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Motorsport

Thoughts on Andretti being formally approved by the FIA as the 11th Formula 1 team yesterday but it’s not over yet with a new battle coming up from the 10 teams

by Sports Benches

Another huge news out of Motorsport yesterday that the FIA governing body, who runs Formula 1, has formally approved Andretti’s bid to enter the top flight as the next possible 11th team. 

It’s been a long process so far where they passed the first two phases with one final big hurdle left, which is the sport’s commercial group where they run the media side of things including global broadcast rights as well as looking after the existing ten teams when it comes to prize money, etc. We’ll have to really, really wait & see if all of these teams will be sold of Andretti’s idea in the hope of having really good competitive on-track competition alongside a really good race car.

So far most teams are against it where they’re happy where they are right now while expressing concerns of having a smaller cut of the prize money. But at the same time, Andretti is 100% serious about being competitive where they’re not bereft of financial support while hoping to take America’s relationship with Formula 1 to the next level thanks to their own team.

How good would it be where Andretti is also constructing their world-class headquarters right now that is akin to other big Motorsport powerhouses like McLaren? That would be a huge boost to their Formula 1 goals if the ten teams do give them a chance that can reflect Andretti’s all-round value on the world stage. Although half of the resources will be based in Europe, but they can be the first team to build a Formula 1 car right at their own home in Fishers, Indianapolis.

Yes, that can be a bit odd since all of the Formula 1 cars are currently built across Europe. But it also be great if the US has their own cutting edge of the way they run Motorsport which is huge & I for one would love to see Andretti-Cadillac show the sport how it’s done for their own country. Speaking of the US, they will of course save a spot for a home-grown driver which is most likely going to be Colton Herta, while a team-mate will be experienced racer like Daniel Ricciardo, who is so popular over there even though he’s one of us from Australia. It’s going to take time for the 10 teams to really pay attention to Andretti’s wish of competing in Formula 1 by saying yes this time, but let’s hope it happens before they start racing in 2025 or 2026.

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Motorsport

What if Toyota re-joined Formula 1 by forming a works partnership with McLaren?

by Sports Benches

Image Credit: Lukas Reich via Wikipedia, CC BY 4.0 International

The McLaren-Toyota links are growing where they had a great relationship of using Toyota’s wind tunnel facilities over in Germany for a few years before their own particular building was completed lately going forward. But it doesn’t stop there as McLaren has extended its relationship with the Japanese car manufacturer by hiring one of their factory drivers from the sportcars program in 29-year-old Ryo Hirakawa, even though McLaren currently uses Mercedes Benz.

He too has an excellent racing record, having won the 24 Hours of Le Mans last year as well as an World Endurance Championship (almost back-to-back now) & 2 x Super GT titles.

It will be no surprise if Toyota goes back to Formula 1 at some point as early as 2027 or 2028, but I assume it would just be an exclusive engine supply deal with McLaren – nothing else. That way, we could see some Toyota and/or Toyota Gazoo branding as part of the paint scheme if the relationship does go even further – as long as they’re on the same page so they can run up front & win races all the time unlike McLaren’s disastrous time with Honda back in 2015-2017.

As far as Ryo is concerned, we also hope he will be racing F1s on Sunday someday like Yuki Tsunoda who is at Alpha Tauri. But I guess he will just be there to gather data in the McLaren car & send feedback to Toyota as part of the plans rather than seeing him trying to oust either Lando Norris or Oscar Piastri, whom both of these youngsters are both untouchable. If Ryo was to be on race days, he would be racing for a 2nd Toyota Formula 1 team like Williams again unless Piastri does very badly between now and the end of 2026 or else see Lando end up at Audi in three years time.

He’d be about closer to age 34-35 which is kinda close to impossible, but age isn’t a factor though if you look at Fernando Alonso (Spain) who is still doing well in the Aston Martin-Mercedes car right now at age 42. It’ll be nice to see him race at Monaco though to try and win there, so he can be one step closer towards completing the Triple Crown (Monaco, Le Mans & Indianapolis 500). Plus, McLaren also has an IndyCar team too. Maybe they can help Ryo out for a one-off ride at the (Indy) 500, but it will most likely be 2025 unless they can find a partner with a small Chevy IndyCar team since they got Kyle Larson onboard for the next big occasion. 

All in all, McLaren would choose their next engine partner that has never won a Formula 1 race before in Toyota, despite delivering numerous podium finishes when they previously raced as a fully fledged factory team between 2002-2009. But it seems both partners are willing to take baby steps from the ground up that began with McLaren using Toyota’s wind tunnel to now accessing their driver talent pool. Hopefully, McLaren can learn from their poor experience a few years ago with Honda, while Toyota will promise them at the same time to give the race-winning chassis they need with a good quality powertrain as they’re currently dominating in Sportscars, Rally-Raid & Rallying. 

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Motorsport

An update on the Liam Lawson to Williams links on loan where he would’ve gone & be a perfect replacement for Sergio Perez at Red Bull Racing for 2025 but it’s still unlikely

by Sports Benches

Image Credit: Lukas Raich via Wikipedia, CC BY 4.0 International

There’s a little more to it a few days ago about the possibility of Liam Lawson racing on loan at Williams-Mercedes from Red Bull next season alongside fellow past Red Bull & Toro Rosso alumni Alex Albon from Thailand.

Last weekend, it was announced that Daniel Ricciardo will be back at Alpha Tauri while they hold on Yuki Tsunoda for another year due to the Honda links they bring into RB’s feeder squad when it comes to the engines + funding. It seems that won’t go away until at least the end of 2025 where Liam should be racing F1s by then in place Ricciardo before RBR & AT will switch to Ford engines from 2026, so that Yuki may join Aston Martin since they will be the next Honda’s works outfit. 

It would’ve been great to see Liam get a full season experience at Williams beforehand next season where he can be a perfect replacement for the under-fire Sergio Perez as Max Verstappen’s next team-mate at the flagship organization in 2025. But then that door is also closed when Williams wanted to retain American Logan Sargeant despite him crashing all the time.

Even though Sargeant may not be back & Liam missing out, Williams would elect to have last year’s Formula 2 champion Felipe Drugovich from Brazil instead in his place. All can Liam do now is learn from both Red Bull teams, then step up to Alpha Tauri in 2025 and go from there to achieve something big so he can go on & race for the main team in 2-3 years time. It’s the same for Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris who had to sit a year out before earning their first moves onto the big time. Let’s hope more Kiwis can follow his lead when it comes to earning their stripes from the ground up to all the way at the top level.

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Motorsport

Formula 1 News, Thoughts on Jack Doohan racing in the World Endurance Championship next season with Alpine’s Hypercar machinery instead of a 3rd season in Formula 2

by Sports Benches

Image Credit: Lukas Raich via Wikipedia, CC BY 4.0 International

Well, Jack Doohan may not have the best start, but he has still managed to make up lost time where he sits fourth right now in the Formula 2 drivers points with one round (two races) left in Abu Dhabi at the end of November. The good news is that he will be staying with Alpine for another year as their reserve driver, so we will get to see Jack race these F1 cars on a couple of occasions as required during practice sessions. We’ll have to wait and see if he can replace at least replace either Frenchmen of Pierre Gasly or Esteban Ocon in either 2025 or realistically 2026.

The bad news is that he may not be racing Formula 2 again for one more year at Virtuosi Racing in 2024, even though he might be allowed one more season before the maximum limit for a driver to race in this 2nd Tier series of 3 years unless you win the Drivers’ Championship. Although he could racing in the World Endurance Championship instead also within the Alpine umbrella for new their Hypercar programme which is the top class. It sounds like he’s following the path of Mark Webber, who came through the junior open-wheel ranks before he did 1-2 years of Endurance Racing; then he had a decorated decade of racing Formula 1s & rounded off his driving days back in Enduros with Porsche between 2014-2016.

Image Credit: Chris Game via Wikipedia, CC BY 2.0

Whatever path that might be for the young 20-year-old, if he chooses WEC with Alpine, let’s hope he can not only win the 24 Hours of Le Mans but also stop Ferrari & Toyota in its tracks with the series championship too. Yes, he has been a proven race winner several times before and have not won any championships so far despite being so close.

However, he needs to continue racing with the proof of taking home good regular results so Alpine can hopefully promise him a Formula 1 ride someday. They haven’t had their own in-house driver into the main squad from the lower levels before that reflects their driver development pathway following the fracas of fellow Aussie & former Alpine academy member Oscar Piastri where he ended up at McLaren instead in 2023.

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Motorsport

F1 Live Race Today at Suzuka: Max Verstappen unstoppable with Aussie Oscar Piastri’s first podium in P3 for McLaren while NZ’s Liam Lawson finished 11th in Alpha Tauri

by Sports Benches

Yes, today’s Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix race was crazy earlier on where we saw a few cars make contact into each other that led to some DNFs along the way. But it was a great day though with Max Verstappen being unstoppable in the Red Bull-RBPT Honda before he was joined by both McLarens to round out the Top 3 as Lando Norris finished 2nd followed our Aussie own Oscar Piastri, who scored his first podium finish in 3rd. We wished Oscar would’ve chased down Max from 2nd, but then he was blocked by the race winner immediately after the race start where Lando took a great view on the outside from 3rd to 2nd before he couldn’t get on hold onto Max as the race progresses. There will always be another Oscar moment after his mother couldn’t be there to watch her son race in-person today, but it looks like we will see him win races & hopefully a World Championship someday thanks to his latest four-year contract extension a few days ago with McLaren.

And shoutout to New Zealand’s Liam Lawson down in 11th for the Alpha Tauri-RBPT Honda outfit. He had a great battle with his team-mate Yuki Tsunoda from the start, although he was losing some track position for a while. But he had a great last half run though nonetheless, having made up some lost time where he got around Yuki before being way ahead of him en route towards another good result – despite being a lap down in his 4th race. Again, this is one driver who deserves a full-time seat. But there’s nothing we can do about it unless Williams can loan him out (which is unlikely) following the news yesterday that Alpha Tauri will retain both Yuki and the injured Daniel Ricciardo next season. Next stop, Lusail International Circuit in Race 17/23 this season under the lights for Qatar Grand Prix on Sunday 8th October/Monday 9th October at 4am AEDT here.

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Motorsport

Thoughts on Liam Lawson missing out a Alpha Tauri 2024 drive after they retained both Daniel Ricciardo & Yuki Tsunoda

by Sports Benches

Image Reference: Lucas Reich via Wikipedia, CC BY 4.0 International

NZ’s Liam Lawson may be underrated at the moment thanks to his fill-ins for the injured Daniel Ricciardo in the other Alpha Tauri-RBPT Honda race car recently. But he will have to spend the next Formula 1 season as their reserve driver for all races after they retained both Riccardo & Yuki Tsunoda unless Williams can loan him out from Red Bull to replace Logan Sargeant, which is going to be less likely to happen now.

He’s done so well in qualifying as well as his race results that includes his first points finish of 9th last weekend in Singapore. Now he still has one Super Formula round to try and win a championship there towards the end of next month, but then that round clashes with the Mexico City GP should Daniel Ricciardo still not recover from his hand injury. It would’ve been better if Danny moved onto Williams; Unfortunately he’s there to help Yuki and the team out over the next year at this stage. There is nothing bad about Liam where he’s so highly rated, especially when he’s our of our Aussie neighbours across the Ditch.

After the announcement today, I guess he will come back better regardless of what happens in the short-term. Once Sergio Perez leaves in 2025, then we will be able to finally see Liam back out on track every round for AT to make a more meaningful impact with results on the board before the team’s switch to Ford from 2026. It’s never been a better time where not only we can see an Aussie in Oscar Piastri & Danny Ric battling up front, but it’s also good to see a Kiwi doing well too in Liam.

Whatever you do Red Bull, don’t waste his talent and lose him to another series. Although I wouldn’t mind if he did race at the Indy 500 and 24 Hours of Le Mans (top hypercar class) next year for the occasion.

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Motorsport

2022 Australian S5000 Open-Wheel Championship last weekend’s Season-Finale: Three different youngsters win three different races while Joey Mawson goes back-to-back champion despite a podium-less end to the season

by Sports Benches

Looking back from last weekend in the S5000 Open-Wheelers, it’s awesome to see a couple of youngsters sharing the top of the podium with three different winners throughout three different races at Hidden Valley in Darwin, NT.

We’ll start with 17-year-old Cooper Webster – who was off to a fantastic start with an easy win from 2nd on the front row in Race 1. Yes, he was gutted earlier during Race 2 on Sunday when he put the brakes too hard before Webster spun off while running 4th with eight laps left. But he recovered well nonetheless back in 2nd to wrap up two amazing podiums in both afternoon races.

We also give a shoutout to Kiwi Kaleb Ngatoa; he too began the weekend in 8th, having been midway through the field except P2 from Practice 1. He did have an outstanding Race 2 though where Ngatoa jumped ahead of Webster for the lead straight away & never looked back ever since with the win. Sadly, he got a massive hit by Blake Purdie in the third and final race weekend that saw him home with a damaged right front-wing in 9th.

Then there’s Aaron Cameron in the No.18 Garry Rogers Motorsport Open-Wheel machinery alongside his usual TCR Australia also for the same GRM team. He began the weekend with the final podium spot in Race 1 before Cameron was left out of the Top 3 at P4 earlier on Sunday morning and responded to that Race 2 setback really well en route to 1st.

It’s not only youngsters dominating the field, but there’s some established stars who are setting the benchmark as well. A. Cameron’s team-mate James Golding also responded from his P7 finish from the opening race Saturday with back-to-back Sunday podiums (P2 in Race 2 & P3 in Race 3).

And Joey Mawson is your drivers’ champion for the second straight time this year – despite having a podium-less run in Darwin; P4 in Race 1, P6 during Sunday AM & Race 3 DNF. Congrats to Joey as he’s got the Tasman Series next in sights that will take place this late October-early November.

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Motorsport

2022 RD3 of the Australian Motor Racing Series: Jett Johnson and Noah Sands too good once again in their respective categories at TA2 Muscle Cars & Australian Formula 3

by Sports Benches

Who can stop Jett Johnson right now? He was simply outstanding all Sunday long with three straight wins out of four here at Winton Motor Raceway in the TA2 Muscle Car category. Every time he has the chance to start and re-start the race from top spot, he was just too good to hold off on his own from start to finish. There is one bright young talent in the making with huge potential from Jett, having came from the famous Johnson Racing family background via his dad Steven and grandad Dick Johnson.

Dylan Thomas came home 2nd in the No.68 Ford Mustang for CXC Racing. He would’ve love to have a close sniff at Jett and put pressure on the young kid when it comes to the top spot battle, but he never looked out of place nonetheless with three straight P2 finishes on top of P5 from Race 1. And how good was Josh Haynes also in the No.17 Elvin Group Chevy Camaro! He started from the back of the grid in around 13th following the stall of Michael Coulter just before the green flag waved; He too had a brilliant when Haynes made up so many positions up to third. Although he may not had enough time to chase down the Top 2, but he’s certainly a huge threat if Haynes was right up there side-by-side with Dylan and Jett.

Plus a couple of mentions with Jackson Rice’s rebound in 4th following a late wreck earlier today with Mark Crutcher; Kyle Gurton back in the Top 5 when his Race 1 win followed up with a late mechanical issue that saw him battle at the back end of the field during Race 3; And although Zach Loscialpo would’ve like to stay running within the Top 3, he overcame an early spin down at Turn 2 where he finished 10th.

Then we round off with one of Australian Motor Racing Series’s core categories in the Australian Formula 3 Series at Winton Motor Raceway in Victoria. The opening lap was wild when Ethan Brown couldn’t get the clutch going, while Mitch Neilson fired off with the early lead. However, Neilson lost top spot when he overcooked it at Turn 1 that cost him two spots in the eventual P3 position, despite being given a 20-second penalty as he finished well ahead of his R-Tek Motorsports team-mate in Roman Krumins.

In the end, it’s Noah Sands once again with the win. He credits the patience that created plenty of pressure to any driver ahead of him before Sands was able to get past through the gate and the rest is history en route to the chequered flag. And Race 1 winner Ryan Astley would’ve like the full-race momentum after the last two races today in a bid where he couldn’t stop the dangerous Noah Sands, but an all-podium finish in 3rd and 2nd respectively in Races 2 & 3 still shows that his rivalry with Sands isn’t over when it comes to the overall championship.

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2022 ARG SpeedSeries RD4: A mix of opening lap dramas and an easier finish by the respective leaders round off the weekend in Race 3 of the S5000, Trans-Am and TCR Australia at Sydney Motorsports Park

by Sports Benches

What a Sunday afternoon it has been to close out the weekend here at Sydney Motorsports Park in Round 4 of the 2022 ARG SpeedSeries. We’ll start off with the S5000s where Tim Macrow fired off well from pole before he was spun off by Nathan Herne that cost him a few places, while race officials handed Herne a drive-through penalty at the same time.

As the race goes on, we saw a brilliant battle for 1st between Aaron Cameron & Joey Mawson before Cameron completed his payback with the win following his unfortunate opening lap DNF by Mawson into the wall from Race 2 earlier today. And James Golding finished his Sunday spell with two podiums in 2nd & 3rd, having made up lost time from a DNF Race 1 yesterday over a steering issue.

Then there’s the same opening lap drama over in the Trans-Am this time at Turn 1, when the No.67 of Nash Morris touched the wall before he collected Lochie Dalton in No.45 out of the park that led to the next couple of laps under caution. In the end though, Owen Kelly remained unchallenged from start to finish in 1st that followed up from an excellent Race 2 during the night session yesterday. Race 1 winner Nathan Herne became the biggest mover when it comes to track position from 22nd on the grid to 2nd, while Ben Grice rounds off the podium in 3rd.

And we finish our huge Sunday afternoon of ARG SpeedSeries with the TCR Australia category. Nathan Morcom adds another podium finish on top of an excellent Sunday performance from P3 earlier during Race 2 today in the No.11 Hyundai i30 N, but this time he takes home with the win which ended his drought on top of the podium since November 2019 at the Bend in South Australia. He did an excellent job getting around polesitter Jordan Cox on the inside line straight away from 2nd spot before he never looked back ever since, while team-mate Josh Buchan in the sister No.30 machinery completed a 1-2 sweep for their HMO Customer Racing team. And Cox would’ve liked to hunt down the HMO cars all race long, but he’s happy to prevent an all Hyundai Top 3 when he passed Luke King on the final lap for 3rd.

#SpeedSeriesAU #Motorsport #S5000 #TCRAustralia #TransAm #OwenKelly #AaronCameron #NathanMorcom #JoshBuchan #Hyundai #GarryRogersMotorsport #FordMustang #EasternCreek #HMOCustomerRacing

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2022 ARG SpeedSeries: Youngsters Jay Hanson (TCR Australia) & Cooper Webster (S5000) take out the win in their respective categories during Race 2 at Sydney Motorsport Park

by Sports Benches

It was an easy run from Jay Hanson who dominated Race 2 comfortably in the No.9 Audi RS3 for Melbourne Performance Centre here at Sydney Motorsports Park.

He did a brilliant job holding off a four-wide pursuit at the start which was incredible to watch, before he never looked back as the race leader upfront.

Joining Hanson was the two Hyundai i30s in Luke King (No.2 Moutai) & Nathan Morcom (No.11 HMO Customer Racing) in 2nd and 3rd respectively. Now King may have got in a bit of contact with Tony D’Alberto over in the No.50 Wall Racing Honda Civic earlier on but it didn’t affect him too much as he kept racing all the way in 2nd.

Then we go into the S5000s also in Race 2 with some drama at the start/finish straight when Joey Mawson sent Aaron Cameron over to the wall, as Cameron was unable to race on just moments after the race began. But the highlight though belongs to Cooper Webster in the No.37 Versa Motorsport machinery who was just too good unchallenged from start to finish; he too gets his first win of the year which is an incredible moment to remember from this teenager. And James Golding did a great job passing Tim Macrow for the battle for 2nd where Macrow overcooked it out wide at Turn 6 where that kind of patience paid ahead of him.

Can’t wait for Race 3 later this afternoon with a mix of S5000s, Trans-Am & TCR Australia.

#SpeedSeriesAU #TCRAustralia #Motorsport #S5000 #SydneyMotorsportsPark #JayHanson #Audi #Hyundai #LukeKing #NathanMorcom #CooperWebster #JamesGolding #TimMacrow #EasternCreek

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