christine Fuell who also looks after the North American arm of Alfa Romeo under Stellantis in the US.

The good news is that we will still expect to see the brand’s first ever EV model would be a five-door crossover (SUV) next year in 2026 – so still right on time to begin its all-electric masterplan, although they would still offer a hybrid option to begin with since the all-EV demand is slow. But we do know so far is the design of that first model would be a mix of both concept cars with less of the 2022 Airflow crossover and more of the recent Halycon four-door prototype sedan from last year.

Other than that, when we will see a production version of that lovely Halycon sedan? We don’t know but this is also still projected to come out around 2028 and according to Christine, they are looking to bring the Halycon into market that is both modern-looking and also affordable. 

Sounds like they are working on a proper 300 replacement that was discontinued last year but again, this would be an all-electric model that aligns with their EV vision alongside the crossover – and if so, the price would start under $40,000.

What else? Oh, the Pacifica minivan – the only Chrysler current model out on the market right now – would get a facelift next year at the same time as the new crossover. Yes, there will also be an electric variant of the Pacifica but that will likely come out as a completely new model rather than as an additional trim when the current generation Pacifica doesn’t have a lot of life towards the end of the 2020s. 

That way, buyers can continue to buy it in its current form while it lasts and if there’s any other customers who wants a Pacifica in future, then an all-new electric model would suit them best in the next decade.   

I guess it’s going to be bit similar to Mitsubishi ASX really when the ageing one is still out there from 2010 while they’ve added a completely separate model of the crossover last year for thejr European market off a rebadged Renault Captur much like the Mitsubishi Colt hatchback being a cloned Renault Clio.

For now, we will have to wait and see since most of Chrysler’s electric masterplan is currently kept under wraps, with three models being just right to move forward like the popular Pacifica minivan, an SUV crossover and a four-door sedan.

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The first day of the new year (2025) also sees the first start season for Alpine’s new driver Jack Doohan from the Gold Coast in Queensland. He does look a bit like Alex De Minaur from Tennis by the way albeit with a much younger age difference than him and also has the natural Grand Prix roots that stems from his dad’s legendary two-wheel motorcycle career in Mick. 

He’s coming off a huge 2024 on the reserves for the most part where he’s been clocking hundreds and thousands of track work on top of his unexpected season-ending debut at Abu Dhabi last month and now it’s up to Jack to deliver right from the word go ahead of his home Grand Prix in Melbourne (Albert Park) come March. 

At the moment, he’s under the watchful eye of Flavio Briatore, even though he isn’t the Team Principal nowadays. However, he is still tasked to turn around Alpine’s fortunes at this same Enstone place he held several times before through Benetton in the 90s and Renault for most of the 2000s, and yet he’s not taking any prisoners for any excuse or emotion if Jack or even Pierre does not deliver at least the first few races of 2025. 

There’s a reason why Flavio has been sniffing around Franco Colapinto despite him crashing out the last few races of 2024 when he was thrown into the deep end unexpectedly for the axed Logan Sargeant at the time & scored a few points on offer with Alex Albon at Williams. 

But let’s hope that isn’t the case as it’s a long time coming for Jack who is the first Alpine F1 Team Academy driver to race for them following a sound Formula 2 & 3 career at junior level. With that being said, scoring Top 7-10 finishes would be a great start then work his way towards being Top 3-5 over time – even with a Mercedes engine if he does stay after this season.

That’s all we want from the 21-year-old who will do whatever it takes to forge a successful long-term relationship with Alpine’s Team Enstone, having seen Enstone witness Renault’s stunning 2005-06 championship campaign led by Spaniard & still racing Fernando Alonso. Keep an eye out for him with testing next month before it’s lights out and the way he goes in a bid to build on his 15th-placed debut finish by turning into a pattern of Top 10 points like Gasly did through the 2nd half of 2024. Best of luck to Jack & his new No.7 race number that looks so good on his A525 Alpine-Renault chassis.

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In recent times, Nissan needed a new lease of life by looking for a divorce from long-time partner Renault, whom they’ve been partners together for 25 years now that dates back to 1999. Yes, they are at a new low as said above & if things don’t change over the next 12-14 months then this may be the end of this well-known Japanese car company that produces the Godzilla GT-R, especially without Carlos Ghosn when he left a few years ago due to these allegations that gone against him. 

There’s one car company though ready to save their day and that is Honda as looks like it’s a huge chance to start Nissan’s new chapter with them at some stage by buying the rest of Renault’s 15% stake and so would Mitsubishi Motors to form a new three-way pact together where Nissan holds some of their shares as well. 

Pretty sure Mitsubishi wouldn’t want to stay with Renault when most of the stuff they do together nowadays only came from rebadged models like the Kangoo commercial van, Clio hatchback and Captur compact SUV — while Mitsubishi uses Nissan’s X-Trail platform for their flagship Outlander SUV model albeit with a completely different design shape. 

First of all, Nissan can go and so can Mitsubishi as they’d be a great fit under Honda. Now at this time, it’s unlikely that Mitsubishi would want to go back to making these fantastic sports cars considering customer demand into making tons of SUVs and pick-up trucks like the Eclipse Coupe, GT3000 sports car and of course, the Lancer Evolution sedan. 

You never know what could happen when the time is right that makes financial sense as saw the revival of Honda Prelude two-door compact coupe the other day to rival the Toyota 86. I mean, Mitsubishi can get the Eclipse coupe back under Honda’s watch but again, that’s wishful thinking unless they feel they like they are at a steady ground to roll back something unique to their rally roots. At the end of the day though, it’s all about what’s best for Nissan as well as the Japanese automotive industry including the people working there to design & make cars for customers to buy & use for the road.

And for Renault, they are free to pursue what’s best post-Nissan and Mitsubishi.

It would be cool if they team up with Chrysler’s raft of brands away from Peugeot & Citroen backed Stellantis like Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram to form under one alliance -and have them work together on some cool high-performance & even electric sedans, pick-up trucks, coupes and SUVs.

Not only that, the Chrysler Group can take advantage of the Alpine F1 Team by taking over Renault’s existing Viry Motorsport plant by making engines again under SRT Hellcat – as don’t think Renault would want to use the Nissan money on its own to reverse their difficult decision of not shutting down the Formula 1 engine program at Viry-Chatillon.

That way, Chrysler can cover most of the costs in order to create a top-notch works engine as it’s a shame that Renault will no longer make their own engines unfortunately by using Mercedes customer engines after next year. But again, you never know what could happen when Renault finally splits from Nissan at some stage – and who knows if Renault would want to help Dodge go back into NASCAR someday and maybe IndyCar too on top of NHRA Drag Racing as long as it makes perfect sense.

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