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 COVER IMAGES
Motorsport Studios

PIT & PADDOCK

Picking out the

4 Peugeot hints at early Le Mans return
6 BMW saves Jordan in BTCC
9 Kyalami’s world sportscar comeback

best drivers from the 11

13
Fittipaldi heads back to Japan
Autosport’s memories of 2019

season just gone 15 Feedback: your letters

CHRISTMAS SPECIAL
It’s that time of year again. Autosport has taken on the near- 17 Autosport’s top 50 drivers of 2019
impossible (and invariably controversial) challenge of ranking 44 How ‘slow’ Toyota won in Bahrain
the best drivers in motorsport across the season. 52 Michelisz takes world tin-top crown
Many things have to be taken into account when putting 54 Pictures of the year
68 The UK’s fastest laps of 2019
the list together, including the level of the series in which the
70 Key moments of the F1 support series
drivers compete, machinery at their disposal, and their level of 76 World of Sport review: WTCR; Australian
experience. Turn to page 17 to see who made the list and why Supercars; Super Formula and Super GT;
we’ve put the drivers in their positions. Porsche Supercup; Formula Regional;
As ever, our Christmas double issue (which is £4.99 – we’ll be back IMSA; NASCAR Cup; Blancpain GT Series;
to the normal £3.99 for the next issue on 2 January) has plenty more ELMS; Euroformula Open; World
beyond the traditional top 50 list. As well as our annual pictures Rallycross; Formula Renault Eurocup;
of the year (p54), and season reviews (p70), David Evans takes a look European Rally Championship;
British Rally Championship
at the crisis currently threatening the World Rally Championship
86 Christmas quiz
(p88), Paul Fearnley recalls how Jaguar managed to win a NASCAR 88 How to save the WRC
race (p94), and Gary Watkins reveals some of the more alarming 94 When Jaguar conquered NASCAR
ways drivers have tried to raise money over the years (p98). Matt 98 What some drivers will do for money
Kew also picks out the top 10 motorsport films (p106) – another 106 Top 10 motorsport films
list sure to spark debate over whichever festive tipple you choose. 110 2019 index
Our 20-page national section includes season highlights from
veteran club-racing guru Marcus Pye, the top 10 drivers of the CLUB AUTOSPORT
128 Britcar to support WEC at Spa
season, and an assessment of the best rivalries of 2019.
130 Speedworks eyes British GT with Toyota
Finally, we wish you a merry Christmas and a happy New Year! 132 Marcus Pye’s memories of the year
138 Top 10 club racing drivers of 2019
O This time last year we were asking for your votes for Formula 1’s 140 Club racing’s top 10 2019 rivalries
greatest era. The 1974-82 period came out the winner, so look out for 142 National pictures of the year
our special issue on that time on 2 January, which will also include
our countdown of Belgian legend Jacky Ickx’s greatest drives. FINISHING STRAIGHT
150 What’s on this week
152 From the archive: 1995 Swedish Rally
154 Pit your wits against our quiz

NEXT WEEK SUBSCRIPTION OFFER

2 JANUARY 96 Special deals for Autosport
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Kevin Turner you voted the best: VISIT AUTOSPORT.COM
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1974-1982
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1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9 AUTOSPORT.COM 3
 OOPINIONOFEEDBACK
PIT + PADDOCK
PEUGEOT HINTS AT
CO N T R OV E RSY
EARLY LE MANS RETURN
LE MANS 24 HOURS
O
D E B AT E
Peugeot could be on the grid with its new LM
Hypercar at the 2022 Le Mans 24 Hours. That’s
the latest snippet the French manufacturer has let
out since November’s perfunctory announcement
O
of its return to front-line sportscar racing.
NEWS
Peugeot’s plans for its entry into the top division of
the World Endurance Championship were clarified by
Jean-Marc Finot, motorsport boss of parent company
PSA, on a visit to last weekend’s World Endurance
Championship round in Bahrain.
The statement from Peugeot said it would be back in
2022, which was widely interpreted, including by WEC
promoter and Le Mans organiser the Automobile Club
de l’Ouest, as meaning the start of the 2022-23 season.
But Finot has now revealed that it could be earlier.
Asked if the ‘2022’ wording in its statemnt meant
the start of the 2022-23 WEC season, Finot replied:
“We have not said that – we have said we will arrive
in 2022 but we have not said exactly when. We are
keeping the possibility to race before.”
This will follow the first tests of Peugeot’s LM
Hypercar, a hybrid built to the prototype segment of
the new rulebook, during 2021. “It will be the middle of
2021, but I cannot give you the precise month,” he said.
Finot suggested that an early debut involving racing
in the 2021-22 season finale at Le Mans “would be a
tough decision to make because it would be risky”.
He stressed that it is still far too early for a decision
on when the car will first race to be made.
WOOD
Peugeot is still putting its programme together in
the wake of PSA’s twin decisions to enter the WEC
and depart the World Rally Championship with
Citroen, explained Finot. He reiterated Peugeot’s
stance that the LM Hypercar will be designed,
developed and run from PSA Motorsport headquarters
at Versailles-Satory in suburban Paris. What its
partnership with Rebellion Racing, announced two
weeks ago, means has yet to be defined, he said.
Rumours that ORECA, which builds and runs
Rebellion’s R-13 WEC contender, will be involved were
played down by Finot. They have intensified with the
news that the French organisation will not be renewing
its contract with Toyota. ORECA has been part of the
Japanese manufacturer’s set-up since 2012 and currently
supplies seven staff, including assistant technical director
David Floury. “We do not have all the skills to manage the
whole programme, so we will have some partnerships
and use some suppliers,” said Finot. “As normal, we
will request some quotations and choose the best one.”
Finot added that decisions about the make-up of the
race team will be taken further down the line. “It could
be just people from PSA or it could involve some people
taken on by Rebellion,” he said. “Everything is open.”
Finot did reveal, however, that one reason for his
presence in Bahrain was to talk to teams about placing
PSA mechanics in the WEC paddock. “We have very
good mechanics with huge experience, but we have
to train them in endurance racing,” he explained. “I am
meeting with team managers to see what can be done.”
GARY WATKINS

Hypercar rules
too expensive,
says McLaren
WEC
McLaren still has aspirations to join
the top flight of the World Endurance
Championship, but only if it can run a
Daytona Prototype international 2.0
in the LM Hypercar division.
McLaren Racing chief executive Zak
Brown has revealed that the LM Hypercar
category will be too expensive for the
British organisation. He said that
developing a car for the DPi 2.0 category
due to come into force in the IMSA
SportsCar Championship in 2022 would
offer a more viable entry point should talks
to align the two sets of rules be successful.
“As the [LM Hypercar] rules exist today,
I think we would struggle to get there
economically,” said Brown. “I have got to be
really responsible – I can’t enter any new
form of motor racing in the short term that
would run at any kind of meaningful loss.”
Leclerc to star at Birmingham NEC
AUTOSPORT INTERNATIONAL
Ferrari Formula 1 ace Charles Leclerc is the star
guest on the final day of next month’s Autosport
International show at the Birmingham NEC.
Leclerc, winner of two grands prix this season
on his way to fourth in the world championship,
will be present on Sunday 12 January, and fans
will get the chance to have their questions
answered by the Monegasque on stage in a
Live Q and A. He will be the first contemporary
Ferrari F1 driver to appear at the show.
Motorsport Network president James Allen
said: “It’s always exciting for fans to see one of
the top F1 stars close up and Charles Leclerc’s
P I T + PA D D O C K
TICKTUM BACK
IN F1 WITH 2020
MOTORSPORT IMAGES/TEE
ROLE AT WILLIAMS
FORMULA 1
Two-time Macau Grand Prix
winner and ex-Red Bull Junior
Dan Ticktum has joined the
Williams Formula 1 team as
a development driver.
Ticktum spent much of the
second half of 2019 on the
sidelines after losing his Super
Formula drive when Red Bull
dropped him from its F1
programme. But the 2017
McLaren Autosport BRDC
Brown stated that McLaren’s estimates Award winner returned to Macau
put a top budget for an LM Hypercar for the FIA Formula 3 showpiece
programme at $40million per season. event, and has secured a F2
He suggested that McLaren believes drive with DAMS for 2020.
a viable budget for the company is Ticktum, who has tested for
around half that figure. the Red Bull F1 squad, will be
No timeframe is in place for a decision “fully immersed” in the Williams
from McLaren on a WEC entry should a team at races and at its factory,
DPi 2.0 hybrid be eligible. “Once rules are combining a “busy” simulator
finalised and we understand the situation, programme with attendance
then we will react,” said Brown. at two grands prix in 2020.
GARY WATKINS “It’s a privilege to be joining
the Williams Racing Driver
Academy, especially given
Williams’s incredible heritage
in our sport,” said Ticktum.
S BLOXHAM “The time in the simulator and
experience working with the
team will prove invaluable for
my development. Being fully
integrated into the operations
will be a fantastic opportunity
and I look forward to assisting
wherever I can.”
Williams deputy team
principal Claire Williams
said: “I am delighted that Dan,
another exciting young British
talent, has joined the Williams
Racing Driver Academy. Dan’s
technical expertise will prove
invaluable to the team and we
are looking forward to helping
him grow and develop in 2020.”
presence makes Autosport International a SCOTT MITCHELL
‘must-attend’. He is a great personality in our
sport. He has a mature racing brain allied to
astonishing speed. So what better way to kick off
the 70th anniversary year of F1 and Autosport?”
Leclerc added: “I’m pleased to join Autosport
International and have the chance to meet all the
British fans. I appreciate the passion they have
for motorsport and for F1 in particular. It will be
a wonderful opportunity to feel the love and the
enthusiasm we usually experience at the races.”
The show kicks off on 9 January with two
trade-only days, followed by the weekend
public days on 11 and 12 January. Visit
autosportinternational.com to book tickets.
1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9 AUTOSPORT.COM 5
P I T + PA D D O C K
Toyota youngster stakes
claim for WEC works seat
WEC
Toyota development driver Kenta
Yamashita was the fastest of the three
rookies to climb behind the wheel of
one of the Japanese marque’s TS050
HYBRIDs at the official World
Endurance Championship test
in Bahrain last weekend.
The 2019 Super GT champion
(above) ended up quicker than both
Thomas Laurent and Nyck de Vries on
his first run in a TS050 at the WEC
rookie test the day after the Bahrain 8
Hours. Mercedes Formula E racer de
Vries was also driving an LMP1 car for
the first time after being nominated
by the WEC organisation, while
Toyota test and reserve driver Laurent
was making a second appearance in
one of the hybrid machines.
Yamashita’s 1m44.075s compared
with Laurent’s 1m44.514s and a
1m44.561s from de Vries. Each
of the drivers was given just over
30 laps in one of the two TS050s
during the dry afternoon session
in which the times were set.
Toyota Motorsport GmbH technical
director Pascal Vasselon said: “All
three of our rookies were very good
today: they didn’t put a wheel off
the track and were all quick.”
Vasselon stressed that it was
unfair to make comparisons between
the three drivers, pointing out that
Yamashita was given two new sets
P17 AUTOSPORT TOP 50
6 AUTOSPORT.COM 1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9
TOYOTA
of Michelin tyres compared with one
for Laurent and de Vries. The times of
the rookies compared with a test best
from Kamui Kobayashi of 1m43.264s.
Formula 2 racer and Haas Formula 1
simulator driver Louis Deletraz tested
the Rebellion-Gibson R-13 as a tryout
for a possible drive with the team
at the Le Mans 24 Hours next June.
The Swiss (below) recorded a fastest
lap of 1m45.217s, 0.350s slower than
the time with which Rebellion regular
Norman Nato topped the times in the
rain-affected morning session.
European Le Mans Series LMP3
champion Mikkel Jensen was the
fastest rookie in the LMP2 class with
the G-Drive Racing team’s ORECA-
Gibson 07. The 24-year-old Dane set
his time in the afternoon session and
also drove Signatech’s Alpine-badged
version. French youngster Charles
Milesi, who races in Japanese
Formula 3, tried out for Signatech too.
Nicklas Nielsen, who races in the
WEC aboard one of the AF Corse
GTE Am Ferraris, drove both the
team’s factory entries. The Dane was
subsequently announced as a Ferrari
factory driver along with Brazilian
Daniel Serra the following day.
Fastest rookie in GTE Pro was WEC
and ELMS LMP2 regular Job van Uitert
aboard a factory Porsche 911 RSR.
Both Yamashita and de Vries feature
in Autosport’s top 50 drivers of 2019.
GARY WATKINS
JEP
BMW saves
Jordan in BTCC
BTCC
The Team BMW attack in the British
Touring Car Championship will expand
to three cars next season in a deal that
rescues the career of Andrew Jordan, who
will join forces with reigning champion
Colin Turkington and Tom Oliphant.
Jordan, who lifted the BTCC title in
2013, had faced an uncertain future since
his long-term backer Pirtek announced
early in 2019 that it was pulling out
of its motorsport commitments after
nearly a decade supporting him.
The WSR-run BMWs dominated
the 2019 competition, with Turkington
taking the crown by two points from
Jordan, who missed two races due to an
accident. Between them, the BMW 330i
M Sport drivers won 11 of the 30 races.
“I have been in a very fortunate position
for the last 10 years or so that I could go to
a team with a bag of cash from sponsors,
but that wasn’t the case for 2020,” said
Jordan. “As in most forms of motorsport,
sometimes budget can outweigh talent
so you’re never sure where you’re going
to stand. But BMW has gone above and
beyond what it needed to do to get me
in the car, and there’s a really good
feeling about this whole deal.”
TURKINGTON’S CHINA CRISIS
Meanwhile, Turkington’s cameo in the
Chinese Touring Car Championship at
Wuhan last weekend was ruined by a
roll and a drivethrough penalty.
Turkington started his SAIC
Volkswagen Lamando mid-pack in the
reversed-grid race one and was involved in
a first-lap pile-up at a hairpin, which rolled
his car onto its roof at slow speed. He was
on pole for race two but was hit with a
drivethrough penalty after he crept at the
start, battling back to ninth spot at the
flag. Fellow Brit Adam Morgan was third.
MATT JAMES

FORMULA 1/MOTOGP Six-time Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton and seven-time MotoGP king Valentino Rossi swapped machinery at Valencia
last week. Hamilton rode the Yamaha MotoGP YZR-M1 on which Rossi contested this year’s bike finale, while the Italian was behind the wheel of a 2017
Mercedes W08. “I was a big fan of Lewis before but now I am even more,” said Rossi. “We had a fantastic day. I felt like a real F1 driver. I didn’t want it to end.”
Jones heads to DTM as team pulls out of WTCR
DTM/WTCR
WRT Audi will run ex-IndyCar driver Ed
Jones and FIA Formula 3 graduate Fabio
Scherer in its privateer DTM line-up in
2020. They replace Pietro Fittipaldi, who is
heading to Japan next season (see p11), and
Jonathan Aberdein, who is highly rated by
Audi following a starring rookie season.
Both Emirati Jones (right, above) and Swiss
Scherer took part in last week’s DTM young
drivers’ test at Jerez, which also featured a
hotly anticipated run for Williams Formula 1
refugee Robert Kubica with BMW.
After being dropped from Chip Ganassi
Racing at the end of 2018, Jones spent
this year racing for Ed Carpenter Racing,
finishing 20th in the drivers’ standings.
Scherer had a promising 2018 season in
the Formula 3 European Championship,
before taking 17th in the FIA F3 series this
year with the Sauber Junior Team as it
struggled to adapt to the new championship.
It remains to be seen what WRT’s new
line-up means for Aberdein – Audi sports
boss Dieter Gass is keen to keep the South
African close to the manufacturer team.
P I T + PA D D O C K
Meanwhile, WRT has ended the chapter
MOTORSPORT IMAGES/LEVITT
on its World Touring Car Cup team, which
has run Jean-Karl Vernay and Gordon
Shedden (right, below) for the past two
seasons in the Audi RS3 LMS TCR
contender, as the Ingolstadt manufacturer’s
customer division withdraws its support
from the TCR programme to focus on GT3.
The Belgian team has cited the Balance of
Performance employed in TCR categories
as a source of frustration in 2019, and
reiterated that prior to last weekend’s
Sepang WTCR finale, with sporting director
Pierre Dieudonne saying: “We had a
GOODEN/DPPI
challenging season and have been faced
with an uneven playing field, but the team
has never lost motivation and has always
reacted with great professionalism.”
Comtoyou Racing is the other team to run
Audis in WTCR. Audi customer racing boss
Chris Reinke said: “Comtoyou Racing has
expressed interest in competing in the
WTCR again in 2020. We would very
much welcome this and wish [team boss]
Jean-Michel Baert and his team that
this idea will become a reality.”
TOM ERRINGTON AND JACK COZENS
1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9 AUTOSPORT.COM 7
 The Official Review
of the 2019 FIA Formula
One World Championship®

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 P I T + PA D D O C K

Kyalami returns to world

championship calendar

WORLD ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP
Kyalami will get its first world championship
race since the 1993 South African
Grand Prix when the World Endurance
Championship visits the Johannesburg
venue in just over a year’s time.
The new WEC fixture, scheduled for
6 February 2021, will be the first world
series sportscar event at the track since
1984 (pictured is the 1983 race-winning
Porsche 956 of Stefan Bellof and Derek
Bell). The return of international
motorsport to Kyalami, which began
with last month’s Intercontinental GT
Challenge finale, follows a major upgrade
of the venue in the wake of its purchase
in 2014 by Toby Venter, owner of
Porsche South Africa. the November slot usually occupied
“Kyalami is an historical circuit, an by the Chinese race.
amazing place with a long story with GARY WATKINS
sportscar racing,” said WEC boss Gerard
Neveu. “I had a chance to visit the track WEC CALENDAR 2020-21
a few weeks ago and the place smells RD EVENT DATE
of motorsport, and the people there
1 Silverstone 6 Hours (GBR) 5 September
have done an incredible job to rebuild
the circuit.” 2 Monza 6 Hours (ITA) 4 October
The inclusion of the South African 3 Fuji 6 Hours (JPN) 1 November
event is part of a minor rejig of the
WEC calendar for 2020-21. Silverstone 4 Bahrain 8 Hours (BHR) 5 December
will remain as the series opener, but will 5 Kyalami 6 Hours (ZAF) 6 February
revert to its former six-hour format with
6 Sebring 1000 Miles (USA) 19 March
a race taking place on Saturday rather
than Sunday. A race at Monza effectively 7 Spa 6 Hours (BEL) 24 April
replaces the Shanghai event. It takes an
8 Le Mans 24 Hours (FRA) 12-13 June
October date and pushes Fuji back into

Audi team beats Rossi in Yas Marina enduro

GULF 12 HOURS
Attempto Racing gave Audi
victory in the Gulf 12 Hours
in Abu Dhabi last weekend,
as MotoGP legend Valentino
Rossi took a podium finish.
Christopher Mies,
Dries Vanthoor and Rinat
Salikhov ended a run of five
straight Ferrari victories by
heading an Attempto Audi
1-2, despite serving a stop/
FERRARI
of the two-part race.
Stablemates Mattia Drudi,
Nick Foster and Murad
Sultanov followed, while
Rossi sealed Pro-Am class
victory in the Kessel Ferrari
488 GT3 (left) he shared
with Moto2 race-winning
half-brother Luca Marini
and Alessio Salucci, four
laps down on the winner.
The pole-winning HTP
Motorsport Mercedes
an ignition coil issue that
stranded it out on the circuit.
British team Balfe
Motorsport scored a 1-2 in
GT4, its two McLaren 570Ss
finishing just 23s apart.
James Pickford joined
Ollie Millroy, Nick Moss
and Brendan Iribe in the
winning car, while BTCC
race winner Josh Cook,
newly announced McLaren
factory driver Euan Hankey,

go penalty for a pitstop featuring Maxi Gotz and Mia Flewitt and Issam
infringement in the first half Dominik Baumann suffered Charrouf finished second.

1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9 AUTOSPORT.COM 9

Fittipaldi returns to Japan
SUPER FORMULA
Haas Formula 1 reserve Pietro Fittipaldi is
returning to Japan’s Super Formula series
in 2020 after landing a seat with the
B-Max Racing with Motopark team.
Fittipaldi switches back to single-seater
racing full-time in 2020 after a year in the
DTM with customer Audi team WRT. He
was due to contest a Super Formula season
in 2018 with Team Le Mans, but ended up
only taking part in the opening race before
breaking his legs in a World Endurance
Championship crash at Spa.
“I am very happy to have signed with
B-Max Racing with Motopark in Super
Formula, one of the fastest categories in
the world,” said Fittipaldi. “It’s a very
competitive championship, so I need
to stay very active over the next few
months and I’m sure we’ll be able
to have a good 2020 season.”
Motopark boss Timo Rumpfkeil added:
“I have been following Pietro’s results
for many years and my feedback is very
positive from him. For us as a team it is
our second season in the category and now
we can achieve very good results. It was
great to have Pietro’s early confirmation
of arrival. We now have more time to
prepare for 2020 in the best way possible.”
Lucas Auer led the B-Max/Motopark
attack in 2019, with Harrison Newey in the
sister car. But Auer and the Red Bull Junior
programme have made a mutual agreement
to split. While he recently took part in
Nissan’s driver shootout at Fuji for Super
GT, he has been linked to a switch to
BMW to return to the DTM, where his
uncle Gerhard Berger is the series boss.
TRIENITZ
RINGERS SCUPPERED IN ASIA
As part of his bid to ‘stay very active’,
Fittipaldi is one of a cluster of drivers –
including imports from FIA Formula 2 and
FIA Formula 3 – competing in the Asian
F3 Championship, which kicked off its
five-round series on the World Touring
Car Cup undercard at Sepang last weekend.
They were overshadowed by Dutchman
Joey Alders, who won two of the three
races with BlackArts Racing to top the
points. A graduate of German Formula 4,
Alders (below) moved to Asia this year and
won the region’s Formula Renault series.
He triumphed in the first two races at
Sepang, before finishing third in the finale,
won by Red Bull-backed Jack Doohan.
Doohan had taken second in race one,
while FIA F3 racer Devlin DeFrancesco
took two podiums and F2 contender Nikita
Mazepin one. Of the other ‘ringers’, Tatiana
Calderon took a best of fourth and a
troubled Jake Hughes peaked with a
sixth. Technical problems for Fittipaldi
meant he never made the top 10 in the
16-car field. W Series champion Jamie
Chadwick had a best result of seventh.
ASIAN F3
1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9 AUTOSPORT.COM 1 1
P I T + PA D D O C K
IN THE HEADLINES
HAMILTON GETS BOWLED OUT
Six-time Formula 1 world champion
Lewis Hamilton finished runner-up in
the coveted BBC Sports Personality of
the Year award for the second time
running last weekend. Hamilton, who
won the 2014 award and who paid
tribute to the late Niki Lauda – who
was instrumental in signing him
to Mercedes – on the night, was
beaten by cricketer Ben Stokes.
McLAUGHLIN’S INDYCAR TEST
Australian Supercars champion Scott
McLaughlin will get his first IndyCar
test at Sebring next month with Team
Penske. The New Zealander, who has
NASCAR aspirations, won his 2019 title
with DJR Team Penske, and will drive
in the IndyCar rookie test. McLaughlin
spent “a few hours” in a simulator
earlier this year, and said: “It’s going
to be a blast to see what one really
feels like at a place like Sebring.”
KATSUTA GETS EIGHT RALLIES
Toyota protege Takamoto Katsuta
will tackle eight rounds of next year’s
World Rally Championship in a Yaris
WRC, including his home event, the
season-closing Rally Japan. The car
will run alongside the three factory
machines of Sebastien Ogier, Elfyn
Evans and Kalle Rovanpera but is
likely to be serviced separately by
Tommi Makinen Racing. Katsuta
starts his programme on next
month’s Monte Carlo Rally.
GOODYEAR’S LMP2 DEAL
Goodyear will become the official tyre
supplier for the LMP2 class of the
World Endurance Championship
from next season. The arrangement
with the American company, which
re-entered international motorsport
in P2 at the start of the current WEC
campaign, will mean all cars in the
secondary prototype category will run
on its tyres and will bring Michelin’s
involvement in the division to an end.
FIA F3 RACERS AT SUZUKA
A trio of FIA Formula 3 Championship
drivers are contesting this week’s
Japanese F3 test at Suzuka,
indicating that they could be set for a
move east to race in the replacement
Super Formula Lights series in 2020.
Honda-backed Teppei Natori will
run with Toda Racing, while Simo
Laaksonen and Raoul Hyman will
take the wheel of B-Max with
Motopark machines – Laaksonen
in the new Dallara F320 chassis.
 M E M O R I E S LO O K I N G B AC K O N 2 0 1 9

Autosport’s memories
of the season just past
It’s been an emotional year for the Autosport team. We marked 1000 world
championship races in epic fashion, some of us got married and others lost a friend
KEVIN TURNER, MARCUS SIMMONS AND JACK BENYON

KEVIN TURNER
EDITOR

Seeing any Formula 1 car up close is special,

but to be able to arrange a track test with four
title-winning racers was a career highlight.
Thanks to Classic Team Lotus, Autosport
celebrated the 1000th world championship race by putting
resident racer Ben Anderson in to a Lotus 25, 49, 72 and a 79.
We’d long wanted to get Ben in an F1 car and the grand prix-
winning ex-Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Emerson Fittipaldi and
Ronnie Peterson exotica meant the day at Hethel was better
than we could ever have hoped for. Being a racing driver, Ben’s
favourite was the quickest – the ground-effect 79 – but there
JEP

was something even more evocative about the 72.

MARCUS SIMMONS
DEPUTY EDITOR

A trip to Japan for the Super Formula round at

Sugo has to be the standout memory for me –
because it nearly killed me.
No, it wasn’t proximity to a shunt on this
stunning circuit. And no, it wasn’t because of the food I ate: I can
MOTORSPORT IMAGES/ISHIHARA

confirm that sea urchin is… OK. It was because, a few weeks after,
I was diagnosed with a severe DVT, brought on by the flight.
Luckily, I had great interviews with Naoki Yamamoto and
Kazuyoshi Hoshino (coming your way soon) in the bag. Even more
luckily, the symptoms only struck after my honeymoon after I’d
married the lady I love even more than Dallara single-seaters. I’d
unwittingly carried the illness through our wedding day…

JACK BENYON
I N T E R N AT I O N A L E D I T O R

I’ll remember 2019 as a sad year, as the

motorsport world lost a light in Anthoine
Hubert. Although I wasn’t there, the Formula
2 organisation inaugurated and gifted the
MOTORSPORT IMAGES/PORTLOCK

first Anthoine Hubert award to its top rookie Guanyu Zhou at

its end of year awards. It was a fine way to conclude the season.
On a happier note, attending Macau for the first time and
watching the fastest ever Formula 3 cars thunder around the
magical island was spellbinding. Better still, Richard Verschoor
proved that every dog has his day. Despite adversity and a lack of
cash in his career, the Dutch driver won the Macau Grand Prix in
a David v Goliath encounter with Red Bull’s Juri Vips.

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YOUR
SAY

We both left Stevenage in our late teens: I set out to earn a living,
Lewis to conquer the world. He did. Thus far times six
GRAEME INNES -JOHNSTONE

What’s the secret of Lewis Hamilton’s success?

Lewis Hamilton was raised in a council house in the
Shephall neighbourhood of Stevenage, as was I, his first
home a half-mile away, albeit we were also a few years
apart. We attended similar schools. We will have walked
the same streets, shopped the same shops, used the same
chippy at The Hyde. We both left the town in our late
teens: I set out to earn a living, Lewis to conquer the
world. He did. Thus far times six. So what made him
the man he is? I haven’t a clue.
He is surrounded by people of great intellect and
huge expertise, PhDs in the likes of fluid dynamics and
thermal combustion, yet as they observe and analyse
Lewis there is an nth degree of performance that is
beyond them. Is it genius? Magic?

From the man himself in Channel 4’s preamble to
the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix: “I don’t know even now if
I can explain all that stuff… We overthink things all the
time and it’s a case of just going out and doing it. That
is how I operate best. This is how I achieve greatness.”
So, to his own mind, he simply does what he does
because he can do it. And we should feel privileged
to witness it.
Graeme Innes-Johnstone
Elland, West Yorks
Appeal for memories of Tom Pryce
I am writing to let readers know about an appeal that’s
been launched for stories for a new book about tragic
Formula 1 hero Tom Pryce. Campaigners are trying to
raise £50,000 to erect a statue in memory of the race
ace and to inspire children and young people in his
hometown of Denbigh to reach for their dreams.
Their drive received a boost after authors Darren
Banks and Kevin Guthrie, who have previously written
biographies of racing drivers Stephen South and Jim
Crawford, announced plans for the book about Tom.
They have pledged to donate all the proceeds, barring
McKLEIN
minimal design and printing costs, to the fund.
Fifty people have already contributed their memories
of Tom, including ex-F1 driver and commentator John
Watson, former members of the UOP Shadow F1 team
Tony Southgate, Trevor Foster and Alan Rees, along
with former mechanics and journalists, plus many of
those involved in Tom’s career in motor racing, and
many childhood friends.
Darren and Kevin are still interested to hear from
anyone who knew Tom [pictured in F2 action at Hockenheim
in 1973 in a Rondel-built Motul-Ford M1; note evidence of an
earlier grassy off – ed], or has any anecdotes about him, to get
in touch. Anybody who wants to contribute should contact
Darren at darren.m.banks81@gmail.com, while Kevin
Guthrie’s email address is jimcrawfordbio@yahoo.co.uk
For more information go to tompryce.co.uk or Facebook.
com/TomPryceF1 and to make a contribution to the appeal
fund go to gofundme.com/tom-pryce-appeal
Ceidiog Hughes
By email

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This must-attend event for any discerning classic car owner, collector or connoisseur offers you the opportunity
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 TOP 50 DRIVERS OF 2019

By Jack Benyon, Jack Cozens, Tom Errington, David Evans, Matt James, Alex Kalinauckas, David Malsher,
Hal Ridge, Marcus Simmons, Edd Straw, Andrew van Leeuwen and Gary Watkins

For extra content visit

autosport.com/top50

1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9 AUTOSPORT.COM 1 7
TOP 50 DRIVERS OF 2019

DOWN 28 RE-ENTRY RE-ENTRY

Pierre Dane Esteban

Gasly Cameron Guerrieri
7th in Formula 1 World Championship 1st in IMSA SportsCar Championship (DPi) 2nd in World Touring Car Cup

This was a season of two When Cameron and Juan Pablo As a Formula Renault 3.5 driver,

50
dramatically different halves.
Gasly struggled in his half-season
alongside Max Verstappen at
Red Bull and too often couldn’t
decisively rise clear of the midfield. But after a
potentially career-breaking relegation back to Toro
Rosso, he was a midfield standout in the second
half of the year, culminating in that redemptive
second place in the Brazilian GP. Gasly is fast,
there’s no doubt it – his Toro Rosso form reminded
us of that. But Red Bull exposed his limitations as
he struggled to adapt his style and frustrated the
team by heading down set-up rabbit holes.
49
Montoya secured the IMSA
SportsCar Championship title,
it was understandable that
superstar Montoya received the
lion’s share of media attention. But it was the
understated Cameron, who picked up a second
title in the Prototype ranks to go with his 2016
success with Action Express Racing, who emerged
as the outstanding driver in the Acura Team
Penske ranks in 2019. IMSA is a series that rewards
consistency, and in that regard Cameron and
Montoya delivered in spades with an incredible
run of seven podium finishes from Long Beach.
48
he won “many admirers” on his
way to his only previous Top 50
spot in 2010. You’d be forgiven for
thinking he’d been in a wilderness
since – two runner-up finishes in Indy Lights failed
to launch a single-seater career – but Guerrieri has
reinvented himself in tin-tops, first in his native
Argentina and, more recently, on the world stage.
Last year’s third-place WTCR finisher has channelled
the emotion that cost him the odd result, and this
year emerged as a proper contender for a Munnich
Motorsport Honda squad without the same depth
of support as its Hyundai and Lynk & Co rivals.

MARIN/DPPI
GALSTAD
DUNBAR

DOWN 18

GOODEN/DPPI
Kevin
Harvick
3rd in NASCAR Cup

The only Ford driver to make it

47
to the NASCAR Cup ‘Championship
4’ at Homestead, Harvick led the
line for Stewart-Haas Racing, but
NASCAR’s revised aero-package
changes for 2019 hurt his team perhaps more than
any other. It took until Loudon in July for Harvick
to win a regular-season race, and by that time
the Penske-run Ford team had already won five
between them. Harvick would win three more,
leading a dominant SHR 1-2-3 in Texas that put him
in the final four at Homestead. But fourth place
was all he could manage there, having gambled
on a set-up that was only quick on short runs.

Guerrieri with
Alessandro
Mariani, boss of
Honda WTCR
car builder JAS
Motorsport
KINRADE

1 8 AUTOSPORT.COM 1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9

How Gasly turned things around
How does the same driver go
from being a flop in the first
half of the season to one of the
success stories of the second?
After being crushed by Max
Verstappen at Red Bull, on
average just over half a second
quicker in qualifying, and too
often struggling to beat the
lead midfielders, Gasly
rediscovered his magic
once back at Toro Rosso.
“Pierre adapted really
quickly,” says Toro Rosso
technical director Jody Egginton different. He struggled to tune
of Gasly’s return. “We knew
him and it’s a strength of the
mentality of the
team that we’re “Rather than getting such details –
quite good at
driver changes. depressed by
Pierre fitted back move, he embraced
in but also put it in a positive light. during his
some very good
performances in. He still had a drive
He had a tough in Formula 1”
time at Red Bull,
but I can only gauge him on
what he’s done with us and
he’s delivering. It’s different
environments.”
On the track, this really
was a different Gasly. He
was only outqualified by
team-mate Daniil Kvyat
once where comparisons are
appropriate. The Toro Rosso
generally responded well to
his attacking driving style
and he was happier with it
on the edge than Kvyat was.
This culminated in an
outstanding performance
at Interlagos, where Gasly’s
second place was a product
of the good fortune of
frontrunners hitting trouble but
also of bossing the midfield.
“Rather than getting
depressed by the move, he
embraced it in a positive light,”
says Red Bull team principal
Christian Horner. “He still had
a drive in Formula 1, he hadn’t
been released totally from the
Red Bull programme and he
responded very well to that in
a less pressured environment,
in perhaps a slightly easier car.”
His time at Red Bull was very
the car for a set-up compromise
and spent too much time
tinkering with
also making as
the many as seven
different seats
half-season. He
was aggressive,
often braking
later than
Verstappen but inducing
understeer, not getting the
car rotated, then struggling
with getting the power down
as a result.
The feeling within Red Bull
was that he wasn’t adapting
his style and his approach,
something that was in contrast
to what Alex Albon did in his
place. That said, Albon was
only a tenth or so closer to
Verstappen in qualifying so,
given the Red Bull was less
strong in the first half of the
season, perhaps Gasly’s
performances weren’t as
diabolical as they might
have seemed.
TOP 50 DRIVERS OF 2019
NEW ENTRY
Kenta
Yamashita
1st in Super GT; 5th in Super Formula
The term ‘breakthrough season’ is
46
often overused, but it really does
apply to Yamashita’s 2019. Now
a Super GT champion with the
unfancied Team Le Mans Lexus, a
Super Formula race winner, and with an LMP2 drive
in the World Endurance Championship with the aim
of preparing him for an international future, the
24-year-old Toyota protege could be on the path to
endurance racing stardom. He’s since earned a test
in Toyota’s TS050 HYBRID in Bahrain. If he continues
to impress as he has done up to now, a race seat
with the Japanese manufacturer’s hypercar
programme seems a matter of when, not if.
ISHIHARA
NEW ENTRY
Robert
Shwartzman
1st in FIA Formula 3 Championship
It was unclear who would be
45
the favourite in the new FIA
Formula 3 Championship this
year. But in the end, it was this
SMP Racing-backed Ferrari
protege who wrapped up the title with a race to
spare, as the best of a Prema Racing-dominated
top three, following a season-long fight with
Prancing Horse stablemate Marcus Armstrong
and Jehan Daruvala. Shwartzman’s title means
he will remain with Prema for the step up to F2
in 2020, when he will join Mick Schumacher in
the team’s line-up. He’s already laid down the
gauntlet that he will fight for the title.
GALLOWAY
1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9 AUTOSPORT.COM 1 9
TOP 50 DRIVERS OF 2019

NEW ENTRY

Norbert Last year’s top 50

Michelisz
1st in World Touring Car Cup 11 Lewis Hamilton
12 Fernando Alonso
It would be easy to underestimate 13 Jean-Eric Vergne

44
his title charge by pointing to the 14 Ott Tanak
level of reliance it owed to the
15 Max Verstappen
cooperation of his BRC Racing
Hyundai team-mates, given it 16 Scott Dixon
was clear as early as May’s Zandvoort round that 17 Sebastien Ogier
Michelisz was the squad’s nominated challenger. 18 Sebastian Vettel
But that was a position he’d earned by claiming
19 Charles Leclerc
three podiums before that, and backed up at
the following two rounds with unassisted wins. 10 George Russell
Five victories marked the Hungarian’s best World 11 Nico Hulkenberg
Touring Car haul to date, and his place on this list 12 Alexander Rossi
is recognition of the achievements of one of the
13 Daniel Ricciardo
perennially underrated drivers in the tin-top sphere.
14 Thierry Neuville
15 Rene Rast
GOODEN/DPPI

16 Lucas di Grassi
17 Gary Paffett
18 Sam Bird
19 Esteban Ocon
20 Mike Conway
21 Will Power
22 Pierre Gasly
23 Johan Kristoffersson
24 Sebastien Buemi
25 Kimi Raikkonen
RE-ENTRY 26 Naoki Yamamoto
Colin 27 Joey Logano
28 Valtteri Bottas
Turkington 29 Kevin Harvick
1st in British Touring Car Championship 30 Alexander Albon
31 Carlos Sainz Jr
Pole position at Oulton Park with 32 Lando Norris

43
the maximum success ballast
showed his blistering one-lap
33 Paul di Resta
pace. Beating team-mate and 34 Sergio Perez
nearest title rival Andrew Jordan 35 Kyle Busch
in their battle at Silverstone showed his grit. And 36 Josef Newgarden
charging 19 places to claim the title in the final
race at Brands Hatch showed his clean but ruthless 37 Dan Ticktum
ability to cleave through the pack. Turkington 38 Scott McLaughlin
moves joint top with Andy Rouse as a four-time 39 Shane van Gisbergen
BTCC champion – a fitting end to a complete
40 Juri Vips
season in which he annihilated his opposition,
even if blameless spins in the final three rounds 41 Martin Truex Jr
disguised his superiority in the points. 42 Nick Cassidy
43 Sergio Sette Camara
JEP

44 Ash Sutton
45 Mick Schumacher
46 Dries Vanthoor
47 Jenson Button
48 Kevin Magnussen
49 Romain Grosjean
50 Gabriele Tarquini

2 0 AUTOSPORT.COM 1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9
 TOP 50 DRIVERS OF 2019

DOWN 16 NEW ENTRY NEW ENTRY

Naoki Alex Andreas

Yamamoto Palou Bakkerud
2nd in Super Formula; 8th in Super GT 3rd in Super Formula; 15th Super GT (GT300) 2nd in World Rallycross Championship

Honda put a lot of faith in its top Few expected him to challenge Just like Timmy Hansen, the

42
homegrown talent by granting him
a maiden Formula 1 run with Toro
Rosso at Suzuka. And Yamamoto
did not disappoint, lapping within
a tenth of team regular Daniil Kvyat. He also
started off strongly in both Super Formula and
Super GT (alongside Jenson Button) but failed to
repeat either of his 2018 title successes, admitting
that preparations for his F1 practice outing had
distracted him from his primary campaigns. Even
so, he fell only three points short of Nick Cassidy in
Super Formula in his first season with Dandelion
Racing after switching from Team Mugen.
41
for the Super Formula title in
his rookie season with Nakajima
Racing, given he hadn’t made
a convincing case for himself in
Europe. But the change of scenery allowed Palou’s
talent to shine, and his stunning wet-weather drive
at Fuji proved he is one of the most promising
drivers to head to Japan in recent years. A loose
intercooler pipe in the Suzuka finale decided his
fate, crushing his dream of becoming the series’ first
rookie champion since 1996. A pole and a podium
in Super GT’s GT300 class in a less-than-competitive
McLaren completed a standout season.
40
man who pipped him to the title,
Bakkerud almost didn’t even
make it onto the grid for 2019.
And just like Hansen, he had a
shocking season opener and failed to make the
semi-finals. So it’s equally remarkable that the
Norwegian took the title fight with the Swede
down to the very last race of the year. While he
was justifiably disappointed to come so close, he
delivered a commanding performance against
accomplished team-mate Liam Doran and also
acted as team principal for the Monster Energy
RX Cartel Audi operation for which they drove.

ISHIHARA
ISHIHARA

FIA WORLD RALLYCROSS

NEW ENTRY

Timmy
Hansen
1st in World Rallycross Championship

He originally made it onto the

39
World Rallycross grid in a private
team run by his father, multiple
European champion Kenneth
Hansen. No longer with official
Peugeot support, he led the charge of the Team
Hansen MJP squad (alongside brother Kevin) and
clinched his maiden title on a wins countback after
an intense fight with Andreas Bakkerud. Often
underrated, he’s a deserving world champion
based on season-long performance and pace.
Hansen won four of the 10 rounds, and claimed
the title thanks to a sterling recovery to fourth
after an early clash with Bakkerud in the finale.

Hansen and
Bakkerud
were rarely far
FIA WORLD RALLYCROSS
FIA WORLD RALLYCROSS

apart (unless
they were in
different heats)

1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9 AUTOSPORT.COM 2 1
TOP 50 DRIVERS OF 2019

RE-ENTRY

KINRADE
Denny
Hamlin Emotion, and
4th in NASCAR Cup cheese…
Hamlin kicked off year
with Daytona 500 win
After a winless 2018 in the

38
NASCAR Cup, the pressure was
truly on Hamlin at Joe Gibbs
Racing. Tragedy then struck in
January, as longtime mentor
JD Gibbs – son of team owner Joe – died from
complications associated with a degenerative
neurological disease. In the mid-2000s, Gibbs Jr
had persuaded his father to run Hamlin, using the
number 11 he’d worn in his college football career.
Hamlin thrived at JGR, going on to win the 2016
Daytona 500. Just over a month after JD’s death,
Hamlin won Daytona again – breaking a 47-Cup-
race losing streak – amid emotional scenes.
LA BOUNTY

DOWN 12 RE-ENTRY RE-ENTRY

Kimi Mitch Laurens

Raikkonen Evans Vanthoor
12th in Formula 1 World Championship 5th in FIA Formula E Championship 1st in IMSA SportsCar Championship (GTLM)

On the brink of turning 40, there Among what is arguably the A driver who had excelled in the

37
were question marks over how
he would adapt to life back in F1’s
midfield. But he thrived in the
first part of the season with eight
points finishes in 12 races, when his consistent and
dependable drives ensured Alfa Romeo was usually
to be found not far from the front of the midfield.
But as the season progressed and the Alfa became
less competitive, Raikkonen didn’t quite have that
final couple of tenths needed to nab points – a fine
run to fourth at Interlagos aside – while team-mate
Antonio Giovinazzi often had stronger underlying
pace, even if he didn’t consistently deliver it.
36
strongest grid outside F1 in terms
of talent, the New Zealander is a
young driver shining and showed
consistent strength in his Formula
E performances. In 2018-19 he led Jaguar, again
comprehensively outperforming inaugural FE
champion Nelson Piquet Jr, who left mid-season
with one point to the 36 Evans had scored at that
stage. On his way to fifth in the standings – with
a better final lap of the campaign he could have
been higher – he scored Jaguar’s first FE win,
its first in a top international series since 1992.
Expect more of the same in 2019-20.
MAUGER
35
GT3 arena with Audi, winning
multiple titles, Vanthoor finally
got his hands on some end-of-
season silverware after his switch
to Porsche ahead of 2017 when he triumphed
in the GT Le Mans class of the IMSA SportsCar
Championship at the end of a near-faultless
season with Earl Bamber. Consistency is always
the name of the game in IMSA, and Vanthoor
has now eradicated the mistakes that marked
his early career. He’s made regular appearances
in Autosport ranking lists, where it was always
pointed out that there were lows as well as highs.

GALSTAD
HARFORD

2 2 AUTOSPORT.COM 1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9
 TOP 50 DRIVERS OF 2019

Top 50 dropouts from 2018 NEW ENTRY

Drivers’ 2018 top 50 position and their 2019 results

Colton
Herta
16 Lucas di Grassi 7th in IndyCar Series; 1st Daytona 24H (GTLM)
3rd in Formula E
Trevor Carlin, who ran Herta

34
17 Gary Paffett in his junior days in Europe,
19th in Formula E has no hesitation in ranking
him alongside 2015 British F4
18 Sam Bird team-mate Lando Norris on
9th in Formula E raw talent, although he felt Herta was harder on
12th in WEC GT tyres. That trait appeared in 2019, his first year in
IndyCar – he started from pole at Road America
19 Esteban Ocon and Portland, yet finished off the podium. But
Mercedes F1 test driver successful tyre management was key to his victory
with Harding Steinbrenner Racing at Laguna Seca,
23 Johan Kristoffersson so you have to conclude he learned. That was his
5th in World Touring Car Cup second victory of the year, after Austin, where he
became the youngest-ever IndyCar race winner.
27 Joey Logano
5th in NASCAR Cup
33 Paul di Resta
16th in DTM
1st in Asian Le Mans Series LMP2
37 Dan Ticktum
Part-campaigns in Asian F3, Super Formula
and Formula Regional, plus Macau GP
LE PAGE

39 Shane van Gisbergen

2nd in Australian Supercars
40 Juri Vips NEW ENTRY
4th in FIA Formula 3
One-off outing in Super Formula Nico
43 Sergio Sette Camara
Muller
4th in FIA Formula 2 2nd in DTM
McLaren F1 test and development driver
From the outside looking in, it’s

33
44 Ash Sutton easy to draw the conclusion that
8th in British Touring Car Championship he had a breakthrough season.
But he rightly points out that this
45 Mick Schumacher isn’t the case. This year proved
12th in FIA Formula 2 Muller was able to refine his weaknesses and
improve. The Audi driver struggled to nail one of the
46 Dries Vanthoor DTM’s biggest skills – balancing the set-up between
1st in Nurburgring 24 Hours qualifying and the race – but improved through
2019 in an area where Rene Rast was drawing his
6th in ADAC GT Masters
biggest advantage. Those minor details meant
7th in Blancpain GT World Challenge Europe Muller was able to end his three-year win drought
at Misano and went on to take another two wins
47 Jenson Button
during the season to sometimes push Rast close.
8th in Super GT
ZWEI

48 Kevin Magnussen
16th in Formula 1 World Championship
49 Romain Grosjean
18th in Formula 1 World Championship
50 Gabriele Tarquini
8th in World Touring Car Cup

1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9 AUTOSPORT.COM 2 3
TOP 50 DRIVERS OF 2019

UP 9
Top 50 new entries
Martin
Truex Jr 17 Nyck de Vries
2nd in NASCAR Cup
2018 4th in Formula 2
2015 3rd in Formula Renault 3.5
If there was a ‘costliest blunder 2014 1st in Formula Renault Eurocup/ALPS

32
of the year’ award, Truex’s pit
crew would surely reign supreme.
The 2018 champion was the 26 Kevin Estre
undisputed pacesetter of the
winner-takes-all NASCAR Cup finale at Homestead 2018 1st in Le Mans 24 Hours GTE Pro
when his team inexplicably fitted the left-front 2012 2nd in Porsche Supercup
wheel on the right side and vice versa. Forced into a
green-flag pitstop to rectify the error, he lost a lap
and was never able to make up the loss of time and
track position, finishing 4.6s behind team-mate,
33 Nico Muller
winner and champion Kyle Busch. Truex ended 2015 1st in Nurburgring 24 Hours
the year with seven Cup wins – the most of any
driver – and 15 top-five finishes from 36 races.
2013 5th in Formula Renault 3.5
2010 3rd in GP3 Series
BAKER

34 Colton Herta
2018 2nd in Indy Lights
2016 3rd in Euroformula Open

39 Timmy Hansen
2015 2nd in World Rallycross
2010 3rd in Formula BMW Europe

DOWN 20
40 Andreas Bakkerud
Nico 2016/18 3rd in World Rallycross
Hulkenberg 2011/12 1st in European Rallycross S1600
14th in Formula 1 World Championship

In what may prove to be the

41 Alex Palou

31
32-year-old’s final season in F1, 2017 3rd in Japanese Formula 3
he was shuffled back to de facto
number-two status at Renault
2014 3rd in Euroformula Open
thanks to the arrival of Daniel
Ricciardo. While Ricciardo did outperform him, on
qualifying pace there was little to choose between 44 Norbert Michelisz
them, with the average gap just 0.045s in the 2017 2nd in World Touring Car Championship
Australian’s favour. On race day, Hulkenberg
struggled a little more and was not able to reach 2009 1st in SEAT Eurocup
his 2018 heights, failing to ‘win’ the midfield race
once. But he was a dependable performer, who
still has something to offer at this level, and whose 45 Robert Shwartzman
results were undermined by Renault’s problems. 2018 3rd in Formula 3 European Championship
2018 1st in Toyota Racing Series
GALLOWAY

2017 3rd in Formula Renault Eurocup

46 Kenta Yamashita
2016 1st in Japanese Formula 3 Championship
2016 4th in Macau Grand Prix

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 TOP 50 DRIVERS OF 2019

UP 12

Nick
Cassidy
Cassidy just missed
1st in Super Formula; 2nd in Super GT
out on Super GT title
with Hirakawa
Winning a championship at the

30
first time of asking with a new
team is never an easy feat, but
that’s what Cassidy achieved this
season in Super Formula as he
stepped up to Toyota’s flagship TOM’S squad. In
Super GT, a second title in three years narrowly
slipped through the fingers of Cassidy and his
TOM’S Lexus team-mate Ryo Hirakawa, who
assembled a magnificently consistent campaign
considering the series’ success-ballast system.
Without Team Le Mans’ lucky break at the Fuji
500 miles, there’s no doubt Cassidy and
Hirakawa would have come out on top.
ISHIHARA

TOYOTA

RE-ENTRY DOWN 7 UP 8

Simon Will Kyle

Pagenaud Power Busch
2nd in IndyCar Series; 1st in Indy 500 5th in IndyCar Series 1st in NASCAR Cup

In terms of rebounding from a The 2014 IndyCar champion Few begrudged him a second

29
2018 season in which he had
scored just two podiums and no
wins, this was a banner year for
Pagenaud. His best days were
better, and there were fewer bad days, resulting
in a runner-up finish in the title race for the Team
Penske stalwart. Pagenaud landed three wins,
including the Indianapolis 500. More often than
not, he looked like the driver who had excelled in
the downforce-smothered manufacturer aerokit
era and won the title in 2016. There’s still work
to be done in qualifying, but his self-confidence
returned and his talent shone once again.
LEVITT
28
made more errors than Penske
team-mate Pagenaud this year,
but he was also much more often
in the reckoning for victory, and
his mistakes came when running at the limit and
contending for the lead or pole. This is why he
edges his team-mate in our rankings. Power felt
pressure and showed it in a dreadful weekend at
Toronto following a run of bad luck and errors, but
he took his third win in four years at Pocono. It was
a year of missed opportunities – driver gaffes,
team mistakes and things outside their control
conspired to consign him to fifth in the standings.
27
NASCAR Cup title, but each time
he’s scooped the championship
it’s been, well… a little weird. In
2015, he broke his leg at Daytona
and made a fantastic comeback. This year, he
looked unstoppable at some points, and pretty
wretched (by his standards) at others. He hadn’t
won a Cup race since June when he took victory
in the one that really mattered – the Homestead
finale. Also notable was Busch breaking Richard
Petty’s record of 200 NASCAR wins – albeit all of
Petty’s came at the Cup level, and the majority
of Busch’s have been in Trucks and Xfinity Series.
THACKER

LEVITT

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TOP 50 DRIVERS OF 2019

NEW ENTRY UP 5 DOWN 16

Kevin Alex Sebastian

Estre Albon Vettel
1st in WEC (GT); 1st in Spa 24 Hours 8th in Formula 1 World Championship 5th in Formula 1 World Championship

This Porsche factory driver had an He grabbed his unexpected shot This will go down as one of his

26
amazing year. He sealed the GTE
Pro crown in the 2018-19 WEC,
won the Spa 24 Hours and might
have won the Nurburgring 24
Hours. Estre and co-champion Michael Christensen
didn’t win any of the 2019 rounds of the WEC
superseason – a combination of bad luck and
conservatism with the title in sight saw to that.
But the victory at Spa with the unfancied GPX
squad summed up the Frenchman’s talents.
Ultra-consistent, he was blindingly fast when he
needed to be in a race held in awful conditions,
and didn’t make any mistakes. It was pure Estre.
PORTLOCK
25
at F1 with both hands, parlaying
it into a career-making stint at
Red Bull for the second half of the
season. His performances were
good enough to give him the ride full-time next year,
although by his own admission he must take a step
forward. Albon’s tenacity, determination and
underlying ability are all impressive. He’s quick
and executed some great race drives, notably in
China and Germany before becoming a consistent
scorer at Red Bull. But if he’s to realise his massive
potential, he must cut back on the crashes and
close the gap of just over 0.4s to Max Verstappen.
24
most brutal seasons. The costly
blunders in races have been going
on for a while now, but he was
comprehensively outperformed
by team-mate Charles Leclerc and his leadership
of Ferrari was eroded. For all that, there were still
positives. Vettel remains quick and, after being
relentlessly outpaced by Leclerc in the middle part
of the season, he hit back once the upgraded
Ferrari gave him the stronger front end and more
stable rear he craved. He was outstanding in the
race at Sochi and qualifying at Suzuka. His
revival proved there’s life in him yet.

MAUGER

MAUGER

UP 9
ANDRE

Lando
Norris
Norris made a good
11th in Formula 1 World Championship
impression; Vettel
by and large didn’t
On pace, there was little to choose

23
between him and McLaren team-
mate Carlos Sainz Jr. Over the
season Norris perhaps showed he
had a slender edge in qualifying
when things went right, while in the race Sainz was
the benchmark. But Norris proved himself more
than capable of outstanding drives and deserved
more than the three ‘Class B’ wins he took. He
appeared to plateau a little towards the end of the
year, but his form over the first half of 2019 was
strong enough to ensure he was still operating at an
excellent level for a rookie, with a good line in self-
evaluation that should mean he keeps improving.
HARFORD

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Estre on his best race of 2019
“If I have to choose between the
Nurburgring 24 Hours and the
Spa 24 Hours, I’d have to go
for Spa. We got the result we
wanted [a victory] and I think
it probably was my best
performance of the year.
“There wasn’t much pressure
on us before the race, because
we were there as a bit of a joker
for Porsche. But in a race in
those conditions, there is
always a lot of pressure. It
was a very hard race mentally
…but Estre was
master of all
conditions to win
Ah, the fickle
Ardennes climate
and GPX Porsche…
SRO
because it was about finding
the right risk level: you can
look like a hero very quickly
and then look extremely
stupid just as quickly.
“I believe I found the right
compromise for the conditions
at the right time. We had a
clean race and didn’t make
any mistakes. It was all about
surviving and then pushing
at the end. I started my last
double stint P3, overtook
two guys and we won.”
SRO
TOP 50 DRIVERS OF 2019
DOWN 16
Scott
Dixon
4th in IndyCar Series
A curious year for the five-time
22
champion from Chip Ganassi
Racing. There were two notable
blunders from Dixon – he clipped
the wall in Detroit, and had an
unnecessary clash with Herta at Texas Motor
Speedway. But these two letdowns sandwiched
a perfect drive to victory in the other Detroit race,
and his win at Mid-Ohio was truly remarkable. His
last set of tyres was absolutely fried in the closing
stages, yet he successfully held off team-mate Felix
Rosenqvist, who was desperate for his first victory.
Car failures at Gateway and Portland tore asunder
any hopes that Dixon had of a sixth title.
LE PAGE
RE-ENTRY
Marco
Wittmann
3rd in DTM
The BMW M4 DTM was a constant
21
headache in 2019, at times
unreliable and often difficult to
get into an operating window in
which it could be a consistent
match for Audi. Worryingly, BMW’s promising start
slipped away so that it became ever more off the
pace of Audi – unless it was Wittmann driving. Of
the six BMW wins from 18 races, Wittmann took
four of them. He kept the DTM title race alive until
the September Nurburgring round, even if he was
on the absolute fringe of contention. Four pole
positions in a car that was often second-best
also underlined his raw speed.
MP-SPORT/PAKUSCH
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TOP 50 DRIVERS OF 2019

DOWN 10
Wayne Taylor Racing technical
George director Brian Pillar explains
Russell Fernando Alonso’s Daytona
20th in Formula 1 World Championship
24 Hours performance
A pointless rookie season in a

20
desperately uncompetitive car,
comprehensively outperforming
his team-mate but ending up
classified behind him in the final
standings; an affiliation with a top team that means
he has bright prospects… Russell’s maiden F1
season had clear parallels with Fernando Alonso’s at
Minardi. While he couldn’t really show how good he
was given the lack of opposition, he did outclass
Robert Kubica in all areas except first laps. He was
fast, ultra-professional and learned everything he
could during a character-building first season that
showed his all-round class and potential.
HONE
“What Fernando did in that first rainy stint at the front was for me
absolutely incredible. He was just driving around everyone. Holy
mackerel, it was totally insane. I have worked with a lot of drivers
who can find the limit very quickly in the wet, then make a mistake
and back off. They go over the limit and work their way back to it.
“Fernando was straight on the limit and then stayed there.
The biggest piece we witnessed was how quickly Fernando could
evaluate how deep he could brake into the Bus Stop in conditions
where there was a lot of hydroplaning. He was just blowing people
away. And all the while he was doing that, he was on the radio
coaching our other drivers.
“He was trying to give them a heads-up about the conditions
before they got in. It was absolutely incredible, but his final
stints when he came from behind

to win the race for us were even “He was just

more outstanding.
“He was running behind [Felipe]
blowing people
Nasr, who we rate incredibly highly away. And all the
and knows Daytona and the Cadillac while, he was on
very well, and was able to stay right
behind him to put him under pressure.
the radio coaching
“To run so close to Nasr in those our other drivers”
conditions was so important in our
victory. You can’t see a thing and you have to rely on your instincts
and the other driver’s brake lights, but Fernando stayed right there.
Nasr eventually made a mistake, so that’s what won it for us: his
ability to stay close and put him under pressure.”
DOWN 17

Fernando
Alonso
1st in WEC (LMP1); 1st Le Mans & Daytona 24

His position at the head of

19
Autosport’s 2018-19 WEC driver
rankings owed much to his
phenomenal Le Mans 24 Hours
debut a year and a half ago. That
explains why on this list he sits behind Toyota
team-mate Mike Conway, who outperformed
him in two of the three races on the superseason
calendar this year. Yet arguably Alonso’s greatest
drive at the wheel of a sportscar did come during
2019 – aboard a Cadillac DPi-V.R. His role in Wayne
Taylor Racing’s Daytona 24 Hours win with Jordan
Taylor, Renger van der Zande and Kamui Kobayashi
surely trumped his impressive Le Mans debut.
GALSTAD

DOLE

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 TOP 50 DRIVERS OF 2019

UP 16 NEW ENTRY UP 8

Sergio Nyck Sebastien

Perez de Vries Buemi
10th in Formula 1 World Championship 1st in FIA F2 Championship; 9th WEC (LMP2) 1st in WEC (LMP1); 1st in Le Mans 24H;
2nd in FE

No driver scored more midfield He’s had far from a perfect ascent Continues to lead the way for

18
points after the summer break
than Perez, impressive given the
Racing Point was never the class
of the midfield or better than
being a marginal Q3 car. But he was also strong in
the first half of the season, turning in outstanding
drives in China and Azerbaijan to keep his team on
the scoreboard. This was a typical Perez season.
He comprehensively outperformed team-mate
Lance Stroll in qualifying, but it was on Sundays
when he excelled. The races in Mexico and Abu
Dhabi were his finest drives late on as he emerged
as the second-best performer in the midfield.
HONE
17
in the sport but, after a troubled
2018 he finally won the F2
championship after taking over
George Russell’s ART Grand Prix
seat, and posted similar numbers to the Brit. De
Vries took four wins, eight further podiums and
five poles on his way to a title that opened the
door to the next chapter of his racing career:
negotiations started at Monaco leading to a
Mercedes Formula E seat. Within the last two
months of the year he has driven F2, LMP1,
LMP2 and FE cars. Not bad for someone whose
future looked uncertain before this season.
PORTLOCK
16
drivers juggling Formula E and the
World Endurance Championship.
Buemi secured the 2018-19 LMP1
title with a fortuitous second Le
Mans win alongside Toyota team-mates Fernando
Alonso and Kazuki Nakajima. While his WEC drives
were as dependable as ever, his FE performances
in 2018-19 were back to full strength after the
lacklustre results of 2017-18. He reckoned that
without his Robin Frijns-induced puncture in
Paris he could have won the title, which is hard to
dispute. Led Nissan well during its twin-motor saga
and looks to have returned to his best FE form.

BAGNALL

DOWN 2

Daniel
Ricciardo Buemi and
Alonso were
9th in Formula 1 World Championship both in the Toyota
that won at
It took him a little time to Le Mans and

15
re-adapt to life in the midfield WEC title
after his megabucks move to
Renault, something that really hit
home after the second race of the
season in Bahrain, where he struggled to extract
the most from the car in qualifying, then retired
late in the race. But soon he was turning in the
performances expected of him. While the first half
of the season was a little inconsistent, he really hit
his stride after the summer break. When the car
allowed, Ricciardo extracted the most from it and
outperformed team-mate Hulkenberg by a small
margin on Saturdays and decisively on Sundays.
SUTTON

JEP

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TOP 50 DRIVERS OF 2019

UP 24

Scott
McLaughlin
McLaughlin follows
1st in Australian Supercars Championship
progress with Penske
at the Bathurst 1000
Talk about a year of peaks

14
and troughs for the Supercars
champion. With 18 victories,
the Kiwi broke Craig Lowndes’
record for most wins in a season.
But there was also a fierce parity debate centred
around the all-conquering Ford Mustang, and
team fines after the Bathurst 1000 for rules
breaches that left many questioning how
McLaughlin and Alex Premat weren’t stripped
of their Great Race win. He copped it hard from
the haters, but McLaughlin proved himself as a
megastar of a driver – and a worthy two-time
Supercars champion – with a brilliant campaign.
KLYNSMITH

KLYNSMITH
UP 23 UP 16 UP 3

Josef Valtteri Thierry

Newgarden Bottas Neuville
1st in IndyCar Series 2nd in Formula 1 World Championship 2nd in World Rally Championship

He played the long game with a Victory in the Australia season Can be rightly proud to have led

13
smart head on his 28-year-old
shoulders to win his second
IndyCar title in three years. It
wasn’t just the four victories;
it’s the fact that, like Dixon, Newgarden usually
made the best of his less convincing weekends,
and avoided the mistake-inducing tendency
to overreach that sapped momentum from
the title challenges of rivals such as Power. He
again demonstrated his oval prowess with a
commanding victory at Iowa. Like Dixon, he made
errors, but when it mattered he usually reined in
his impetuosity. A perfect ambassador for IndyCar.
LE PAGE
12
opener cast the memories of
a dire end to 2018 out of his
mind and proved he’d rebuilt
himself. Up against the toughest
benchmark in F1 in Lewis Hamilton, he performed
with a consistency and threat not seen before from
him. The old weaknesses occasionally showed
through in races where tyre management was key,
and there was the odd struggle when in battle, but
this was a formidable season that saved Bottas’s
Mercedes seat and showed he has the mental
strength needed to keep chipping away at himself
to extract what he needs to close on Hamilton.
11
the Hyundai team to its first-ever
World Rally Championship for
manufacturers, but Neuville was
never really at the races when it
came to the drivers’ crown. Granted, he topped
the table after back-to-back wins in Corsica and
Argentina, but a thumping shunt in Chile allied
to a couple of miserable outings in Italy and
Finland (again) ended his hopes of toppling the
mighty Ott Tanak. Neuville ended the season
on a high with a third win of the year in Spain,
but this wasn’t the bespectacled Wallonian’s
strongest season aboard the i20 Coupe WRC.
MCMASTER/McKLEIN

ANDRE

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 TOP 50 DRIVERS OF 2019

McLaughlin: an American future? DOWN 7

With two titles and a Bathurst

Jean-Eric
1000 crown now under his Vergne
belt, it’s time to ponder how
long Scott McLaughlin will 1st in FIA Formula E; 5th in ELMS (LMP2)
stay in Supercars.
The 26-year-old has never “Perhaps not quite as good as

10
made a secret of his NASCAR last season” was Autosport’s
ambitions, but he also had a assessment of Jean-Eric Vergne’s
very clear list of objectives 2018-19 Formula E performances.
that needed to be checked off Nevertheless, he still topped
in Australia before he looked our ranking at the season’s end and made history
overseas. The first was a title, by becoming the first two-time FE champion.
which he ticked off last from the bottom. Throwing a race away at the first corner at
season. With that in the bag, “I think if he comes here, Marrakech is the kind of mistake he wouldn’t have
McLaughlin himself reiterated he’s got to start lower down made in 2017-18, which explains his slide from
that NASCAR was his “obvious and work his way up, through third here last year. Still, he was the best driver
goal”, while team owner Roger ARCA, Xfinity and that,” said in the famously tough series, which got harder
Penske admitted a maiden Penske in January. “You don’t to win with its new rules, and put in another
crown had ‘opened the door’ just put a guy in a Cup car. impressive Le Mans LMP2 performance.
for a Stateside move. I think that’s probably the
But the door was more ajar mistake we made with Sam
than wide open. McLaughlin when he switched over from
and Team Penske IndyCar. But
wanted a Bathurst “You don’t just put certainly, Scott’s
1000 win before a great driver
committing the
a guy in a Cup car. and a candidate
Kiwi elsewhere. But certainly, Scott’s to get a good
That too has a great driver and a opportunity here.” GALLOWAY
now been The other issue
accomplished.
candidate to get a Team Penske
There are now good opportunity” needs to sort is
just two things a McLaughlin
standing in the way of a replacement for the #17
NASCAR deal for McLaughlin Mustang. Having failed to
UP 11
– the fact that he’s already land Chaz Mostert for 2020, it
been signed on for the 2020
Supercars season, and the finer
appears Anton de Pasquale is
the new target. De Pasquale
Mike
details of how he’ll make the would only commit to a single- Conway
transition. Penske has said on year extension to his Erebus
a number of occasions that deal, putting him in the window 2nd in WEC (LMP1); 2nd in Le Mans 24 Hours
lessons were learned from to join DJR Penske in 2021
rushing Sam Hornish Jr from should the opportunity present Is Conway still improving as

09
IndyCar to Cup-level NASCAR, itself. The fact that Erebus a sportscar driver? There was
hinting that, if McLaughlin appears to be prepping Will evidence to suggest just that in
wants to chase his NASCAR Brown for a 2021 Supercars seat 2019. Forget about Fernando
dream, he’ll be starting plays into the theory perfectly. Alonso, Conway was the star
Toyota driver during the three rounds of the 2018-19
World Endurance Championship in the current
calendar year. He saved his best for Le Mans,
where he topped the averages by whatever metric
Pascal Vasselon on Mike Conway you want to choose – 10 laps, 20 laps, right up to
100 laps. And he bagged fastest race lap to boot. It
Pascal Vasselon, the technical director of was a travesty that he, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose
Toyota Motorsport GmbH, describes Mike Maria Lopez had victory ripped from their grasp
Conway “as one of our best drivers for sure”. with an hour to go. They had the sister car licked.
Understandably, he won’t go further than
that: “Don’t ask me to list them in order.”
“He ticks all the boxes of a good
endurance driver,” continues Vasselon.
“He is quick, consistent and doesn’t make mistakes. He’s
very easy going, but still very precise in his feedback. He’s
not the one banging the table.”
And is Conway still getting better?
“In the past few years he has developed into one of our
best drivers,” says Vasselon. “He’s on a very good path.
That’s all I can say.”
JEP

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TOP 50 DRIVERS OF 2019

UP 7 UP 6
Rossi joined Team
Rene Alexander Penske for Daytona
24 Hours podium
Rast Rossi
1st in DTM; 3rd in Nurburgring 24 Hours 3rd in IndyCar Series; 3rd in Daytona 24H

It’s hard to think of any series of In his fourth season of IndyCar, he

08
such high status being dominated
in such fashion as this guy showed
in the DTM this season. The
numbers are frightening: Rast won
by 72 points, and scored 35 points in qualifying
thanks to eight poles and 13 front-row starts.
He also played a crucial role in Audi’s supremacy
during a year that began with so many unknowns
due to the switch to the much more complicated
Class 1 engine. Even with the odd reliability issue,
Rast could not be caught by stablemate Nico Muller
or BMW’s Marco Wittmann. Also (again) played his
part in Audi’s strength in GT3 blue-ribands.
SCHMIDT
06
became the man to beat, even if
two drivers beat him to the crown.
Few doubt that, with a Chevrolet
engine, Honda-powered Andretti
Autosport driver Rossi would have won the
Indianapolis 500, while series winner Newgarden
was twice (Detroit and Texas) placed ahead of
him and in Victory Lane by perfect pit strategy.
He moved onto the back foot in the title chase
due to the opening-lap collision at Pocono, and
Penske’s superior speed over the final four races
extinguished his hopes altogether. Rossi gave
everything he could and was near-impeccable.

NO MOVE

Sebastien
Ogier
3rd in World Rally Championship

Whatever the car, whatever the

07
conditions, it seems that he can be
relied upon to deliver a win in the
mountains high above his home
town of Gap. Ogier did it again this
year, marking his Citroen return with a sixth straight
win on the Monte Carlo. Two rounds on, another
victory in Mexico and things were looking good
– especially when he led the championship after
Chile and Portugal. The C3 WRC wasn’t perfect but
Ogier looked like he was stacking enough points up
for title number seven. Then came a rare mistake
in Sardinia followed by shockers in Finland and
Germany. There was no catching up this time.
McMASTER/McKLEIN

ABBOTT

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 TOP 50 DRIVERS OF 2019

Rossi Q&A

GALSTAD
Autosport Do you believe you
performed better this year,
despite finishing third in
the points race compared
with second in 2018?
Alexander Rossi I believe I
made fewer mistakes this year,
which was a big focus for
me and the team as a whole.
Starting with myself, the aim
for this year was to clean up
unforced errors and not throw
away points, and that’s what
happened. Also, my qualifying
average improved over last year
so I think we executed in terms
of car performance on Saturdays
better than before. Ultimately,
I think we came up short as a
team at the end, although there
was no specific event where
you’d say we were terrible.
Pocono killed us [involved in an
opening-lap clash] and Gateway
was disappointing, but I think
the pace was missing in the
final races of the season. In fact,
that’s what the big focus is this
winter – finding out where the
pace went in the second half of
the year after we won at Road
America. It’s further evidence
of how close the series is;
just because you were good
somewhere last year didn’t
mean you’d be fighting for
the win this year. As a unit,
we made fewer mistakes
but ultimately we just
weren’t fast enough.
Penske got really strong and
we just couldn’t beat them.
AS But the races where
Newgarden jumped ahead
of you, it wasn’t as if your
team did a bad job, but
tactics and yellow flags
went against you…
AR No, that’s a good point.
Hindsight really is twenty-
twenty. But at the same time,
when you have a good car,
the best car, you have to win
because it’s so difficult. I think
we had the best car in Indy and
Detroit race one and Texas and
we didn’t win any of those. Had
we done so, I think the second
half of the season could have
looked very different and a lot
better; we’d have had a cushion.
But when we needed the car to
be fast to compensate for those
losses, we just didn’t have it;
we were third at Portland in
a very average car, where we
were missing three tenths of
a second the whole weekend.
And although I did feel we
made the best of it, that third
place was just a result of the
car is not quite good enough
to threaten Will [Power] and
Felix [Rosenqvist]. If you look
at the season as a whole, I think
we did a better job than the
year before. The pace just
wasn’t there in the car.

AS Was it a handling issue

or was it the Chevrolet
improvement on power/
torque and fuel economy
that brought it right up
with Honda?
AR I haven’t really seen the
analysis, because ultimately that
was out of our control, and so
there’s not a lot we could do
about it. Looking purely at the
handling side of it, there were
a lot of set-up philosophies
we got almost too carried away
with and distracted by, and I
don’t think our sim programme
was where it should be. I think
there were set-up philosophies
where we got a bit carried away,
which isn’t really anyone’s fault,
but after a couple of ‘off ’ races
we went looking for a silver-
bullet solution and it never
transpired. At the same time,

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 TOP 50 DRIVERS OF 2019
DOMNEY
UP 26
Carlos
Sainz Jr
6th in Formula 1 World Championship
He’s been a classy performer in
05
Formula 1 since his debut season
in 2015, but Sainz’s move to
McLaren for this year coincided
with a massive step forward that
has made him into a formidable force. Not only
was he the standout in the midfield, winning the
unofficial ‘Class B’ championship with two races
to spare, but he also established himself as a focal
point for McLaren, with his input on development
direction clear from the moment he notched
up 150 laps in the 2018 car in the post-season
Abu Dhabi test last year.
The impact upon Sainz of finding a team where
he feels at home, perhaps for the first time in F1,
can’t be underestimated. He was frustrated in the
past by never really having stability in his career,
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and often couldn’t be sure what he’d be doing
the following season. Now McLaren’s backing
has helped bring out the best in him.
Sainz’s qualifying performances were strong
without being earth-shattering, and team-mate
Lando Norris actually shaded the head-to-head.
But Sundays were where Sainz excelled, delivering
race drives that exhibited the relentlessness of the
man he replaced, Fernando Alonso. His experience
also shone through there, usually picking the right
spot at the start and only occasionally being
caught out – such as when he was squeezed wide
at Austin – and minimising the mistakes. There
were collisions with Max Verstappen in Bahrain
and with Alex Albon at Monza that Sainz had a
hand in, although getting involved in the odd
racing incident in the midfield is unavoidable.
There were also moments of magic. He picked
off Romain Grosjean and Daniel Ricciardo on his
way to eighth in Spain, passed both Toro Rossos on
the first lap at Monaco to lay the foundations for a
sixth place, and was so fast at Suzuka that Charles
Leclerc gave up his chase of fifth position. Then
there was Interlagos, where he came through to
third from the back of the grid, sensationally
holding position at the final restart on shot rubber.
It’s also important to remember that Sainz
came into the 2019 season off the back of bitter
disappointment. Rejected by both Red Bull and
Renault, McLaren was his only realistic option
and it might have proved a career-ending move.
Instead, it was one that reminded everyone how
classy a driver Sainz is and allowed him to reach
new heights. At 25, he’s only going to get better.
 TOP 50 DRIVERS OF 2019

UP 5

Charles
Leclerc
4th in Formula 1 World Championship

Promoted to the pressure-cooker

04
environment of Ferrari in 2019,
complicated by an erratic season
during which you could never be
sure whether the car would be
competitive or not on any given weekend, Leclerc
came through having proved he could cut it at
the sharp end in F1. In doing so, he also ruffled
the feathers of his four-time world champion
team-mate to the point where the Ferrari team
must surely see him as its spearhead.
Leclerc’s speed was never in doubt, although
there were some question marks about his ability
to nail it in qualifying after sometimes failing to
string it together in 2018. But, once settled in, he
proved beyond doubt that he’d got on top of that
by comprehensively outperforming Sebastian
Vettel on Saturdays during the middle third of the
season. Leclerc also proved he could deliver in
races as early as
the second round “He ruffled the
of the season –
feathers of his
he should have
won the Bahrain team-mate to the
GP. Lesser drivers point that Ferrari
might have faded
must surely see him
having dropped
from pole to third as its spearhead”
on the first lap,
but not Leclerc. His victories under pressure at Spa
and Monza were exemplary, while he showed he
could dish it out as well as take it with the way he
took on Max Verstappen at Silverstone – two weeks
after leaving the door open at the Red Bull Ring and
losing the lead with two and a half laps to go.
Yes, there were too many of the kind of mistakes
that would prove costly in a title fight – crashes in
qualifying in Monaco and Azerbaijan, shunting at
Hockenheim and colliding with Verstappen at
Suzuka. But this was Leclerc’s first season in a
top team, so he’s still on a steep learning curve.
For all that, he showed his class and the peaks
confirm that he has the ability and potential to be
right up there with Verstappen as the cutting edge
of the new generation of grand prix stars. And he
did all that in a team occasionally engulfed in
chaos and amid constant friction with Vettel.
His self-criticism and relentless desire to improve
will stand him in good stead as he attempts to
consolidate himself as Ferrari’s leader next season.
MAUGER
TEE

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 TOP 50 DRIVERS OF 2019
McKLEIN
UP 1
Ott
Tanak
1st in World Rally Championship
As the sun set in Sardinia one
03
Saturday night in mid-June,
Tanak was 25 seconds up and
ready to head off on his summer
holidays with a big lead in the
championship. Then he felt the power-steering
tighten on the final stage, and first became fifth. But
this time, when the hiccups came, the Toyota star
had enough points in hand to contend with them.
If 15 years of French domination of the World
Rally Championship were going to come to an end,
they deserved to be ended in spectacular fashion.
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Tanak’s maiden title was as competent and
all-conquering as anything either Sebastien Loeb
or Ogier had managed at the height of their power.
When Tanak and his Toyota were singing from the
same hymn sheet – which they were for much of
the time – they were simply untouchable.
Four of Tanak’s six wins this year were
30-pointers – including all five final-stage bonus
points. That sort of speed comes from a driver
entirely at one with himself and the car around
him; the same as Loeb in a Citroen Xsara WRC
in 2005 or Ogier in a Volkswagen Polo R WRC.
Even when it was close – like on Rally GB –
you still knew Tanak had something more to
give. Typically, he wasn’t going to give it until
he absolutely had to. Watching him and Thierry
Neuville trading tenths in Wales was fascinating.
But there was only ever going to be one winner.
But the crowning glory came in Spain and
that run through the powerstage. Going into the
final 12-miler, he didn’t have to risk everything.
He could afford to take it sensibly. Or… when he
had the world’s attention, he could demonstrate
just what he and co-driver Martin Jarveoja were
capable of. He went with the latter, and obliterated
everybody with a display of driving that simply
took the breath away.
Loeb won in Salou in 2018; on that stage in
2019, Tanak was a second per mile faster than
the nine-time champion. Extraordinary.
 TOP 50 DRIVERS OF 2019

UP 3

Max
Verstappen
3rd in Formula 1 World Championship

His inexorable rise continued in

02
2019, during which Verstappen
built on the progress he made in
ironing out errors the previous
season, and took three victories
in a Red Bull that was only occasionally a serious
threat. The edges are no longer rough, but the fact
that they are not quite perfectly rounded is what
makes the difference between first and second here.
Inevitably, the victories in Austria, Germany and
Brazil grabbed the headlines. But there was more
to his season than that. Early on, when the Red Bull
wasn’t as competitive as the team had hoped, he
picked off Ferraris to grab podium finishes in
Australia and Spain, before a potential run at
victory at Monaco was thwarted by a combination
of an obstinate Lewis Hamilton and a five-second
penalty for an unsafe release. In Austria, he showed
his robustness by keeping his head after dropping
to eighth to take
that late victory. “Hamilton knows
That was
Verstappen is his
followed by the
Hockenheim biggest threat;
spin-and-win and Verstappen knows
the near-victory
he’s the man to
in Hungary.
Judged by the usurp Hamilton”
first half of the
season, he was probably number one. But there
were imperfections in the second half. The clash
with Raikkonen at the start at Spa, the blunder
at the first chicane when starting at the back at
Monza, and missing the yellow flag at the end of Q3
in Mexico were all avoidable, although hardly in the
same class of mistake as he showed early in 2018.
But he continued to be a formidable force – he
passed Hamilton twice on his way to victory at
Interlagos, then took second in Abu Dhabi to secure
third in the points. In the same car, the only driver
who might have done the same was Hamilton.
What tells you everything you need to know
about Verstappen is how Hamilton responds to
him. Every time they crossed swords, which
didn’t happen enough, there was an extra frisson
of excitement. Hamilton knows Verstappen is his
biggest threat; Verstappen knows he’s the man who
should usurp Hamilton. The gap between the two
was slender in 2019. Now it’s time for a title battle
that, as this season showed, could go either way.
MAUGER

HONE

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TOP 50 DRIVERS OF 2019

NO MOVE

Lewis
Hamilton
1st in Formula 1 World Championship

LESS SPECTACULAR,
MORE COMPLETE
Why Hamilton is our
number one driver of 2019
EDD STRAW

PHOTOGRAPHY

Lewis Hamilton’s 2019 Formula 1 campaign was

PREVIOUS
01
ostensibly not as impressive as what he did last year.
There were few of the attention-grabbing virtuoso
DRIVERS OF
THE YEAR
performances of 2018 such as Monza, where he
defeated both Ferraris in wheel-to-wheel combat,
or Russia, where he overtook Sebastian Vettel to correct a strategic
blunder. But what made Hamilton’s season so impressive was that he 2002 Michael Schumacher
excelled in less-showy areas, taking control of the world championship 2003 Michael Schumacher
early in the season and never looking like losing the title. 2004 Michael Schumacher
The way he did this reflects what has become the defining 2005 Sebastien Loeb
characteristic of the later years of his F1 career: the desire to leave no 2006 Fernando Alonso
stone unturned in the quest for self-improvement. While in his early 2007 Kimi Raikkonen
years there was sometimes a feeling that he felt his prodigious speed 2008 Robert Kubica
was enough, in recent seasons his drive to chip away at his weaknesses 2009 Lewis Hamilton
– which really should be regarded as nothing more than less-powerful 2010 Sebastian Vettel
strengths – has rendered him utterly formidable with Mercedes. 2011 Sebastian Vettel
“This season is an interesting one because everyone was really 2012 Fernando Alonso
impressed by what Lewis did in the second half of last year, just crushing 2013 Sebastian Vettel
a Ferrari assault on the championship that looked pretty threatening 2014 Daniel Ricciardo
with a relentless, flawless half-season,”says Mercedes technical director 2015 Lewis Hamilton
James Allison.“Everyone who watched that thought,‘Woah, that’s how 2016 Daniel Ricciardo
to do it’. That’s how to teach the opposition that there are no flaws here 2017 Lewis Hamilton
and that you’re going to be the ones making the mistakes. 2018 Lewis Hamilton

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 S BLOXHAM

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TOP 50 DRIVERS OF 2019

“What he said to all of us at the end of that year was,‘I’ve had a Mexico victory came
good second half of the year, but I don’t want it to be like that next despite floor damage
year. I want to start next year with this level of strength.’He knew in lap one clash
that he hadn’t been at that level of strength at the beginning of last
season and that it took him a few races to really get on a war footing.
And he said to all of us that he was determined to come back and
start from the off and be like that from the beginning.
“If you look at the points trace through the year that pretty much
rings true. Valtteri [Bottas] won in Melbourne, but I don’t think you
could say Lewis was not on form that weekend. If you look race by race
by race all the way through the year, Lewis’s line of points gathering
just looks like that because he didn’t have any weak points beyond lows
when maybe we made the weekend difficult, like in Austria where the
car overheated. If you want to see the embodiment of Lewis’s often-
repeated mantra of continuous improvement, look at that. He told
himself that’s what he’s going to do. That’s what he’s done.”
Hamilton certainly achieved that objective by winning six of the
first eight races of the year. But consistently he executed races well.
His Monaco victory stands out – he led throughout under intense
pressure from Max Verstappen in the second stint after Mercedes
made a bad strategy call and put him on medium Pirellis – as does
his excellent drive in Mexico with a marathon stint on hards. But
there were also less memorable races that showcased his ability,
such as wins at Barcelona and Paul Ricard, where he dominated, albeit
without a storyline strong enough to make them stick in the mind.
While Mercedes’success is down to its strength across the board –
with outstanding teams of people at Brixworth and Brackley, and a
management culture that appears to get the best out of people and
focuses on avoiding a blame culture – Hamilton has been one of
the key pillars of its success. Allison is quick to admit the value
that Hamilton, and team-mate Bottas, bring.
“Both are key – look who is second in the championship [Bottas],”says
Allison.“We’ve got two drivers who just keep getting this big fat haul
of the points each weekend. They very rarely put the car in the wall in
practice, even more rarely in any sort of event where it counts, and race
really, really quickly without making mistakes. Of course, not for nothing
is Lewis a six-time world champion. He is an extraordinarily effective
racer. Even if it hasn’t been a vintage year for him in qualifying, he’s
still managed to turn that around for himself more often than not on
a Sunday. And that just shows weekend after weekend after weekend.”
In qualifying, Hamilton hasn’t been helped by the fact that the Ferrari
was often the fastest car on Saturdays, with Charles Leclerc getting the
most pole positions. While Leclerc outperformed team-mate Sebastian
GALLOWAY

Vettel over the season with an average advantage of 0.116 seconds, Bottas
matched Hamilton’s five pole positions in a car that, particularly after
the German Grand Prix update, wasn’t the easiest to get into a sweet spot
ANDRE
GALLOWAY

Allison was impressed with Hamilton staved off pressure

Hamilton’s determination to from Verstappen to score an
carry on where he left off in 2018 emotional win in Monaco

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 TOP 50 DRIVERS OF 2019

for qualifying. But Hamilton excelled in overturning a track-position

ETHERINGTON

disadvantage, winning eight times from starting slots other than pole.
“Track position is probably a little overrated across the championship,”
says Allison.“There are definitely tracks where you want it more than
you want anything else, but race pace is a more valuable commodity
over the season than track position. Ideally you have both, but if you’re
going to have a car that could go really swiftly on a Sunday, but maybe
not be quite where you want to be on the Saturday, you’ll generally
win the season quite comfortably.
“But that being said, that race pace needs to be converted and that’s
a mixture of team and driver, because we try to increase the chance of
that through strategy. But the strategy is only possible if the driver is
capable of delivering it. And while we can line up the deck in their favour,
the drivers have to actually play the cards. Lewis has been spectacularly
good, not just this year, at teasing every last bit of performance out of the
tyres on race day, and we’ve seen him do that in different flavours this
year. You see him run a really, really long stint when everyone else had Engineer Pete Bonnington
to make another stop and be able to keep the lead, like he did in Mexico. has helped Hamilton in his
“And you see it the other way around at places like Budapest, where he quest to leave no stone unturned
can use his pace to get up to the back of the car on the same strategy

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TOP 50 DRIVERS OF 2019

and then duck out with a fresh set of tyres and chase that gap right
back down and overtake at the end. So you can see it in both modes,
but each of those is characterised by a driver who can get every last
little bit of goodness from the tyre. That’s been a real weapon.”
The other factor in evaluating Hamilton’s campaign that can’t be
underestimated is how much Bottas has improved, particularly with
his strong performances on Saturdays. While Hamilton has usually
had the edge on Sundays thanks to his excellent tyre management and,
as showcased at Monza, ability to sit in the turbulent wake of another
car and force mistakes out of the driver in front [in this case Leclerc],
qualifying has been a little harder. Combined with the pace of the
Ferrari, the characteristics of the Mercedes over a single lap haven’t
allowed Hamilton to express himself to his maximum behind the
wheel, which suggests Hamilton has not regressed and it’s more
about Bottas progressing.
“He’s had a formidable team-mate in Valtteri this year who has
stepped up across the whole season, and has provided Lewis with a
real challenge in qualifying and in the races,”says Allison.“So he’s had
stiff competition from Valtteri, who has really focused on what went
wrong for him last year and has made good progress with it. And then
I think that maybe we haven’t quite got the car in qualifying to a sort of
balance where he can make what he feels is his difference on Saturday.
So I think it’s a little bit of two things, his team-mate stepping up and
a car which suits Lewis down to the ground on Sunday, but not quite
so special for him on Saturday.”
The combination of Hamilton and Bottas is certainly effective for
the team. Both have demands of the car that aren’t too dissimilar but
form an effective alliance. This also showcases a strength of Hamilton,
who along with Bottas offers the kind of feedback that teams lap up.
“Both of them are important for that, but I wouldn’t pick Lewis out
particularly,”explains Allison.“Every corner, every lap, every track,
they tell us what the car does and it’s not always a consistent picture.
But sufficient information comes from them for us to be able to piece
together ideas of how to make it quicker or how not to make mistakes
with the set-up. In that regard, they’re both really valuable assets. We’ve
been lucky for these three seasons to have drivers who both want to
support the team and each other by giving completely candid feedback
about the car, not conserving for themselves little special secrets that
they think are going to be their weapons, and that’s served us well.”
Hamilton turns 35 before next season, but this determination for
constant improvement means there are no signs yet of him sliding
backwards in what, for an F1 driver, is his early old age. The insatiable
appetite for success, and the growing desire to leave a legacy both in Hamilton’s relentless performance
terms of the sheer weight of success – with Michael Schumacher’s against new rivals Leclerc and
win and championship records in his sights – and how to go about Verstappen bode well for his legacy
winning the right way, means he might only get better next year.
TEE

ERIC VARGIOLU/DPPI

Hamilton enjoys a Hamilton’s sixth title puts

respectful relationship him clear of Fangio and only
with team-mate Bottas one short of Schumacher’s tally

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STILL STRIVING FOR IMPROVEMENT
Lewis Hamilton isn’t an easy
taskmaster. Like all the great
drivers he focuses far more on his
failings, such as they are, rather
than his strengths, and that’s
at the heart of his success.
“On the team side, I think we
could say we’ve done 9.6 out of
10 maybe,” says Hamilton when
asked how he rates his and the
Mercedes team’s season. “Just
because there’s always room
to improve and we’ve not been
perfect all year, we’ve not won
every single race, and there’s
just areas where we could
definitely do better.
“It’s really important to be
critical of yourself; never say that
you’re perfectly happy with the
“There’s always room
to improve and we’ve
not been perfect all
year, we’ve not won
every single race”
improve on. For myself, I
don’t ever really judge.”
What stands out about
Hamilton is the way he has
continued to lead the way
against the rise of a generation
of outstanding talents. Both
Max Verstappen and Charles
Leclerc are potential future
champions but, even though
he’s giving away more than
a decade in age to the duo,
“I by no means feel old at
all,” says Hamilton. “I still feel
super-light on my feet, healthier
than I’ve ever been. When I was
25 years old I had age on my side,
but I lacked the knowledge and
experience that I have now. It’s
not something you can leapfrog.
“All I’ve got to do is just
continue. Each year I’m constantly
looking at how I can be fitter,
how I can be more focused, how
I can have more energy, which all
complement my general natural
ability. I’m excited there’s these
youngsters that are coming now.
Every day’s a school day and
every day is a day to be schooled!”
While Hamilton is expected to
continue in F1 beyond the end of
TEE
him than behind him. The legacy
he is building is a formidable one
and, even though he’s not keen on
talking about it, there are hints
that he’s given some consideration
to what that legacy will be.
“I hope it’s a good legacy,” he
says. “I can’t really get caught up
with what’s too far ahead. All I can
try and do is try to focus on now,
and shaping the following months
and following short years ahead.”
DUNBAR

job that you’ve done. You always Hamilton is showings no his current contract in 2020, it’s
know there’s areas that you can signs of decline. clear he has fewer years ahead of

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 RACE CENTRE
WEC BAHRAIN O W T C R S E PA N G

JEP

IT’S LONELY FOR
CONWAY AT THE TOP
Not even the sister Toyota could occupy Mike Conway’s mirrors as the
#7 car dominated in the Bahrain desert
G A R Y W AT K I N S
PHOTOGRAPHY
M
ike Conway repeatedly looked in his mirrors in the
expectation that a rival or two might appear behind
him some time soon. No one did, not the sister Toyota
nor one or more of the LMP1 privateers. The Briton
was never challenged over the course of his opening
double stint in Bahrain last Saturday. Nor were team-mates
Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez as they stroked to a
one-lap win on a day when the hope of a real battle between
the factory hybrids and the independents quickly evaporated.
The #7 Toyota TS050 HYBRID led every lap of the Bahrain
8 Hours, reprising the total domination of the sister car at Fuji
in October. No one expected any different in Japan thanks to a
four-tenth gap between the two Toyotas on home ground under
the new system of success handicaps, Rebellion’s travails with
its Michelin tyres and Ginetta’s all-round newness. This time,
it seemed, there was the potential of a proper battle for victory
involving both factory cars and privateers.
That hope all but disappeared inside the space of 500 or
so metres of the start of round four of the 2019/20 World
Endurance Championship. The pole-winning Rebellion started
by Bruno Senna was nudged into a spin in Turn 2 by an out-of-
control Charlie Robertson in the #5 Ginetta, which came straight
into the pits for body repairs. Meanwhile, the #8 Toyota with
Sebastien Buemi sustained front-end damage as a slightly
delayed consequence of the same incident.
That explained why Conway, who had qualified only fourth
together with Lopez behind the three cars delayed at the start,
was more than four seconds up the road after the first lap of
the 3.36-mile Bahrain International Circuit – and why the car in
second was an LMP2. It also explained those furtive glances in his
mirrors in search of the opposition as his margin continued to grow.
It would be wrong to say that the first-lap incident handed the
race to Conway and his co-drivers on a plate, but it went a long
way towards it. The Rebellion-Gibson R-13 that Senna shared
with Gustavo Menezes and Norman Nato quickly made it up to
second place and was closing on the winning Toyota, admittedly
at a glacial rate, when a gearbox issue halted that progress in the
third of the eight hours. Menezes found himself stuck in second
gear, the car needing a new gearshift actuator. The loss of nearly
six minutes dropped the car three laps off the lead, which is
where it stayed to the end of the eight hours.
Senna wasn’t happy with the behaviour of fellow front-row
starter Robertson when the lights went green, claiming the Brit
WEC BAHRAIN RACE CENTRE
had “missed the memo” about the Bahrain event being an eight-
hour race. He also suspected that the hit the Rebellion took
from the Ginetta had a role to play in the team’s gearbox woes.
“They guy completely destroyed our race,” raged Senna after
the race. “I know he made a mistake, lost control of the car, but he
completely took me out. He hit us on a wheel, which put a shock
into the gearbox. I was having gearshift issues in that first stint
already. We last had this problem a year ago, and we haven’t done
anything different from usual apart from that shock at Turn 1.”
The team, however, stressed that there can be no way of ever
knowing if the impact did precipitate the gearbox problem.
Robertson, for his part, held his hands up and took the blame
for the incident: “I just got on the power too early and lit up
the tyres. My fault.”
The Senna-Robertson clash definitely caused the first of the
delays to hit the #8 Toyota that Buemi shared with Brendon
Hartley and Kazuki Nakajima, though indirectly. Buemi took to
the asphalt runoff in avoidance of the spinning Senna. When
he tried to come back onto the track there was light contact
with Paul di Resta in the LMP2 pole-winning United Autosports
ORECA, which resulted in damage to the nose of the TS050.
“I had to come back because there was a gravel trap coming up,”
said Buemi. “I’m not going to blame him, but I think he could
have left me a little bit more of a margin.”
Buemi continued with the damaged front body until the first
round of scheduled stops, but he would still be feeling the effects
of the first-lap incident until he got out of the car after a second
stint on the same set of Michelins.
“I drove with the damage, so I destroyed the tyres basically –
which made the second stint on them really hard,” he explained.
The #8 Toyota’s day went, in Buemi’s words, “from bad to worse”.
Nakajima has a clash with a GTE Am Ferrari soon after climbing
aboard early in the fourth hour. The team changed the damaged
rear body section in the middle of his stint, but there was also
damage to the floor that could not be changed. The performance
was blunted thereafter.
More time was lost at the start of the sixth hour when the
#8 crew rolled the dice with a speculative strategic move. Buemi
was put onto to the softer compound of Michelin tyre in the
hope of shaking things up. His run had to be aborted after 15 laps,
a significant blow when each P1 car had an allocation of only
six and a half sets of tyres for qualifying and the race.
“We were 1m15s behind, so we thought, ‘Let’s try the softs’,”
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RACE CENTRE WEC BAHRAIN

Class of their own: #7 dominated

in LMP1, while United Autosports
team scored first WEC P2 win

JEP

he said. “We though it might work. It didn’t, and that was that.”
There wasn’t much to say about the winners’ race. All the normal
platitudes applied: it was mistake-free, the drivers didn’t put a foot
wrong, the team did an excellent job and, of course, it was harder
than it looked. The interesting thing about the #7 crew’s race was
that they adopted the set-up from the sister car after Conway and
Lopez had struggled in qualifying.
“We veered off on a set-up direction that wasn’t really working,”
said Conway. “We swapped to what they had ended up with, which
isn’t that unusual, and the car was hooked up straight away.”
The fact is that the #7 Toyota should have had the edge
because it was running 2.51s worth of success penalties to the
championship-leading #8 car’s 2.72s. But Buemi reckoned he and
his co-drivers might have been able to overcome that 0.2s deficit.
“Yesterday [in qualifying] we definitely had the edge and it felt
like we had the edge on Thursday [in free practice], so I don’t
see why we shouldn’t have had it today in the race,” he said.
“But sometimes it’s not your day.”
It wasn’t Ginetta’s day, either. The British constructor once again
showed the pace of its AER-engined G60-LT-P1. Robertson and Ben
Hanley took second on the grid and their team-mate in #5, Jordan
King, set the fastest race lap. That was the second consecutive
fastest lap for the car.
But what it didn’t do was mount any kind of consistent challenge
to the Toyotas and Rebellion. That said, the #6 car in which 2011
American Le Mans Series champion Chris Dyson made his belated
international sportscar return did run second before the #8 Toyota
and the #1 Rebellion caught back up.
Nor did Team LNT manage to chalk up any points. Both cars
went out with internal gearbox failures, #5 out on the track in
the fifth hour and #6 in the pits in the penultimate hour.
If Ginetta wasn’t in the fight — remember, it was at Shanghai
for the first couple of hours or so — Rebellion reckoned it would
have been vying for victory with Toyota but for the gearbox glitch.
“Today we could have won this race,” said Senna. “We had the car,
we had the pace.”
Toyota didn’t necessarily disagree with that.
“They were genuinely faster on average — though not by much
— but we were faster in the pits,” explained Toyota Motorsport
GmbH technical director Pascal Vasselon, who reckoned Senna
and co would have caught up after their lap-one spin. “We were
expecting to be slower than Rebellion in the race, but within the
margin where we could recover if we had the perfect race.
“Without their stop for the gearshift, it would have been tight.
We would have won marginally, really marginally.”

4 6 AUTOSPORT.COM 1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9
 WEC BAHRAIN RACE CENTRE

L M P 2 : D I R E STA S E TS U P U N I T E D
AUTOSPORTS’ STEP UP

United Autosports notched up a first WEC win at only the fourth

time of asking in its maiden LMP2 campaign in the series. The
Anglo-American team’s ORECA-Gibson 07 led all but seven laps
on the way to a victory that was set up over a first double stint
by Paul di Resta before Phil Hanson and Filipe Albuquerque
took their turns behind the wheel.
Di Resta led by more than 30 seconds when he handed over
to Hanson at the end of his opening double stint, after the two
Jota-run cars that would finish second and third lost time on
lap 1. Ho-Pin Tung spun the Jackie Chan DC Racing entry when
he got on the kerbs trying to pass di Resta, delaying Anthony
Davidson in the sister machine run under the team’s own name.
The lead of the Michelin-shod United car went up to as much
as 50s with Hanson aboard, but a series of minor delays in the
pits ensured that di Resta and co never quite looked home and
dry until the very closing stages. The team lost time with a
sticking left-rear wheel thanks to high brake temperatures and
there were, said team boss Richard Dean, “a few other fumbles”.
United eventually finished 21s up on the Jota ORECA that
Davidson shared with Antonio Felix da Costa and Roberto
Gonzalez. Davidson passed and quickly dropped Tung in the
Chan/DC car when he returned to the wheel for the final three
stints with two new fresh Goodyears on the left-hand side,
ending up 19s ahead of the car co-driven by Will Stevens
and Gabriel Aubry.
G-Drive Racing took fourth on its first WEC appearance of the
season. Jean-Eric Vergne, Job van Uitert and Roman Rusinov
lost a shot at a podium when the first-named had to cut short
his initial double stint on the Michelin medium tyre. That had
a strategic knock-on in the fourth hour when the first of two
full-course yellow virtual safety cars fell at the wrong time for
the European Le Mans Series runners-up when team patron
Rusinov was at the wheel of the TDS-run entry.
A late splash-and-dash for Vergne was the consequence of
an aggressive strategy at the end to try to put the DC/Chan
car under pressure.

1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9 AUTOSPORT.COM 4 7

Vantage and 488 engaged
in a tight fight for the
GTE Pro class spoils
GIBSON/ASTON MARTIN
GTE Pro: Aston beats Ferrari
Aston Martin and Ferrari swapped
places at each of the final three pitstops
in Bahrain. That was how tight it was
between the best of the cars from the
British and Italian marques in GTE Pro
on Saturday, though the grandstand finish
that looked on the cards for much of the
final half of the race never materialised.
The Aston Martin Vantage GTE driven
by Marco Sorensen and Nicki Thiim ended
up triumphing by an unrepresentative
14-second margin after the chasing AF
Corse Ferrari 488 GTE shared by Davide
Rigon and Miguel Molina was penalised.
Molina had spun up the wheels for the
briefest of moments as he left the pits for
the final time, an offence in the WEC that
was inevitably followed by a drivethrough.
It was a lucky break for Aston. Sorensen
wasn’t sure he could have kept his Vantage
ahead through the final hour, at least not
after the bit of daylight he’d put between
himself and Molina after the Ferrari was
jumped in the pits disappeared during a
full-course yellow virtual safety car.
“I’d certainly have done everything in my
Aston crew’s chances
were helped by the
Ferrari’s penalty
JEP
power to keep him behind,” said Sorensen.
“But it looked like the Ferraris were quicker
in the night. I don’t think we won this race
on pace, but we tried to keep it as clean as
possible and our boys did an amazing job
in the pitstops.”
Ferrari was convinced it would have won
the race to the flag but for the penalty.
“We were stronger over the last 15 or
20 laps of a stint, so I think we have lost
a victory today,” said Rigon. “Miguel spun
the wheels for maybe half a revolution. The
rules are the rules, but I think the stewards
could have looked into the data a bit more.”
Everyone in GTE Pro bar the race winners
had a bad luck story last weekend. Alex
Lynn and Maxime Martin ended up third in
the second Vantage after the team split its
strategies as usual and didn’t pit their car in
the mid-race FCY. The time lost stopping
under green dropped them back from the
sister car squabbling up front.
James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi
took fourth in the #51 Ferrari thanks to the
latter sustaining a puncture shortly after
pitting during that hour-four virtual safety
car. It was more bad luck for the 2017
champions who lost the win last time out at
Shanghai to a rideheight infringement and a
shot at victory first time out at Silverstone
when Pier Guidi was taking a drivethrough
for a penalty that had just been lifted.
The Porsche 911 RSR was the fastest car
in class at Bahrain, but the two factory cars
ended up fifth and sixth after being delayed
before the race reached half-distance. Kevin
Estre and Michael Christensen lost out
with a failed damper that required changing,
while Gianmaria Bruni and Richard Lietz
sustained a puncture and bodywork damage
as the result of an incorrectly seated wheel.
1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9 AUTOSPORT.COM 4 9
WEC BAHRAIN RACE CENTRE
JEP
K E AT I N G : L E A V E M E
IN FOR A REASON
Ben Keating did most of the hard work
for the Project 1 Porsche squad as it took
its first GTE Am victory of 2019-20. He
opened with a three-hour stint, topping
the battle of the bronzes in hour one
before hanging in among the pros.
The tactic of keeping Keating out
beyond the 140-minute minimum
driving time for each crew’s bronze-rated
racer saved the car a pitstop and made
the #57 911 RSR difficult to beat. Larry
ten Voorde and Jeroen Bleekemolen,
who subsequently cycled through the
car, both agreed it was the boss who
had done the hard work on Saturday.
Darren Turner, Ross Gunn and Paul
Dalla Lana were best of the rest in the
works-run Aston Martin Vantage GTE.
They led on more than one occasion as
the strategies diverged, but couldn’t
overcome the handicap of making
eight stops to the winners’ seven.
The Gulf Racing UK Porsche squad
took its first WEC podium since 2017
with Ben Barker, Andrew Watson and
Mike Wainwright as the TF Sport Aston,
class winner in Fuji and Shanghai,
retired with a fuel rail problem.

  
 



 POWERED BY

RESULTS ROUND 4/8, BAHRAIN (BHR), 14 DECEMBER (257 LAPS – 864.255 MILES)
POS DRIVERS TEAM CAR CLASS TIME

1 Mike Conway (GBR) Kamui Kobayashi (JPN) Jose Maria Lopez (ARG) Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TS050 HYBRID LMP1 8h01m23.599s

2 Sebastien Buemi (CHE) Kazuki Nakajima (JPN) Brendon Hartley (NZL) Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TS050 HYBRID LMP1 -1 lap

3 Bruno Senna (BRA) Gustavo Menezes (USA) Norman Nato (FRA) Rebellion Racing Rebellion-Gibson R-13 LMP1 -3 laps

4 Paul di Resta (GBR) Phil Hanson (GBR) Filipe Albuquerque (PRT) United Autosports ORECA-Gibson 07 LMP2 -8 laps

5 Anthony Davidson (GBR) Roberto Gonzalez (MEX) Antonio Felix da Costa (PRT) Jota ORECA-Gibson 07 LMP2 -8 laps

6 Ho-Pin Tung (CHN) Gabriel Aubry (FRA) Will Stevens (GBR) Jackie Chan DC Racing (Jota) ORECA-Gibson 07 LMP2 -9 laps

7 Job van Uitert (NLD) Roman Rusinov (RUS) Jean-Eric Vergne (FRA) G-Drive Racing Aurus-Gibson 01 LMP2 -9 laps

8 Andre Negrao (BRA) Thomas Laurent (FRA) Pierre Ragues (FRA) Signatech Alpine Elf Alpine-Gibson A470 LMP2 -9 laps

9 Giedo van der Garde (NLD) Frits van Eerd (NLD) Nyck de Vries (NLD) Racing Team Nederland ORECA-Gibson 07 LMP2 -10 laps

10 Nicolas Lapierre (FRA) Antonin Borga (CHE) Alexandre Coigny (CHE) COOL Racing ORECA-Gibson 07 LMP2 -12 laps

11 Kenta Yamashita (JPN) Mark Patterson (USA) Anders Fjordbach (DNK) High Class Racing ORECA-Gibson 07 LMP2 -13 laps

12 Roberto Lacorte (ITA) Andrea Belicchi (ITA) Giorgio Sernagiotto (ITA) Cetilar Racing Dallara-Gibson P217 LMP2 -17 laps

13 Marco Sorensen (DNK) Nicki Thiim (DNK) Aston Martin (Prodrive) Aston Martin Vantage GTE GTE Pro -22 laps

14 Miguel Molina (ESP) Davide Rigon (ITA) AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo GTE Pro -22 laps

15 Maxime Martin (BEL) Alex Lynn (GBR) Aston Martin (Prodrive) Aston Martin Vantage GTE GTE Pro -22 laps

16 Alessandro Pier Guidi (ITA) James Calado (GBR) AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo GTE Pro -22 laps

17 Gianmaria Bruni (ITA) Richard Lietz (AUT) Porsche GT Team (Manthey) Porsche 911 RSR GTE Pro -24 laps

18 Ben Keating (USA) Larry ten Voorde (NLD) Jeroen Bleekemolen (NLD) Team Project 1 Porsche 911 RSR GTE Am -24 laps

19 Kevin Estre (FRA) Michael Christensen (DNK) Porsche GT Team (Manthey) Porsche 911 RSR GTE Pro -24 laps

20 Paul Dalla Lana (CAN) Darren Turner (GBR) Ross Gunn (GBR) Aston Martin (Prodrive) Aston Martin Vantage GTE GTE Am -24 laps

21 Mike Wainwright (GBR) Andrew Watson (GBR) Ben Barker (GBR) Gulf Racing Porsche 911 RSR GTE Am -24 laps

22 Francois Perrodo (FRA) Emmanuel Collard (FRA) Nicklas Nielsen (DNK) AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo GTE Am -25 laps

23 Thomas Flohr (CHE) Francesco Castellacci (ITA) Giancarlo Fisichella (ITA) AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo GTE Am -25 laps

24 Christian Ried (DEU) Riccardo Pera (ITA) Matt Campbell (AUS) Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR GTE Am -26 laps

25 Motoaki Ishikawa (JPN) Olivier Beretta (MCO) Kei Cozzolino (ITA) MR Racing (AF Corse) Ferrari 488 GTE Evo GTE Am -27 laps

26 Bonamy Grimes (GBR) Johnny Mowlem (GBR) Charlie Hollings (GBR) Red River Sport (AF Corse) Ferrari 488 GTE Evo GTE Am -28 laps

27 Egidio Perfetti (NOR) David Heinemeier Hansson (DNK) Matteo Cairoli (ITA) Team Project 1 Porsche 911 RSR GTE Am -43 laps

R Mike Simpson (GBR) Chris Dyson (USA) Guy Smith (GBR) Team LNT Ginetta-AER G60-LT-P1 LMP1 195 laps-gearbox

R Salih Yoluc (TUR) Charlie Eastwood (GBR) Jonny Adam (GBR) TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage GTE GTE Am 178 laps-fuel system

R Charlie Robertson (GBR) Ben Hanley (GBR) Jordan King (GBR) Team LNT Ginetta-AER G60-LT-P1 LMP1 143 laps-gearbox

R Khaled Al Qubaisi (ARE) Adrien De Leener (BEL) Thomas Preining (AUT) Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR GTE Am 109 laps-crash damage

In each car, first-named driver started the race. Winners’ average speed 107.719mph. Fastest lap King 1m45.240s, 115.035mph.
LMP2 di Resta 1m48.579s, 111.497mph. GTE Pro Molina 1m56.942s, 103.523mph. GTE Am Gunn 1m57.242s, 103.259mph.

QUALIFYING
1 Senna/Nato 1m42.979s; 2 Hanley/
Robertson 1m43.123s; 3 Hartley/
Nakajima 1m43.497s; 4 Conway/Lopez
1m43.842s; 5 Simpson/Smith 1m43.887s;
6 di Resta/Hanson 1m45.357s; 7 Stevens/
Aubry 1m45.649s; 8 Vergne/Uitert
1m45.953s; 9 Davidson/Gonzalez
1m46.415s; 10 Lapierre/Borga 1m47.265s;
11 Yamashita/Fjordbach 1m47.323s;
12 Negrao/Ragues 1m47.725s; 13 van der
Garde/Eerd 1m48.899s; 14 Belicchi/
Lacorte 1m49.474s; 15 Bruni/Lietz
Lana 1m58.002s; 26 Adam/Yoluc
1m58.047s; 27 Mowlem/Grimes
1m58.217s; 28 Beretta/Ishikawa
1m58.635s; 29 Ried/Campbell 1m59.959s;
30 Lynn/Martin 1m56.253s; 31 Fisichella/
Flohr 1m56.903s.
Fastest in each class:
LMP1 Senna 1m42.396s;
LMP2 di Resta 1m44.869s;
GTE Pro Bruni 1m55.342s;
GTE Am Nielsen 1m56.128s.
CHAMPIONSHIP
LMP drivers
1 Lopez/Kobayashi/Conway 97;
2 Hartley/Nakajima/Buemi 89;
3 Senna/Menezes/Nato 67; 4 Aubry/
Tung/Stevens 34; 5 Albuquerque/
Hanson 30; 6 Hanley/Egor Orudzhev 27.5.
LMP1 manufacturers
1 Toyota Gazoo Racing 108; 2 Rebellion
Racing 67; 3 Team LNT 29.
LMP2 drivers
1 Aubry/Tung/Stevens 72;
JEP
2 Albuquerque/Hanson 69; 3 Eerd/van
der Garde 66; 4 da Costa/Gonzalez 62.
GTE drivers
1 Sorensen/Thiim 85; 2 Estre/
Christensen 71; 3 Bruni/Lietz 68;
4 Lynn/Martin 68; 5 Rigon/Molina 47;
6 Pier Guidi/Calado 43.
GTE manufacturers
1 Aston Martin 153; 2 Porsche 142;
3 Ferrari 100.
GTE Am drivers
1 Keating/Bleekemolen 73; 2 Collard/

1m55.485s; 16 Estre/Christensen Tung spins at the Perrodo/Nielsen 73; 3 Turner/Dalla Lana/

1m55.545s; 17 Pier Guidi/Calado start in Jackie Chan/DC Gunn 60.5; 4 Eastwood/Adam/Yoluc 58.
1m56.087s; 18 Rigon/Molina 1m56.318s; Racing ORECA
19 Sorensen/Thiim 1m56.389s;
20 Voorde/Keating 1m57.602s;
21 Preining/Al Qubaisi 1m57.661s;
NEXT EVENT
22 Nielsen/Perrodo 1m57.690s; LONE STAR LE MANS
23 Cairoli/Perfetti 1m57.863s; 24 Barker/ 27 FEBRUARY ISSUE
Wainwright 1m57.977s; 25 Turner/Dalla

1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9 AUTOSPORT.COM 5 1
 Michelisz defeats Guerrieri
in controversial showdown
WORLD TOURING CAR CUP
SEPANG (MYS)
15 DECEMBER
ROUND 10/10
For all the scenarios that could have played
out during the World Touring Car Cup’s
Sepang season finale, a two-way title
showdown in a floodlit, damp decider,
in which both contenders shared the
front row, was as perfect as it could be.
That felt particularly apt given how
unlikely such a scenario had seemed after
Friday’s first qualifying. Norbert Michelisz’s
pace on his way to the race-one pole was
such that his title rivals Esteban Guerrieri,
Yvan Muller and Thed Bjork – who would
start ninth, 16th and 28th respectively –
barely stood a chance.
Guerrieri did better come second
qualifying, but even in securing second his
Munnich Motorsport Honda was eight
tenths off the BRC Hyundai of Michelisz,
who with another pole claimed another
five-point bonus. Cyan Racing Lynk & Co
pair Muller and Bjork were closer too,
though mired in the midfield in 13th and 19th.
With those two bemused, and Guerrieri
behind, Michelisz was undoubtedly in the
pound seat. Nothing in tin-top racing can be
taken as a dead certainty, but as conclusions
go this seemed as safe as any to jump to.
Or was it? In a title contenders’ press
conference on Saturday, the chasing pack
all pointed to the need for rain. Michelisz,
whose poles came in the dry, wasn’t
5 2 AUTOSPORT.COM 1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9
bothered either way, but wanted to
avoid “something in between” the wet
and dry. Have a guess what conditions
were to come on Sunday, then.
At first, those hoping for rainfall were
disappointed. Yes, the rain that badly
affected Saturday’s Endurance World
Championship motorcycle race had
continued into the morning, but then
it stopped, at 9am – more than six
hours before the first WTCR race.
But spits and spots started falling once
more in the hour before the curtain raiser.
Would wet tyres be needed? This was
exactly the scenario the hunters wanted, and
precisely the one the target wanted to avoid.
In the end, enough rain fell that the
decision appeared relatively easy. Michelisz
was in the majority who opted for a
combination of slick front tyres and wet
rears and, once a lap behind the safety car
was complete, he scampered away. A
Guerrieri took his fourth
win of the season, then
got hit by Azcona
winning margin of 2.446 seconds over
Aurelien Panis’s Cupra didn’t do Michelisz
justice. He made a win he described as “far
from straightforward” look easy.
With Guerrieri advancing to fourth and
Muller sixth – the two were split by wildcard
Joao Paulo de Oliveira, who boldly gambled
on full slicks on his KCMG Honda – and
Bjork now out of the picture, Michelisz
knew he would head into the finale leading
regardless of what happened in race two.
He and Guerrieri shared the same row
for that race (five), though they could
scarcely have made more contrasting
getaways. As the rain began to intensify
for the start, Guerrieri burst into action
and rocketed up into the lead pack.
He was fourth by the end of the first
sector, and halfway round the opening lap
had claimed the lead – though that was to
be short-lived, as a red flag was shown when
Michelisz’s BRC team-mate Nicky Catsburg

tagged Muller at the Turn 9 hairpin, after
which his Hyundai burst into flames.
Catsburg had followed Muller
approaching the corner, but then moved
to the inside, tagging the left-rear corner
of the Lynk & Co 03. The Hyundai driver
accepted responsibility but protested
that the hit had not been deliberate, while
Muller in no uncertain terms suggested he
had been Catsburg’s “target”. The stewards
agreed with that, deemed Catsburg to be at
fault and disqualified him from race three.
Almost an hour passed before the second
race resumed, but when it did positions
were taken from the last sector the field
had come through before the red flag. This
meant Guerrieri was second behind Nestor
Girolami, though he soon ‘reclaimed’ the
lead from the sister Munnich Honda.
With Girolami as rear-gunner, Guerrieri
stormed clear and was 11s ahead until a
safety car intervened late on, with victory
leaving him 10 points shy of Michelisz.
The Hungarian was swallowed up at the
start, then went off at Turn 9 moments
after Catsburg had collided with Muller,
so was perhaps fortunate to restart in
13th and finish eighth. The same could not
be said for Muller; though he was able to
continue after the whack, the advantage
he had on full wets was wiped out under
the red flag when everyone switched to
that option. Sixth place meant he was
out of championship contention.
And so it boiled down to one race
between two protagonists. In theory, it
Kristoffersson had a great
weekend, leaping from
11th to fifth in the points
was Michelisz’s to lose; he’d controlled race
one in similar conditions and, even if there
wasn’t a repeat, third was all he needed. But
theory and practice are different things.
Michelisz felt a vibration and heard a noise
on his lap to the grid, prompting concern.
Though the issue – Michelisz did not
disclose its nature – was fixed for the race,
he lost out in a drag race with Guerrieri on
the run to the first corner, with Mikel Azcona
(PWR Cupra) then driving around his outside
into Turn 2. Third was fine for Michelisz, but
fourth wasn’t, so alarm bells were ringing
when the Sebastien Loeb Racing VW Golf of
Johan Kristoffersson, from 22nd on the grid,
passed him towards the end of the lap.
That put Guerrieri in an improbable
standings lead but, in a cruel twist of fate,
his heroics turned to heartbreak after a
safety-car period. Dicing with Azcona as
Kristoffersson and a feistier Michelisz
closed in, Guerrieri – having just figured
the lines he needed to take – was hit from
behind by the Cupra and sent over the grass.
He clung on and stayed ahead briefly, but
was passed by Azcona and Kristoffersson
on the following lap, and then Michelisz as
he began to suffer overheating issues with
a clogged up radiator. Three subsequent
trips to the pits and a 22nd-place finish
were scant reward for an almighty effort.
Guerrieri received an apology from
Azcona, who was penalised post-race,
though he felt this was “not a fair” one.
That feeling was shared by Honda, which
in its post-event press release declared
W TC R S E PA N G R A C E C E N T R E
Michelisz was on superb
form in race one and took
his fifth win of 2019
ALL PICS: WTCR
Guerrieri had been “robbed” of the crown.
Not that any of that mattered to
Michelisz. Safe in the knowledge that
Guerrieri could not respond, he cruised
to fourth, sealing the title by 23 points.
A warm embrace between the two in the
post-race press conference, interrupting
one of race winner Kristoffersson’s answers,
illustrated better than words not only the
respect between the two but also the relief
for Michelisz, who avenged his ‘exhausting’
2017 World Touring Car Championship title
defeat to become champion for the first time.
JACK COZENS
WEEKEND WINNERS
WORLD TOURING CAR CUP
SEPANG (MYS)
Race 1 Norbert Michelisz
BRC Squadra Corse
(Hyundai i30 N)
Race 2 Esteban Guerrieri
Munnich Motorsport
(Honda Civic Type R)
Race 3 Johan Kristoffersson
Sebastien Loeb Racing
(Volkswagen Golf GTI)
For full results visit motorsportstats.com
1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9 AUTOSPORT.COM 5 3
 PIC TURES OF THE Y E A R
Our intrepid photographers have captured some incredible moments from
pitlane, trackside and special stage. Here’s our pick of their finest work
BAGNALL
Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton’s epic battle for victory
in the closing stages of the Monaco Grand Prix gets physical.
GOLD AND GOOSE
Suzuki rider Alex Rins in full flight en route
to his maiden MotoGP victory at Austin.
 PICS OF THE YEAR

BAGNALL
Race winner Lucas di Grassi hurls a sweaty
souvenir into the crowds at Mexico City.

JEP
Spa’s fickle climate delivers a snowy shock for
the #8 Toyota during May’s round of the WEC.

1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9 AUTOSPORT.COM 5 7
PICS OF THE YEAR

Tin-top king Colin Turkington stands

tall after taking his fourth BTCC crown.
JAKOB EBREY

5 8 AUTOSPORT.COM 1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9
 PICS OF THE YEAR

Paul di Resta sends up a shower of sparks in his

Aston Martin Vantage DTM at Brands Hatch.
GARY HAWKINS

DUNBAR
A rush of Ferrari red though the Monza
trees – Charles Leclerc takes Italy by storm.

1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9 AUTOSPORT.COM 5 9
PICS OF THE YEAR
Night flight: Sebastien Ogier’s Citroen C3 WRC
gets airborne on Rally Sweden in February.
McKLEIN
PICS OF THE YEAR

Ott Tanak makes spectacular

progress to victory on Rally Chile.
McKLEIN

6 2 AUTOSPORT.COM 1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9
 PICS OF THE YEAR

That won’t fit: Takuma Sato, Matheus Leist and Zach Veach
attempt to tackle Laguna Seca’s Corkscrew three-abreast.
STEPHEN KING/INDYCAR

Eyes on the prize: Red Bull rising star Alex Albon

focuses on the task ahead at the Japanese GP.
GETTY IMAGES/RED BULL CONTENT POOL

1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9 AUTOSPORT.COM 6 3
Teemu Suninen and co-driver Jarmo Lehtinen navigate their
Ford Fiesta WRC through super-narrow Sardinian streets.
MCKLEIN
 PICS OF THE YEAR

BAGNALL
Poignant reminder of lost Formula 1
legend Niki Lauda at the Austrian GP.

Marc Marquez takes a tumble from his

Honda in FP1 at the Thailand Grand Prix.

TEE
Sebastian Vettel bathes in the glory of the
Singapore spotlights after his sole 2019 F1 win.

1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9 AUTOSPORT.COM 6 5
It’s not called Mount Panorama
for nothing: the Dirk Werner/
Dennis Olsen/Matt Campbell
Porsche 911 GT3 R races into
the sunset in February’s 12
Hour enduro, framed by the
awesome Bathurst backdrop.
PORSCHE/JUERGEN TAP
WHO’S THE QUICKEST?

FA ST E ST LA PS O F 2 0 1 9
It’s bragging rights time: the fastest lap set in a car race on each of the circuit
layouts used in the UK and Ireland over 2019. Including one dead heat…
CO M P I L E D BY M A R CUS S I M M O N S
JONES

TRACK, DRIVER AND CAR TIME SPEED DATE

ANGLESEY INTERNATIONAL
1m26.809s 87.08mph 14 July
Matthew Wrigley (March-Ford/BDA 79B)

ANGLESEY COASTAL
1m03.90s 87.32mph 16 June
Josh Smith (Radical-RPE/Suzuki PR6)

BISHOPSCOURT
1m03.560s 103.310mph 11 May
Paul O’Connell (Dallara-Renault T05)

BRANDS HATCH GRAND PRIX

1m17.862s 112.50mph 10 Aug
Philipp Eng (BMW M4 DTM)

JONES
ANGLESEY INTERNATIONAL
BRANDS HATCH INDY
45.29s 96.02mph 14 April
Colin Brown (Jedi-Suzuki Mk6/7)

CADWELL PARK
1m23.65s 94.12mph 21 July
Lee Morgan (Jedi-Suzuki Mk6/7)

CASTLE COMBE
1m02.961s 105.78mph 6 May
Craig Dolby (Nissan GT-R GT3)

CROFT
1m17.79s 97.18mph 2 June
Matthew Booth (Jedi-Suzuki Mk6/7)

DONINGTON PARK GRAND PRIX

1m24.968s 105.38mph 14 Sept
Johnathan Hoggard (Tatuus-Cosworth F4-016)

DONINGTON PARK NATIONAL BRANDS HATCH GP

DTM

1m00.200s 118.34mph 28 Sept

Hywel Lloyd (Dallara-Mercedes F313)

GOODWOOD
READ

1m20.771s 106.07mph 15 Sept DONINGTON PARK NATIONAL

Mike Whitaker (Lola-Chevrolet T70 Spyder)

KIRKISTOWN
52.954s 102.788mph 24 Aug
Paul O’Connell (Dallara-Renault T05)

KNOCKHILL
49.513s 92.11mph 15 Sept
Josh Skelton (Mygale-Ford/EcoBoost M14-F4)

KNOCKHILL ANTI-CLOCKWISE
52.005s 87.700mph 5 May
Paul Brydon (BMW-Nissan M3 Solution F)

LYDDEN HILL
44.809s 80.34mph 6 May
Rod Birley (Ford Escort Cosworth)

6 8 AUTOSPORT.COM 1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9
 WHO’S THE QUICKEST?

CASTLE COMBE

JEP/MOTORSPORT IMAGES
TRACK, DRIVER AND CAR TIME SPEED DATE

MALLORY PARK
44.235s 109.86mph 14 Sept
Martin Wright (Dallara-Suzuki F301)

MALLORY PARK OVAL

36.015s 99.95mph 26 Aug
George Turiccki (SHP Pickup)

MONDELLO PARK LONG

1m33.675s 83.651mph 14 Sept
Stephen Daly (Dallara-Mercedes F308)

MONDELLO PARK SHORT

51.856s 79.804mph 14 July
Paul O’Connell (Dallara-Renault T05)
OULTON PARK INTERNATIONAL
OULTON PARK INTERNATIONAL
1m31.358s 106.08mph 20 April
Kaylen Frederick (Tatuus-Cosworth F4-016)

OULTON PARK ISLAND

1m22.785s 96.80mph 15 June
Chris Dittmann (Dallara-Mercedes F312)

PEMBREY CLUBMANS
1m05.414s 82.00mph 6 Oct
Keith Butcher (Audi R8 LMS)

PEMBREY NATIONAL
Keith Butcher (Audi R8 LMS) 1m00.265s 86.97mph 9 June
Mark Harrison (Dallara-Toyota F302) 1m00.265s 86.97mph 5 Oct
WALKER

SILVERSTONE GRAND PRIX

1m27.369s 150.829mph 14 July SILVERSTONE NATIONAL
Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes F1 W10)

SILVERSTONE INTERNATIONAL
1m02.88s 105.92mph 11 Aug
Scott Mittell (Mittell-Suzuki MC-41R) THRUXTON

SILVERSTONE NATIONAL
53.501s 110.38mph 15 Sept
Mike Jenvey (Jenvey-Gunn-Ford/Duratec TS6)

SNETTERTON 300
1m42.547s 104.22mph 12 May
Stefano Leaney (Dallara-Mercedes F313)
JEP/MOTORSPORT IMAGES

SNETTERTON 200
1m13.291s 97.45mph 15 June
Kasper Jensen (Radical-RPE/Suzuki SR3)

THRUXTON
1m13.809s 114.91mph 19 May
Louis Foster (Mygale-Ford/EcoBoost M14-F4)

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F2/F3 SEASON REVIEW

SEASON
REVIEW

TH E KEY MO MENTS
OF T HE F 1 SUPP ORTS SEASON
Nyck de Vries saw off competition from new Williams signing Nicholas Latifi
and the ever-rapid Luca Ghiotto to secure the Formula 2 title
JACK BENYON

PHOTOGRAPHY

PORTLOCK

7 0 AUTOSPORT.COM 1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9
 F2/F3 SEASON REVIEW

A laundry error that defined the season

F2
Schumacher had
It wasn’t quite the start to the season he had in
a mixed first
mind. After a tricky time in the Bahrain opener,
season in F2
ART Grand Prix recruit Nyck de Vries scored a second
and a fourth in Baku to reduce the gap to early leader
Nicholas Latifi. But when his laundry bag containing his race suit
was binned erroneously, it looked like the Dutchman’s season
could be marred by bad luck.
But, with the help of similarly diminutive Formula 3 driver David
Beckmann, who loaned him his spares, de Vries took the following
rounds by storm as he won back to back races in Spain and Monaco
to reassert his title aspirations. A win next time out at Paul Ricard
meant he leapt Latifi into a lead he would never lose.
Those wins all came with the German flag on his shoulder
thanks to wearing Beckmann’s suit and, with the slightly more
agricultural feel of an ironed-on sponsor sticker, he cut an unusual
looking character atop the rostrum. But his final 52-point winning
margin was well deserved. De Vries still never fully got on top
of the Pirelli tyres at high-degradation venues, but his sheer
consistency was enough to see him through as DAMS regular
Latifi hit bad luck. Both had four wins, but de Vries scored
12 total podiums to Latifi’s eight.
That was thanks to a new approach for de Vries, acknowledging
that in his second year of F2 in 2018 he and his Prema Racing team
had focused too much on wins, and failed to put together the
momentum required for a title-winning campaign. Now at ART,

de Vries looked much more at home and was relaxed all season.
The Monza meeting in September was key. After a scrappy
qualifying session, de Vries finally delivered sixth in the times
before he was disqualified because ART hadn’t put enough fuel
in the car for a sample. That meant he had to start race one at
the back, with Latifi sixth. In the race, de Vries scythed onto
the podium, while Latifi clashed with Guanyu Zhou and fell
to 13th. What could have been a massive swing towards Latifi
turned into one of de Vries’s best weekends.
“In those moments [like Monza], it was key that the team and
the people around me and myself stayed calm,” says de Vries.
“What happened has happened and you can’t change it anymore.
You can’t expect to do miracles in Turn 1, it’s a long race and just
stay focused on our job. It seems very simple, but look at F1 - look
at Lewis Hamilton’s season! Valtteri Bottas has scored as many
poles, Ferrari had without doubt the pace to challenge them until
Abu Dhabi. Focus on yourself, make sure you don’t make the
mistakes other people do, and then it will come to you.”
De Vries’s ability to look inward and really critique his own
shortcomings of 2018 are what gave him this title, and his step up to
Mercedes’ Formula E squad is well deserved. Despite his bad luck,
Latifi still scored a Formula 1 seat with Williams for his troubles.
PORTLOCK
PORTLOCK
What happened to Mick Schumacher?
Overrated flop, or underrated star on the cusp of glory? It’s hard
to argue for or against Mick Schumacher’s debut F2 campaign, but
it’s probably best described as OK. If that’s not the insight you’ve
come to know and love of Autosport, expansion is on the way.
In a Prema car that won races and finished fourth in the
championship one year earlier with sophomore de Vries,
Schumacher could only manage 12th. Admittedly there were a few
reliability issues, but generally the pace wasn’t good enough. His
points total from feature races was worse than team-mate Sean
Gelael’s, though admittedly that could be different had Gelael not
wiped him out at Paul Ricard! Gelael, for the record, ended the year
15th, with sixth in a carnage-filled Baku race one his best result.
But, however you look at it, only twice did Schumacher produce
really outstanding performances pace-wise this year. A fourth from
near the back of the grid in race two at the Red Bull Ring in June
was immense, and his win – albeit at the Hungaroring where it is
tough to overtake – was taken from reversed-grid pole under heavy
pressure from one of the most experienced drivers on the grid in

Nobuharu Matsushita. But if you look at 2018, Lando Norris was

De Vries masquerades as Beckmann
celebrating on the Monaco podium
after red-flag confusion
the reigning European F3 champion, and he finished second in his
first year of F2, not 12th. These are the kind of performances
Schumacher needs if he’s going to make F1 on merit.
So, how does Schumacher himself describe his year? “I think it’s
been a very positive year in terms of pure performance,” he says.
“It’s been a negative year in terms of reliability. I think we had a
few races where the points and positions have been taken away
from us, otherwise it could have been a very strong weekend
and performance. Unfortunately the set-up of the F2 weekend is
basically race one decides the place you will start for race two.
“Many of my problems were in race one, which meant the
weekend was basically trashed from there. It’s very unfortunate
because I think we could have done very good weekends here and
there, which would have given me, in the end result, a lot of points,
and put me in a different position than I am in the championship.”
Undoubtedly, Prema also needs a bit of rejuvenation after two
tough years in F2, but by pairing Schumacher with FIA Formula 3
champion Robert Shwartzman for 2020, they have two motivated
drivers who could flip its fortunes.

1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9 AUTOSPORT.COM 7 1
F2/F3 SEASON REVIEW
Renault junior Zhou shone in his
first year with Virtuosi Racing
and took pole at Silverstone
PORTLOCK
The sterling rookie setting F1 pulses racing
Few could have predicted that the rookie star of the F2 season
would be Guanyu Zhou. That’s meant with no disrespect to him,
but he’d finished some way off European Formula 3 champion
and team-mate Schumacher at Prema in 2018. But new
surroundings at Virtuosi Racing, alongside title challenger Luca
Ghiotto, allowed the Chinese driver to breathe new life into his
career and a season-long fight for the top six was his reward.
Zhou is an incredibly important driver for the watching eyes
of the F1 paddock. His nationality offers the spoils of many
business opportunities in a country that has a grand prix but has
been slow to accept motorsport as its darling, and also has lacked a
home driver who could offer a way into the exploding Chinese car
market for F1 manufacturers. While that first win remained elusive,
Zhou’s Silverstone pole has to be the highlight of a season that
yielded seventh in the championship.
When Zhou headed to Sheffield from China to continue his
karting career in the UK, he couldn’t have known that he would
make the country home. But Britain has become a big part of the
London-bound Zhou’s life, so success in Northamptonshire
meant more to him than it would to most Chinese people!
“In terms of a one-off, the highlight is Silverstone qualifying,”
he reflects. “Going to Silverstone, I never expected to be on pole.
In the past it’s never been my strongest track, but to take pole by
more than two tenths I was really happy with, especially holding
the track record for F2 now. It was a special moment.”
Zhou clearly finds the lack of a win to be a thorn in the side.
Hubert pipped Deletraz to
Monaco sprint race victory
7 2 AUTOSPORT.COM 1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9
But thanks to the Virtuosi team – adept at teaching drivers how to
manage the Pirelli tyres – he is set up well for a title push in 2020
and who knows for the year after? No doubt F1 will be calling.
“We leave the races having not got the first win, which is a bit
frustrating, but after having five podiums, I have to be happy with
the results,” Zhou adds. “We had I think five top-five qualifying
performances this season. Race-one pace has to improve next year,
compared to the experienced guys around me, but race two we’ve
usually been strong. I’m looking forward to next year.”
Promise then tragedy for Anthoine Hubert
Nothing could prepare the support series or the F1 paddock for
the tragic loss of Anthoine Hubert at Spa in August, the first
driver to die on an F1 weekend since Ayrton Senna in 1994. Much
has been written of the dire circumstances that led to his death,
and since this is a season review, let’s take a look back and
remember what a promising talent Hubert was.
The standout memories from his F2 rookie year were his
reversed-grid wins at Monaco and Paul Ricard. The former was a
clear line in the sand, ending months of struggling to assert himself
after stepping up to Formula 2, while the win at home meant a lot
to the patriotic Frenchman, who pointed down at his dad, Francois,
and brother, Victhor, as he held aloft the trophy.
Despite winning the GP3 Series title in 2018, Hubert struggled to
graduate to F2, with MP Motorsport and Arden his only realistic
options. He chose the latter, partly because of its new tie-up with
HWA, which provided the struggling team with a new lease of
engineering life. It duly paid off and, in his first race, he came
from 11th to fourth in Bahrain, despite not having a radio for
his first F2 race. That meant no advice on how to manage the
tyres and no call to pit – just Hubert and the sound of the
turbocharged V6. And that’s where he excelled.
The team struggled to nail qualifying, but Hubert’s race pace
was up there with the best in the field given his less-than-ideal
machinery compared to the top squads.
It’s likely he would have taken eighth in the standings, behind
Zhou and ahead of Louis Deletraz, and he still took a posthumous
10th despite six races taking place after his death. There’s no doubt
that, with his race pace and further investment from HWA (which
has bought the Arden F2 operation), Hubert would have been at
least a top-five contender next year.
PORTLOCK
 F2/F3 SEASON REVIEW

F2 DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP
POS DRIVER TEAM 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 PTS

1 Nyck de Vries (NLD) ART Grand Prix 6 7 2 4 5 1 1 7 1 10 3 3 6 3 2 6 - - 3 3 1 2 13 13 266

2 Nicholas Latifi (CAN) DAMS 1 3 4 1 1 6 12 10 5 6 9 6 2 5 1 7 - - 13 10 2 4 7 2 214
3 Luca Ghiotto (ITA) Virtuosi Racing 2 1 9 R 4 2 EX R R 12 2 2 1 15 4 8 - - 2 15 4 1 6 1 207
4 Sergio Sette Camara (BRA) DAMS 3 2 R 6 R 17 3 6 2 5 5 1 4 17 5 3 - - 5 R 5 6 1 3 204
5 Jack Aitken (GBR) Campos Racing 7 11 1 3 2 8 17 13 3 4 10 18 5 1 3 5 - - 8 1 7 11 11 10 159
6 Nobuharu Matsushita (JPN) Carlin 9 12 13 12 11 R 2 9 9 9 1 5 9 7 7 2 - - 1 5 6 R 2 7 144
7 Guanyu Zhou (CHN) Virtuosi Racing 10 4 R 10 3 4 5 3 4 3 6 8 3 8 9 9 - - R 4 10 5 3 8 140
8 Louis Deletraz (CHE) Carlin 5 5 R R 12 11 7 2 NC 7 7 R 7 2 R 13 - - R 8 3 14 4 6 92
9 Jordan King (GBR) MP Motorsport 17 8 3 R 7 7 - - 6 11 8 7 10 9 6 4 - - 6 2 12 9 12 9 79
10 Anthoine Hubert (FRA) Arden 4 9 10 11 6 5 8 1 8 1 4 17 18 11 11 11 - - - - - - - - 77

11 Callum Ilott (Sauber Junior Team by Charouz) 74; 12 Mick Schumacher (Prema Racing) 53; 13 Juan Manuel Correa (Sauber Junior Team by Charouz) 36; 14 Dorian
Boccolacci (Campos Racing, Trident) 30; 15 Giuliano Alesi (Trident) 20; 16 Artem Markelov (MP Motorsport, Arden) 16; 17 Sean Gelael (Prema Racing) 15; 18 Nikita Mazepin
(ART Grand Prix) 11; 19 Ralph Boschung (Trident) 3; 20 Mahaveer Raghunathan (MP Motorsport) 1; 21 Marino Sato (Campos Racing) 0; 22 Tatiana Calderon (Arden) 0;
23 Christian Lundgaard (Trident) 0; 24 Arjun Maini (Campos Racing) 0; 25 Matevos Isaakyan (Sauber Junior Team by Charouz) 0; 26 Patricio O’Ward (MP Motorsport) 0;
27 Ryan Tveter (Trident) 0.

The fierce Ferrari battle that never was

ANDRE
F3 Underrate Prema Racing at your peril. Coming into
the new FIA Formula 3 Championship – with a
car based on the GP3 Series that Prema never
competed in – no one would have predicted that
its drivers would dominate the top three, it would wrap up the
teams’ championship two rounds early, and that no one else
had a chance of significant silverware.
That meant it was a civil war for the title. SMP-backed Robert
Shwartzman and fellow Ferrari junior Marcus Armstrong joined
Jehan Daruvala in the three-pronged Prema attack, but it was
Shwartzman who appeared to have the edge. He won the opener
when Christian Lundgaard (ART) was pinged for a virtual safety car
infringement. Daruvala surprised as best of the rest and the very
highly rated Armstrong took a while to get everything together.
Armstrong finally seemed to have managed that in race two at
the Red Bull Ring in June. Despite sarting sixth, he led the majority
of the way, but a battle with Shwartzman was set at the front of
the field for the first time. The pair touched on the last lap and
Armstrong fell to 19th, while Shwartzman won but was demoted to
third by the stewards. Those were vital points lost for Armstrong
and it took him until the final round at Sochi to overhaul Daruvala
for second in the points. Shwartzman’s 100% record of finishing
in the top five in races with a grid decided by qualifying meant
the Russian was just too consistent for his rivals.
“I had quite a good feeling with the team generally,” said
Shwartzman. “It was a new championship for me, first time in
the F1 paddock with the new car. Also for the team, it’s something
new. But I know Prema is really good at adapting to that sort of
circumstances, they have really good preparation. So straight
away from the test we were more or less up there and when
the season started we were already on a high.”
BINGHAM

Schwartzman leads Armstrong

and Hughes prior to controversial
clash in Austria sprint race

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 VOR
F2/F3 SEASON REVIEW
PORTLOCK

The new car makes its debut

Much was made of the new FIA Formula 3 Championship. Its
single-make formula, degrading tyres and DRS overtaking
assistance disturbed F3 purists, while the budgets also raised
eyebrows. Over £1,000,000 for some teams is astronomical,
even if that can be seen as a symptom of modern motorsport.
But the European F3-GP3 merger did unite the second tier of
junior single-seaters and put them in front of the watching eyes
of the Formula 1 paddock, while adding new safety features.
Sometimes things happen that force petty rules squabbles to be
moved aside for a second, and that occurred at Monza in September
when what can only be described as a crash out of a computer game
brought to life left Alex Peroni in hospital. His car hit the sausage
kerb at the Parabolica exit and rocketed into the air, landing upside
down on tyre barriers before eventually righting itself. Without the
halo, introduced this year, Peroni would almost certainly have
perished, one week after the passing of Anthoine Hubert in a huge
Formula 2 crash at Spa. The improved strength of the tub and the
halo meant Peroni walked away with a single broken vertebra.
Overall, the Dallara F3 2019 performed well, with only a couple
of technical glitches to report, unlike its F2 big brother introduced
the year before. Most of that was achieved by building on the
existing GP3 chassis, the major changes being a more adjustable
front suspension and the halo.
It was well received by drivers, who were surprised by how
little the added weight affected tyre wear and driveability. All in
all, the launch of the car was successful, even if people disagreed
with the ideology behind the new series.
BINGHAM
How good is Juri Vips?
Mega, is the answer! It was clear from the word go that Prema had
the advantage in the FIA Formula 3 Championship, but Vips and the
Hitech Grand Prix team chipped away at improving and reducing
the deficit until a masterful breakthrough performance at the Red
Bull Ring, where he won the feature race despite coming under
pressure from multiple cars behind him with DRS. Unfortunately,
the wheels came off the campaign with mistakes at Monza and
Sochi in September. A woeful second race at Spa meant the likeable
Estonian missed out on second or third in the championship,
which had been his realistic target for most of the season, and was
definitely achievable. Still, three race wins – including the feature
race at Silverstone – was the most of any non-Prema driver, with
highly rated team-mate Leonardo Pulcini only managing eighth.
At one point, Vips was in contention for a 2020 Toro Rosso
Formula 1 race seat – which shows highly rated he is, especially
by Helmut Marko. Instead, next up for Vips is a season of Super
Formula, where Red Bull’s junior drivers have poor records of late.
But a strong rookie test performance bodes well for his future.

F3 DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP
POS DRIVER TEAM 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 PTS

1 Robert Shwartzman (RUS) Prema Racing 1 4 2 1 5 3 5 2 5 R 2 3 1 8 2 3 212

2 Marcus Armstrong (NZL) Prema Racing 3 5 6 6 3 19 3 4 8 1 8 1 21 14 1 2 158
3 Jehan Daruvala (IND) Prema Racing 7 1 1 3 4 2 2 28 11 7 3 5 2 13 5 14 157
4 Juri Vips (EST) Hitech Grand Prix 6 2 4 17 1 6 1 15 4 4 5 21 R 11 8 1 141
5 Pedro Piquet (BRA) Trident 26 16 3 2 6 15 6 27 R 27 1 6 5 5 6 R 98
6 Christian Lundgaard (DNK) ART Grand Prix 2 6 R 15 26 17 7 5 1 5 4 4 13 9 14 9 97
7 Jake Hughes (GBR) HWA 17 R R 7 7 1 9 R 3 3 21 R 6 3 7 4 90
8 Leonardo Pulcini (ITA) Hitech Grand Prix 20 21 R 12 9 5 4 1 7 2 7 7 10 6 4 16 78
9 Yuki Tsunoda (JPN) Jenzer Motorsport 10 9 7 9 16 11 14 7 9 6 6 2 3 1 12 25 67
10 Max Fewtrell (GBR) ART Grand Prix 5 8 R 18 2 4 19 12 2 24 9 R 14 21 11 11 57
11 Liam Lawson (MP Motorsport) 41; 12 Niko Kari (Trident) 36; 13 Richard Verschoor (MP Motorsport) 34; 14 David Beckmann (ART Grand Prix) 20; 15 Bent Viscaal (HWA) 10;
16 Felipe Drugovich (Carlin) 8; 17 Fabio Scherer (Sauber Junior Team by Charouz) 7; 18 Lirim Zendeli (Sauber Junior Team by Charouz) 6; 19 Logan Sargeant (Carlin) 5;
20 Alex Peroni (Campos Racing) 5; 21 Yifei Ye (Hitech Grand Prix) 4; 22 Raoul Hyman (Sauber Junior Team by Charouz) 2; 23 Simo Laaksonen (MP Motorsport) 2;
24 Teppei Natori (Carlin) 1; 26 Devlin DeFrancesco (Trident) 0; 27 Andreas Estner (Jenzer Motorsport) 0; 28 Sebastian Fernandez (Campos Racing) 0; 29 Keyvan Andres
(HWA) 0; 30 Alessio Deledda (Campos Racing) 0; 31 Giorgio Carrara (Jenzer Motorsport) 0; 32 Artem Petrov (Jenzer Motorsport) 0; 33 David Schumacher (Campos Racing) 0;
34 Charles Leong (Jenzer Motorsport) 0; 35 Federico Malvestiti (Jenzer Motorsport) 0.

7 4 AUTOSPORT.COM 1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9

PORTLOCK
NYCK D E V R I ES
1 2
After an at times shaky
junior single-seater
career, de Vries took the
responsibility of leading ART
Grand Prix and turned his
2018 regrets into a Formula 2
title this season. In the end, he
topped or tied most major
performance criteria over the
course of the season and beat
a driver in Nicholas Latifi who
has been signed by an F1
team. A stellar season from a
burgeoning talent who gets
extra points for the way in
which he has turned his
career around, now with a
paid Merc drive in Formula E.
PORTLOCK
LU CA G HI OT TO
6 7
Arguably, Ghiotto should
have won the F2 title.
But a few too many
mistakes from a four-year
veteran pushes him down
the order and reflects his
lacklustre CV perfectly. When
he was on form, he was the
best – as demonstrated by his
season-high-matching four
wins – but that didn’t happen
often enough for someone
with his experience. It will
forever be a year of what could
have been for the Italian, who
now moves on to GTs, and
Virtuosi Racing, which has
been good enough for a title.
AUTOSPORT’S TOP 10 F2 AND F3 DRIVERS
SUTTON
RO B ERT SHW ARTZ MA N
With eight top-fives
in the eight races
with a grid decided by
qualifying, Shwartzman’s
consistency was sublime as
he built on the rookie title
from European Formula 3 in
2018. He also matched the
season’s top tallies for race
wins and poles, so speed
wasn’t a problem either.
Managed the prospect of
rapid team-mates in Marcus
Armstrong and Jehan
Daruvala well, and only really
had one poor race all season.
Could have been even further
clear at the top of the pile.
PORTLOCK
G UA NYU ZHO U
Few saw this coming, but
Zhou was comfortably
the highest-placed F2
rookie in 2019. While he
was in one of the best cars,
unlike fellow Renault junior
Anthoine Hubert, he still did
the utmost to deliver on that.
The only thing missing from
his record this year was a
race win, owed to a year of
struggling to get the best out
of the Pirellis. Seventh in the
championship was a strong
debut, and the Chinese driver
should come back even
stronger in 2020 with more
experience of the F2 category.
TRIENITZ
M AR CUS A RM ST R ONG
3 4
Absolutely rapid on
his day in 2019, but
inconsistency and some
poor qualifying performances
cost Armstrong a real shot at
the F3 title. Four race fastest
laps prove that pace, but
only one pole demonstrates
inconsistency. His race
comebacks were often a
thing of great beauty and
overtaking will not be an issue
as he steps up to F2. With a
touch less experience than
Shwartzman, the Kiwi can
be cut a bit of slack for some
mistakes this year, but
was still beaten fairly.
PORTLOCK
AN THO I NE H UB E RT
8 9
Rather than dwell on
Hubert’s tragic loss, this
section is all about the
racing only. Fourth in the
season opener with no radio,
and his home win at Paul
Ricard and Monaco were
highlights, as the graduating
GP3 champion took an
improving Arden team by the
scruff of the neck and made
the most of its new technical
tie-up with HWA to drive
forwards. A true team player
who had the rare ability to
demand loads from his team
while also commanding their
respect and admiration.
F2/F3 SEASON REVIEW
SUTTON
NI CHO LA S LATI F I
He had quite a bit of bad
luck across the season,
but it’s difficult to
overlook the fact that Latifi
was in a car that finished third
in the 2018 championship
and he has almost 100 GP2/F2
starts under his belt dating
back to 2014. Despite tying
de Vries for wins, he still failed
to score his first pole position
in the category. There’s no
doubt he’ll be a decent
Formula 1 driver, but 2019
reflected his hit-and-miss
junior single-seater career.
Needed to assert dominance
to prove doubters wrong.
PORTLOCK
J E HAN DAR UVA LA
Never really a consistent
frontrunner in any major
championship, Daruvala
stepped up this year and
certainly wasn’t embarrassed
by his two Ferrari-affiliated F3
team-mates. Second for most
of the season, Daruvala’s
campaign just tailed off at the
last, similar to Vips. Many will
have been surprised by the
Indian driver’s emergence,
and the fact that he had the
championship’s best car is
worth noting. But he was
more consistent than
Armstrong over the course of
the year. A breakthrough?
1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9 AUTOSPORT.COM 7 5
BINGHAM
J UR I VI PS
5
Where to start with this
one? At one point it
looked like he could be a
genuine contender for an F1
seat in 2020, and ends the
year with a bit more ‘what
could have been’ than most in
the FIA F3 Championship. His
first issue was the lack of a
Prema Racing-run car, even if
his team Hitech Grand Prix
eventually adapted well to
the new category. But Vips
was exemplary until a few
mistakes in the last couple of
rounds cost him the chance
of a runner-up finish he
deserved to fight for.
PORTLOCK
J ACK A I TK EN
10
He finished behind
Sergio Sette Camara
in F2, but second-year
driver Aitken gets the nod for
taking three wins in a Campos
team that finished seventh
out of 10 teams in F2 in 2018.
After placing 11th with ART
as team-mate to title winner
George Russell last year,
Renault junior Aitken needed
a big recovery season. He duly
delivered, adding another
four podiums to his wins.
The overtake of the year at
Brooklands on Louis Deletraz
for a home win at Silverstone
proved his class.
WORLD OF SPORT REVIEW

SEASON
REVIEW

WORLD OF SPORT
World Touring Cars made the most of a star-studded grid despite some
ominous signs, new-car controvesy was rife down under, Acura overhauled
the American establishment and an endurance rookie ruled the roost

Michelisz number one in WTCR’s second album
WTCR
The World Touring Car Cup gave itself
plenty to live up to by self-styling its 26-car
2019 field the ‘supergrid’. But it delivered
on its promise, as 13 drivers – including
at least one from each brand – won races,
with two of them fighting until the last
to be crowned champion for a first time.
Eventual runner-up Esteban Guerrieri
set his stall out early by winning the season
opener in Marrakech, and moved into an
early points lead before the mid-season
break as the Munnich Motorsport Honda
squad hit the ground running.
Guerrieri took the title
fight down to the wire
GOODEN/DPPI
Title adversary and eventual champion
Norbert Michelisz took longer to get going,
but the BRC driver became a regular podium
scorer after a disappointing Marrakech and,
by mid-May, had earned the early backing
of Hyundai as its nominated title contender.
Victories at the Nurburgring and in
Vila Real brought Michelisz properly
into title contention, though Guerrieri –
who’d added a second victory of his own
at Zandvoort – remained the one to beat.
Despite another diverse list of race
winners, the 2019 title race never seemed as
open as the previous year’s – seven drivers
entered the final round of the 2018 season
with a mathematical chance of winning the
title – though Cyan Racing duo Yvan Muller
and Thed Bjork did join the fight with the
quick out-of-the-box Lynk & Co 03.
A rivalry between Cyan – which ran a
pair of Hyundai i30 Ns in tandem with
Muller’s YMR squad in 2018 – and BRC
developed during the season, and threatened
to distract both from their ultimate goal.
MARIN/DPPI
Thankfully, a clean Macau weekend put
that to rest, and a competitive event for
the Lynk & Cos thrust Muller into the
title fight – though it would ultimately
be short-lived. The characteristics of the
Sepang circuit, which hosted the season
finale, didn’t play to the car’s strengths –
meaning the four-car showdown that
included Muller and Bjork was effectively
reduced to a two-car fight between
Michelisz and Guerrieri.
No matter, though, as the remaining
duo jousted for honours in a thrilling
Sepang showdown. By this point Michelisz
had the upper hand, profiting on a dire
weekend for Guerrieri in Ningbo, although
the Argentinian clawed himself into play
with two remarkable performances fitting
of a champion on the final day, only to be
taken out of contention in the finale.
Those two going head-to-head was just
the spectacle WTCR required given recent
events, with both Audi and Volkswagen
pulling factory support. It’s likely to be a

Things came to a head at Suzuka when long winter for the series organiser if it is to
BRC’s Nicky Catsburg hit Cyan driver Andy put together a ‘supergrid’ to rival this year’s.
Priaulx, triggering a spat on social media. JACK COZENS

7 6 AUTOSPORT.COM 1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9

KLYNSMITH
Team tactics, illegality and
parity blight Mustang debut
AUSTRALIAN SUPERCARS
The 2019 Supercars season had almost
everything – except a title fight.
There was a bitter parity debate,
question marks over tactics, accusations
of cheating, a record-breaking fine for the
aforementioned tactics, an illegal Bathurst
pole-winning engine, social-media name
calling and more.
All that was missing was an actual scrap
for the big prize. With 18 wins, more than
any Supercars driver had achieved in a
season before, Scott McLaughlin had the
title wrapped up with a round to spare. It
was a remarkable display of dominance,
particularly as he didn’t start two races
– one after his warm-up lap clash with
Cam Waters at Albert Park and another
after his spectacular run-in with the
wall in qualifying on the Gold Coast.
McLaughlin’s rampant winning streak
in the early part of the season didn’t go
down well outside of the DJR Team Penske
garage. The new Ford Mustang, the first
two-door body under modern Supercars
rules, raised eyebrows from the moment
it was unveiled. After all, it clearly hadn’t
been designed for good looks.
The car may have passed the straightline
aero tests required for homologation, but
suspicions regarding its mid-corner
downforce sparked a fierce parity war.
There were centre of gravity changes
mandated after Albert Park’s event in
March, followed by the Mustang having its
wings clipped before the night race in Perth.
WORLD OF SPORT REVIEW
2019 CHAMPIONS
MOTORSPORT IMAGES/ISHIHARA
JAPANESE FORMULA 3
SACHA FENESTRAZ
McLaughlin made good on
Mustang’s dominance, but
controversy was never far away
JAPANESE FORMULA 4
REN SATO
The Holden Commodore was given its first
aero change in Darwin in June and another
one before Pukekohe. The Nissan Altima
was tweaked heading into Bathurst.
There’s little doubt the changes
levelled the playing field, with Triple Eight
Holdens winning the last seven races
of the season. But, as one controversy GERMAN FORMULA 4
simmered down, another exploded. THEO POURCHAIRE
Scott McLaughlin and Alex Premat
took what should have been a fairytale win
at Mount Panorama, only for the results to
be left provisional for a week after DJRTP
was accused of manipulating the race. A
go-slow message to Fabian Coulthard
behind the safety car just happened to
mask a moment of tactical vulnerability
for McLaughlin, DJRTP ultimately copping
a record $250,000 fine for its actions.
Then, weeks later, there was more ITALIAN FORMULA 4
controversy when the engine McLaughlin DENNIS HAUGER
used to take Bathurst pole, which was
replaced by a fresh unit on the Saturday
night, failed post-race checks due to
excessive valve lift. He was stripped of
pole, but again allowed to keep his win.
The double Bathurst drama caused a
rift between McLaughlin and many of the
drivers. After sealing the title McLaughlin
referred to the paddock as “toxic”. In
Newcastle a fortnight later there was some
not-so-friendly social media fire that SMP FORMULA 4 NEZ
resulted in the series itself intervening. PAVEL BULANTSEV
No title fight, no worries. It truly was
a gripping Supercars season, even with POWERED BY
a runaway champion.
ANDREW VAN LEEUWEN
For full results visit motorsportstats.com
1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9 AUTOSPORT.COM 7 7
WORLD OF SPORT REVIEW
Cassidy gets
oh-so-close to
Japan double
SUPER FORMULA AND SUPER GT
Nick Cassidy fell two points short
of winning both major Japanese
championships, and it was only a
controversial mid-season race that led
to him failing to add a second Super GT
crown to his maiden Super Formula title
success. Still, it was a banner year for the
New Zealander, who was promoted by
Toyota to its spearhead TOM’S operation
for Super Formula – and gave the
rejuvenated squad the championship.
That was despite a general lack of pace
in SF for the Toyota teams compared to
the Honda squads, which are reckoned to
have more power, but that’s at the expense
of fuel economy, meaning they spend
slightly longer in the pits. Indeed, Cassidy’s
SF crown was a masterpiece of strategy,
good racecraft in the depths of the pack
and smart driving – not once did he
qualify on the front two rows, and he
had an average grid position of 10th!
Although five were mathematically in
contention for the championship at the
Suzuka finale, it was effectively a winner-
takes-all fight between Cassidy and two
Honda-powered drivers: reigning champion
Naoki Yamamoto (Dandelion Racing) and
star rookie Alex Palou (Nakajima Racing).
Once again Cassidy had the right strategy,
showed wheel-to-wheel skills in the
opening laps, and was crowned after chasing
the Honda car of Team Mugen’s Tomoki
Nojiri to the finish. Nojiri became the
seventh different winner from the seven
races in what was a successful season
for the new Dallara SF19 spec chassis.
Two of those seven victors were Kenta
Yamashita and Ryo Hirakawa, with Toyota
teams Kondo Racing and Team Impul
respectively. While Hirakawa’s win at
Motegi was a bit of an anomaly – his
Yamashita and Oshima were
the only GT repeat winners,
boosting them to the crown
7 8 AUTOSPORT.COM 1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9
next highest finish was eighth– thanks
to a spectacular pass on Palou, Yamashita
used his success in the penultimate round
at Okayama to keep on the fringes of the
title hunt, although he fell to fifth in the
final rankings behind Nojiri.
Both Yamashita and Hirakawa were
considerably more prominent in Super GT.
Driving the Team Le Mans Lexus LC 500,
Yamashita was joined by the experienced
Kazuya Oshima – although he’s not
exactly the quickest bloke in Japan, Oshima
was good enough to anchor young talent
Yamashita on their way to the title. Like in
SF, the GT title race was wide open, with
the eight races won by seven different crews,
and it was the only second-time success
that proved controversial, and decisive…
Yamashita and Oshima had won the
mid-season ‘away’ race at Buriram, and with
70kg of success ballast qualified down in
11th for the 1000km race at Fuji, which was
worth extra points due to its additional
length. As a safety car was called, Yamashita
ISHIHARA
ISHIHARA
Cassidy snared
a maiden SF title
by just three points
was entering the pits. After the others
stopped later, he emerged with almost a
one-lap lead. The car escaped a penalty
because Yamashita had just passed the
safety car line before the pits were closed.
That made all the difference, as did a lack of
censure for Yamashita on his way to second
in the Motegi finale after contact with the
second TOM’S Lexus of Yuhi Sekiguchi.
The car Yamashita followed home at
Motegi was the lead TOM’S Lexus of
Cassidy and Hirakawa. It was a great
campaign by the duo, but they could not
overhaul the Le Mans squad’s points
advantage following the Fuji lottery; wheel
damage resulting in an extra pitstop for
Hirakawa during the early-season Fuji
Golden Week race didn’t help either.
Reigning champions Yamamoto and
Jenson Button couldn’t buy any luck in
the Team Kunimitsu Honda. There was
a series of incidents, while Button led in
the late-season Sugo race before heavier
rain left their Bridgestone-tyred NSX at a
disadvantage to the Michelin and Dunlop-
shod cars. Instead, it was the NISMO
Nissan of Ronnie Quintarelli and Tsugio
Matsuda that placed third in the points.
Yamamoto also had to hand over his
SF crown, in this case to Cassidy. After
his switch from Mugen to Dandelion,
he looked very strong in the early races
and was invincible at Sugo, but a pair of
below-par mid-season races hit him hard.
He just beat Palou to the runner-up spot,
while Formula 2 refugee team-mate Nirei
Fukuzumi was seventh (behind KCMG’s
Kamui Kobayashi) and won the GT300
class of Super GT with veteran Shinichi
Takagi at the wheel of Aguri Suzuki’s NSX.
MARCUS SIMMONS

Ammermuller scored
just one win in 2018, but
upped that to four in 2019
Style meets consistency as
Ammermuller nets third crown
PORSCHE SUPERCUP
Last year, Michael Ammermuller clinched
his second Porsche Supercup title purely
down to his consistency. Although he’d
won only one race, he whisked the crown
away from under the noses of the battling
trio of Nick Yelloly, Thomas Preining and
Julien Andlauer. The 2019 season played
out differently, but the net result was
exactly the same – and Ammermuller
added a third title win to his account.
Andlauer, seeking retribution for
the previous season, drew first blood
at Barcelona and absorbed a race-long
bout of pressure from highly rated rookie
Ayhancan Guven, who factored heavily in
the title fight in his first year in the series.
Vesti dominates
tepid inaugural
Regional season
FORMULA REGIONAL EUROPEAN
Twelve months ago, Frederik Vesti would never
have guessed that he’d dominate the inaugural
Formula Regional European Championship with
Prema Powerteam and then finish in the top 10
on his debut in the new FIA F3 category – in
Macau. That’s because he was looking likely
to race in the putative DTM-supporting series
for ‘old’ F3 cars with Van Amersfoort Racing.
But Prema snared him away, and Vesti proved
easily the class of a small field – an average of
13 starters compared to 20 in FRenault – on
his way to victory in 13 of the 24 races. At first
it looked quite equal between Vesti and his
team-mates, Ferrari Driver Academy prospect
Enzo Fittipaldi (grandson of Emerson) and
young Brit Olli Caldwell, but the 17-year-old
WORLD OF SPORT REVIEW
2019 CHAMPIONS
TCR
PORSCHE
TCR EUROPE
JOSH FILES
While Ammermuller hit back in Monaco,
Andlauer beat his Lechner Racing team-
mate to secure a second victory at the Red
TCR
Bull Ring. Guven secured a maiden win at
Silverstone, atoning for his DNF in Austria. TCR SCANDINAVIA
As the half-distance Hockenheim round ROBERT DAHLGREN
offered no points, Andlauer went into the
second part of the season three points
clear of Ammermuller – but that’s when
the German really began to get into his
stride. Three wins in the final five races
for Ammermuller cemented the title,
including back-to-back successes in
the Mexico double-header. Guven, ADAC
meanwhile, finished as runner-up in
both races in Mexico City, leapfrogging ADAC GT MASTERS
Andlauer to second in the standings. KELVIN VAN DER LINDE/
JAKE BOXALL-LEGGE PATRIC NIEDERHAUSER
Prema offered Vesti
a lifeline, which he ACI SPORT
repaid with 13 wins
ITALIAN GT
ALESSIO ROVERA/
RICCARDO AGOSTINI
ACI SPORT
Scandinavian’s advantage merely grew as the
season wore on. Fittipaldi ended up a distant
runner-up in the points, with Caldwell fifth.
GALLI
It wasn’t a Prema walkover. Brazilian Igor
Fraga, best-known for his Esports expertise, FERRARI CHALLENGE
led the charge of DR Formula and scored four TROFEO PIRELLI EUROPE
wins on his way to third. Fourth-placed David LOUIS PRETTE JR
Schumacher also won four times with the
US Racing team co-owned by father Ralf. POWERED BY
The series benefited from notable cameos
by Dan Ticktum (with VAR), Jake Hughes
(KIC Motorsport) and Lirim Zendeli (US). For full results visit motorsportstats.com
MARCUS SIMMONS
1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9 AUTOSPORT.COM 7 9
WORLD OF SPORT REVIEW

Montoya/Cameron helped Acura to

title double after IMSA intervention
ensured all makes had a chance

Acura in the hot seat

when the BoP music stops NKP

IMSA SPORTSCAR
Cadillac’s stranglehold on the DPi category
within the IMSA SportsCar Championship
finally came to an end in 2019.
After winning 11 out of the 20 races for
which prototypes were eligible during the
previous two seasons, Cadillac faced a far
more level playing field due to the IMSA
technical team’s innovative use of the
oft-maligned ‘Balance of Performance’
criteria. The American V8s still won more
races than any other manufacturer – four to
the three apiece for Acura and Mazda – but
that wasn’t enough to prevent Acura Team
Penske from clinching both the driver and
manufacturer championships following a
thrilling season finale at Road Atlanta.
In truth, the momentum shifted
dramatically during the course of the
10-race season. That led IMSA to
them to return to the fore at Road Atlanta.
The middle portion of the season boiled
down to a straight fight between Acura
and Mazda Team Joest. Cameron/Montoya
reaffirmed their position as title aspirants
by winning again in Detroit and later at
Laguna Seca, while Mazda finally overcame
a series of miscues and disappointments to
secure a hat-trick of victories at Watkins
Glen, Mosport and Road America.
Cameron/Montoya ended the year as
deserved champions through a potent
mixture of pace and consistency, although
Cadillac’s resurgence at Petit Le Mans
and an emphatic win for Felipe Nasr/Pipo
Derani/Eric Curran left them just five points
shy in the title chase. The two Brazilians
were the class of the Cadillac field – and
were left to rue a wheel falling off at Long
Porsche pair Vanthoor/Bamber
Beach that dropped them from a
commanding lead to a distant sixth.
Porsche was the pick of the usual
ultra-competitive field in GTLM. Three-
time class winners Laurens Vanthoor/Earl
Bamber finished 13 points clear of team-
mates Nick Tandy/Patrick Pilet, although
outgoing champions Jan Magnussen/
Antonio Garcia only lost second place
on a tie-breaker despite failing to win
for the second successive year.
GTD also provided some spectacular
entertainment, with six different
manufacturers sharing the victory spoils.
Mario Farnbacher/Trent Hindman
deservedly took the title as models
of consistency aboard Michael Shank
Racing’s Acura NSX GT3.
JEREMY SHAW
LePAGE

acknowledge it still has to massage the kicked winless Magnussen/Garcia

system to ensure each of its constituent off their perch in GTLM class
manufacturers have an opportunity to
contend regularly at the front of the field.
The opening three races, each at very
different venues – the Daytona ‘roval’, the
fast, bumpy airfield circuit at Sebring and
the streets of Long Beach – all fell the way
of Cadillac. But the pendulum swung for
round four at Mid-Ohio, where eventual
champions Dane Cameron and Juan Pablo
Montoya claimed their first win of the
season. Indeed, a series of restrictions on
the Cadillacs ensured they weren’t truly
able to challenge for wins until some
back-pedalling on the regulations allowed

8 0 AUTOSPORT.COM 1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9

Joe Gibbs leaps from tragedy
to triumph with Toyota
NASCAR CUP
In 2019, the NASCAR Cup was all about
one team: Joe Gibbs Racing.
Championship veterans Kyle Busch and
Denny Hamlin were joined at the Toyota
Camry-speared attack by 2017 champion
and Furniture Row Racing refugee Martin
Truex Jr. Adding to the potent line-up
was Erik Jones, who continued to add
fresh blood into a squad that entered
2019 with a combined 102 Cup wins.
By season’s end at Homestead, Busch,
Hamlin and Truex Jr were all in contention
to claim the crown, scooping 18 of the 35
race wins between them (Jones adding a
solitary victory to the tally at Darlington),
with Stewart-Haas Racing driver Kevin
Harvick the only non-JGR interloper in
the four-way title race.
On championship night itself around the
1.5-mile oval in Miami, mistakes with the
tyres on pitroad cost Hamlin his shot at a
first title, while Harvick’s Ford Mustang
never quite looked like it would trouble
Busch or Truex.
Ultimately, it was Busch who claimed
his second Cup title. Four years after his
first crown in 2015, he sealed the spoils
with a dominant victory, his first since
Pocono in June and the fifth of his year.
“It’s so much fun to work with these
guys, this group, everybody that puts it all
together for me,” said Busch, who had led
the regular season standings until the
WORLD OF SPORT REVIEW
2019 CHAMPIONS
NKP
MOTORSPORT IMAGES/NKP
NASCAR XFINITY SERIES
TYLER REDDICK
MOTORSPORT IMAGES/NKP
Kyle Busch was a
dominant victor in
Homestead finale
NASCAR TRUCK SERIES
MATT CRAFTON
Playoffs commenced. “There are always
your doubters. There are always your
haters. I mean, man, what a season Joe
Gibbs Racing put together.”
Despite dominating the year and ending
it with a win strike rate of 52.8%, 2019 NASCAR EURO SERIES
wasn’t totally rosy for the JGR juggernaut LORIS HEZEMANS
owing to the death of team co-owner JD
Gibbs, son of Joe, at the age of 49 before
the season-opening Daytona 500. It was
apt that come the 500 itself, the JGR fleet
negotiated the crash-fest intact, with
Hamlin leading home Busch and Jones
BAIRROS/VICAR
for his second 500 win and an
emotional 1-2-3 for the team.
For the first time since 2015, Team
Penske did not have representation in the
‘Championship 4’, as reigning champion BRAZILIAN STOCK CARS
Joey Logano surrendered his title. While DANIEL SERRA
Penske posted a healthy six wins – split
between Logano, Brad Keselowski and Ryan
Blaney – and Harvick added a further four
with SHR, the Mustang just didn’t have
the consistency to mount a challenge
to the JGR Camry contenders.
Much the same can be said for
Chevrolet. Its seven Camaro wins were
split between five drivers, with only Chase
Elliott scooping more than a solitary win.
Jimmie Johnson’s penultimate Cup SUPER TC2000
campaign again failed to yield an LEONEL PERNIA
appearance in victory lane. The seven-time
champion’s winless stretch now stands at POWERED BY
95 races since Dover 2017.
JAKE NICHOL
For full results visit motorsportstats.com
1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9 AUTOSPORT.COM 8 1
WORLD OF SPORT REVIEW
SRO
Caldarelli link earns Lambo crew Chinese fortune
BLANCPAIN GT SERIES
As far as debut seasons go, this year’s
Blancpain GT Series campaign for Chinese
outfit FFF Racing could not have gone much
better. Owned by Fu Songyang and with the
operation run by driver Andrea Caldarelli,
the team many considered to be underdogs
at the start of the year claimed a clean
sweep in 2019 – winning the overall,
Sprint and Endurance titles, as well
as the teams’ championship to boot.
The squad’s main rival throughout was
defending Endurance champion Black Falcon
Mercedes which, with drivers Maro Engel
and Luca Stolz, was narrowly pipped to both
the Sprint and 0verall crowns. The Sprint
SRO
8 2 AUTOSPORT.COM 1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9
defeat came on countback in Hungary
and the latter following a dramatic
final round at Barcelona.
Engel and Stolz began the year as firm
favourites and nothing from the opening
three races suggested they were anything
but. Third in the Endurance race at Monza
in April was followed by second place and
a first win of the season in the two Sprint
contests at Brands Hatch in May.
The duo were marginally outscored by
the FFF partnership of Caldarelli/Marco
Mapelli/Dennis Lind at Silverstone, but
the tide really turned at Paul Ricard in
favour of the Lamborghini.
The Huracan crew bagged a second
Endurance podium of the season as strategy
Black Falcon Merc provided
stiff competition but failed
to take any of the titles
Caldarelli and Mapelli took
three titles in FFF Racing’s
first Blancpain GT campaign
played a crucial role in the gruelling French
1000km race. Black Falcon only managed
15th and subsequently played second fiddle
to FFF in the following Sprint encounters.
FFF’s first win of the year came at Misano
in June, in rather fortuitous fashion,
following a botched pitstop for the hapless
AKKA ASP Mercedes duo of Raffaele
Marciello and Vincent Abril. But it gave the
Caldarelli/Mapelli combination – who
secured a second place the next day –
that much-needed momentum.
It was a similar story at the Nurburgring:
victory in race one was followed by a third
place in race two, as WRT Audi team-mates
Ezequiel Perez Companc and Charles Weerts
collected each other in the closing stages,
denying them a 1-2 finish. For Black Falcon,
a drivethrough penalty for an unsafe release
in the opening race ultimately cost them the
Sprint title, despite outscoring the Lambo
over the penultimate weekend in Hungary.
There was little to choose between the
two crews at the end of the year. Both
ended the Sprint season tied on points,
but Caldarelli/Mapelli prevailed thanks
to two victories to Engel/Stolz’s one.
Overall honours also went right down
to the wire, with Mapelli forcing his way
past Engel’s Mercedes-AMG in the closing
stages to claim that title as well, with the
Endurance crown almost haphazardly going
Lambo’s way too thanks to a disastrous
final round for the SMP Racing Ferrari
partnership of Mikhail Aleshin, Davide
Rigon and Miguel Molina.
STEPHEN BRUNSDON

IDEC Sport trio profit through
penalties to thwart G-Drive
EUROPEAN LE MANS SERIES
As G-Drive Racing’s Roman Rusinov, Job
van Uitert and returnee Jean-Eric Vergne
romped to victory by one clear lap in
Barcelona in July, few doubted that the
team’s full-season drivers, Rusinov and
van Uitert, would run away with the title.
That they didn’t was the result of some
misfortune at the next round at Silverstone
– a cut tyre on the TDS-run ORECA with
two laps to go handed a first category
victory to the IDEC Sport ORECA of
Paul-Loup Chatin, Memo Rojas and Paul
Lafargue – and an over-opportunistic
move by van Uitert on Rojas at Algarve
that yielded a drivethrough penalty. But
that’s not to take anything away from
IDEC, which still had to win the final race
Motopark dominates in first
Open campaign to crown Sato
EUROFORMULA OPEN
For the fourth year in a row a driver dominated
the Euroformula Open points battle, but that
undersells the close action on track.
Performance disparity was often the talk
of the paddock, as the series became an
open-engine formula.
New team Motopark, with Spiess power,
won 16 of the 18 races. Nine were scored by
WORLD OF SPORT REVIEW
2019 CHAMPIONS
to ensure that sixth for G-Drive wouldn’t
be enough. That’s what IDEC did.
The Nicolas Minassian-led team
finished second in the opening two
SRO
races – despite being disqualified from
qualifying at Monza (where Rusinov and BLANCPAIN GT WORLD
van Uitert won with stand-in co-driver CHALLENGE ASIA
Norman Nato) for the heinous crime of ROELOF BRUINS
having a non-functioning external neutral
switch – and followed up a disappointing
fifth in Spain with a well-judged win in
changeable conditions at Silverstone.
IDEC pulled an all-nighter at Spa
in September to ready a new tub after
Chatin’s huge qualifying shunt at Eau
Rouge. It was rewarded with eight crucial
SRO
points for sixth – just four points
separated the crews at season’s end. INTERCONTINENTAL
JAMES NEWBOLD GT CHALLENGE
DENNIS OLSEN
MOTORSPORT IMAGES
JEP
MICHELIN LE MANS CUP
FRANCOIS KIRMANN/
LAURENTS HORR
MOTORSPORT IMAGES/LEVITT
risk-averse Taki Inoue protege Marino Sato, MICHELIN PILOT CHALLENGE
a previously under-the-radar talent from FIA TYLER McQUARRIE/
European Formula 3. He applied the teachings of JEFF WESTPHAL
his team to earn the title and an F2 graduation.
His strongest team-mates were Red Bull
juniors Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda.
Lawson’s raw talent stunned, but his four wins
were matched by his number of clashes. Tsunoda
claimed the spoils once; a second being lost
when he and Lawson collided at Spa in June.
Motopark’s two other victories came courtesy
of a dominant Silverstone cameo in September
from Honda protege Toshiki Oyu. INTERNATIONAL GT OPEN
Carlin’s Billy Monger and Teppei Natori both ALBERT COSTA/
won, with Monger using a canny wet-weather GIACOMO ALTOE
strategy to claim the prestigious Pau Grand
Prix on its first series appearance, and Natori POWERED BY
dominating at Barcelona.
While he didn’t win, Teo Martin Motorsport’s
Lukas Dunner impressed with HWA power For full results visit motorsportstats.com
and was third in the standings.
1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9 AUTOSPORT.COM 8 3
WORLD OF SPORT REVIEW
Bakkerud (Audi) tied with
Hansen on points but the
Peugeot pilot had more wins
Hansen follows family path
WORLD RALLYCROSS
As two of the most experienced World
Rallycross drivers on the grid for 2019,
Timmy Hansen and Andreas Bakkerud
started the year as title favourites. But
when Bakkerud miscounted his laps
and charged his Audi S1 into the side
of Hansen’s Peugeot 208 at the joker
merge in Q3 at Yas Marina, the pair’s
title aspirations took a huge early blow,
Mid-term spree
helps Piastri to
trump Martins
FORMULA RENAULT EUROCUP
Renault Sport got the better of the 2019
‘Regional Formula 3’ split, despite its
rejection from the FIA, which assigned the
European rights for the category to the
Italian-run Formula Regional. Using the
same Tatuus chassis as FRegional – but
with a turbocharged Renault engine instead
of the Alfa powerplant – the French-
organised series had more competitive
teams, bigger grids… and a title fight
that went down to the wire.
Australian Oscar Piastri and French
Renault F1 junior Victor Martins, both
of whom had shone during the swansong
season for the much-loved Tatuus that had
served Renault so well from 2013-18, fought
a gripping battle. Piastri, with the French
R-ace GP team, went on a mid-season
winning spree that put him into a very
solid position in the points, but Martins,
representing Dutch squad MP Motorsport,
hauled him back with fantastic form as
the year drew to a close. Piastri won seven
8 4 AUTOSPORT.COM 1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9
JEP
while Hansen’s brother Kevin and Niclas
Gronholm battled for opening-round victory.
Timmy bounced back to win round two
in Barcelona. While the consistent Bakkerud
racked up solid points at almost every round
– including victory in Canada – Timmy
Hansen won another three times, but failed
to make the semi-finals in Trois-Rivieres.
That gave Bakkerud a single-point lead
entering the final round.
In a movie-like script for the tense event
DE MATTIA/DPPI
times, Martins six, with the points margin
just 7.5 in the Victorian’s favour.
Piastri, an alumnus of British F4, arguably
got the nod because of his ability to charge
back from first-lap trouble. At Paul Ricard,
an incident on the first lap preceded a
fightback from 18th to sixth; at Barcelona,
he went from 17th to fifth after being
spun around at Turn 1. Martins, on the
other hand, was unlucky to retire at the
Nurburgring with suspension failure before
the start, and only claimed half-points for a
Hungaroring win in a race red-flagged early.
Alexander Smolyar, one of the numerous
on the outskirts of Cape Town,
Hansen and Bakkerud lined up on the
front row. Bakkerud made the best
start from the outside of the grid to
take the lead, but ran wide in the long
loose-surface right-hander towards
the end of the first lap and Hansen
needed no second invitation to
attempt a pass. The pair touched,
Bakkerud ran into the wall on the
outside and when his car bounced
back it rotated Hansen’s Peugeot.
Gronholm, the unsung hero of the
season, took the lead and went on
to win with Bakkerud second, but
Hansen recovered to fourth when
Timo Scheider’s SEAT retired.
The title protagonists finished level
on points, but Hansen claimed his
maiden crown on countback wins,
as the Team Hansen MJP squad
also took the teams’ crown.
Gronholm meanwhile was left to
ponder what might have been. Forced
to skip two rounds through illness,
had things been different and he’d
scored even half-decent results at Spa
and Silverstone, the Hyundai driver
would have been right in the hunt.
HAL RIDGE
No one came close to
matching Piastri and
Martins this season
cadets of the Russian SMP Racing scheme,
was in the title hunt for half of the season.
He faded to third in the end, but few will
forget his incredible Silverstone battle
with R-ace team-mate Piastri – Smolyar
was leading when a tie rod broke. Likewise,
Martins’s MP team-mate Lorenzo Colombo
was a force, the Italian winning thrice in a
purple mid-season patch. Another R-ace
driver, Brazilian Caio Collet, was top rookie
on his graduation as French F4 champion,
and scored points in 19 of the 20 races,
but rarely looked a threat to win.
MARCUS SIMMONS

Ingram/Whittock
end 52-year wait
for British glory
EUROPEAN RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP
Chris Ingram became the first Briton since
Vic Elford in 1967 to claim the European Rally
Championship title, despite ending the season
without a win – a fact that should not lessen
the significance of his achievement.
With the ERC1 Junior crown – and the
€100,000 for the champion – the priority
for the first six events, outright victories
simply weren’t top of the agenda.
The strategy changed again on the Czech
round in mid-August when local star Filip Mares
beat him to the young driver prize by 0.3 seconds.
While missing out on the money was another
blow to Ingram’s depleted budget, he headed
to the penultimate event in Cyprus leading the
overall standings, such had been his consistency.
Relying on vital budget generated through a
JEP
Edwards lands title double
as costly moments hurt Cave
BRITISH RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP
No driver had won back-to-back British
Rally Championship titles since Keith
Cronin in 2009 and 2010. That is, until
Matt Edwards doubled up on his 2018
success this year to seal a second title
in a Ford Fiesta R5.
Edwards’ success came at the expense
of fellow Welshman Tom Cave, whose
wait for a BRC title goes on. The pair
locked horns throughout the six-round
championship and each took three
victories, but two non-scores for Cave to
Edwards’ one ultimately decided the title.
Cave’s Cambrian and Ulster adventures
did the real damage. Second on the road in
Wales looked to be a strong start, but two
WORLD OF SPORT REVIEW
Winning the title
despite a flat tyre on
2019 CHAMPIONS
final stage was
emotionally
BUCHER
draining
FENETRE/DPPI
crowdfunding campaign launched by his mother INDY LIGHTS
Jo, 25-year-old Ingram and co-driver Ross OLIVER ASKEW
Whittock went into survival mode for their
debut on the challenging gravel event.
While their rivals hit trouble, the Toksport-
run pair ended up with second place and the
knowledge that a podium on the Hungary
finale would hand them the title.
It was all going to plan until the last stage
when a front-right puncture dropped them from
BUCHER
third to fourth, leaving Alexey Lukyanuk set for
an unlikely title defence. But when he suffered
his own deflation, Ingram became champion. INDY PRO 2000
GRAHAM LISTER KYLE KIRKWOOD
BUCHER
Edwards, like Cave,
bagged three wins
USF2000
BRADEN EVES
GREENWAY
punctures in the final test led to retirement US FORMULA 4
on the road section back to the finish. JOSHUA CAR
Edwards had the edge over his rival
in Ulster; a crucial event as both drivers
headed there tied on points. Trying to
catch up, Cave got it wrong by a matter
of centimetres and clouted a wall with
the rear of his Hyundai.
A superb victory in Scotland to
complement success on West Cork and
the Pirelli wasn’t enough to deny Edwards,
READ
who’d judged his performances expertly.
Victory at home in Wales and two on RADICAL CHALLENGE
the asphalt of Ypres and Ulster formed the DOMINIK JACKSON
spine of Edwards’ assault, topped off by a
third on the Galloway Hills Rally despite POWERED BY
early steering problems.
LUKE BARRY
For full results visit motorsportstats.com
1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9 AUTOSPORT.COM 8 5
THE AUTOSPORT CHRISTMAS QUIZ 2019
A F O R M U L A 1 / S I N G L E - S E AT E R S I N 2 0 1 9
1 Prior to a surprise 1-2
for Honda-powered cars in
Brazil, with Max Verstappen
leading Pierre Gasly, when
and where did Honda last
score a 1-2 finish in F1?
2 How many laps have
been led by British drivers
in Formula 2 this year?
3 How many fastest laps
were scored by ex-Formula 1
drivers in IndyCar in 2019?
4 At 26 years and 20
days, Tatiana Calderon
was the oldest category
debutant since GP2
became F2 in 2017.
Who is the oldest since
GP2 began in 2005 and
where did it occur?
8 6 AUTOSPORT.COM 1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9
4 what car did he score
5 Tom Dillmann achieved
a new Formula E record in
2018-19. What was it?
6 Who took the biggest
single-race tally of bonus
points for places gained in a
British F3 race-two in 2019?
7 Megan Gilkes converted
pole to victory in W Series’
non-championship
reversed-grid race at Assen.
What was her next best
starting position?  Championship podium?
G U E S S T HE T E A M - M AT E /
B
CO - DR I V ER
Can you work out who has 4 Laurent Aiello,
shared a car or been a Jean-Denis Deletraz,
team-mate to each of the Rickard Rydell, Tom
five drivers in each of the Coronel, Johan
seven groups below? Kristoffersson
1 Alex Zanardi, Gabriele 5 Tatiana Calderon,
Tarquini, Jacques Dean Stoneman, Tom
Villeneuve, Allan McNish, Dillmann, Giedo van
Craig Lowndes der Garde, Mitch Evans
2 Will Davison, Warren 6 Matt Neal, Russell
Hughes, Gianmaria Ingall, Garth Tander,
Bruni, Fred Makowiecki, Mark Winterbottom,
Shane van Gisbergen Timo Glock
3 Jean Alesi, Johnny 7 Mike Hailwood,
Herbert, Augusto Farfus, Hans Stuck, Patrick
Laurens Vanthoor, Tambay, Alain Prost,
Tiago Monteiro Win Percy
T O U R IN G C A R S /
C
S P O R T S C A R S IN 2 0 1 9
1 Jack Goff this year 3
became the fourth
driver to win a BTCC
race in a Volkswagen
CC. Who has the second
highest number of
DTM
wins with the car?
2 Stephen Jelley’s 6 How many times
victory at Oulton Park this season was ELMS
was his first in the BTCC LMP3 runner-up
since 2009, but not his EuroInternational
most recent at a TOCA penalised for drive-
weekend. When and in time infringements?
MOTORSPORT IMAGES/PORTLOCK
his previous win? 7 The brother of a
W Series racer took
3 Where did Aston his first Blancpain
Martin score its single Endurance Cup win this
biggest points haul in season. Who was he?
the DTM and how many
points did it score at 8 How many drivers
8 Prior to Toby Sowery’s that event? stood on a TCR Europe
victory at Portland, who podium this season?
was the last British driver 4 Which car was Name them.
to win an Indy Lights race? fastest through the
speed traps on the 9 How old will David
9 Who set fastest lap at this Mulsanne Straight Reynolds be when
year’s Macau Grand Prix, and at Le Mans and how his latest contract
how much quicker were they fast did it manage? at Erebus runs out?
than last year’s best?
5 What did Pastor 10 Why was the
10 How many times was Maldonado blame podium-finishing
more than one descendent for his early-morning Steller Audi disqualified
of an F1 race winner on the crash in the Le Mans from the second British
Formula Regional European 24 Hours? GT race at Snetterton?
 THE AUTOSPORT CHRISTMAS QUIZ 2019

WINNERS’ GALLERY?
D R A L LY I N G I N 2 0 1 9 E SEE IF YOU CAN WORK OUT WHO THESE 2019 CHAMPIONS ARE

1 At how many rallies 6 Who is the oldest 1 2 3

in 2019 did Ott Tanak
score maximum points?  contested more than
2 No Finnish drivers
won a WRC round
outright this year.
When was the previous
time this happened?
3 Which of the nine
drivers to have
campaigned a factory
Citroen C3 WRC since
2017 in the WRC was
entered the most times
in the car, and how
many WRC rallies did
they contest in the car?
4 How many WRC
power stage wins
were scored by
British drivers in 2019?
5 Janne Touhino
scored a single WRC
point for 10th in
Sweden. Where and
when did he previously
score WRC points?
co-driver to have
two WRC rounds in a
factory car this year?
7 Dani Sordo’s
Rally Italy win made
him the second most
successful Spanish
driver in WRC history.
Which compatriot was 4 5 6 7
he previously level on
wins with, and where
did that driver score
their only win?
8 Who scored the
best finish of the year
for a non-WRC car in
the WRC, and where?
9 Who won the most 8 9 10
rounds of this year’s
European Rally
Championship?
10 What was the best
result for a former DTM
champion in this year’s
World RX series?

D W H O , W H AT, W H E R E , W H E N ?

1 2
MOTORSPORT IMAGES/SUTTON

HOW TO ENTER
Send your answers via email to autosport@autosport.com and include Christmas Quiz as the subject line.
Entries close Friday 10 January 2020.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS No entries will be accepted from employees of Autosport Media UK Ltd or their families, or any other companies associated with this competition.
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1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9 AUTOSPORT.COM 8 7
SAVING THE WRC

FIESTA WRC £750,000

HOW TO SOLV E THE WRC CRISIS

Citroen’s departure is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the
World Rally Championship’s problems, so what should be done?
DAVID EVANS

PHOTOGRAPHY McKLEIN

hen you stand roadside on gravel rallies, you grow
accustomed to the sounds and sights coming your
W way. There’s the initial, split-second lock-up as the
left foot stabs the middle pedal, the frantic anti-lag
clatter as the right foot rises from the throttle, and
the satisfying transmission clunk as cogs are descended on final
approach. Finally, there’s a flash of revs or the drag of a handbrake-
induced slide to rotate the car at the apex.
Where to look? If you try to watch the approach, you’re
going to miss what’s right in front of you. Neck muscles
simply can’t compete with the sheer speed of a
current-generation World Rally Car.
You need to understand what the World Rally Championship
can do to people; it engenders outrageous emotion. It moves
grown men to tears, like the bloke standing next to me in Portugal
in June. The one word I fully understood was ‘Quattro’. Clearly, he
was reaching back to the halcyon days of the mid-1980s. I nodded
and smiled, but that worried me. Sure as bust followed Group B
boom, those days were gone in an unsustainable four-year flurry.
Now, for very different reasons, I fear we could be heading
down the same cul-de-sac. The last month or so has been
among the most turbulent in the history of the championship.
A quick recap: we’ve lost Rally Australia, Rally Chile, next
season’s WRC launch at Autosport International, Citroen, and

8 8 AUTOSPORT.COM 1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9

now Skoda as a factory team in WRC 2. No matter which way
you try to spin it, that’s a pretty shocking few weeks. But it’s
vital to take a step back and look at the reasons. Each one of
those decisions is entirely independent.
Bushfires in New South Wales have nothing in common with
rising subway prices and the ensuing violent protests in Santiago.
Citroen’s decision to depart has nothing to do with Skoda wanting
to back the privateer drivers next season. And the launch? A date
clash with an existing Toyota commitment in Japan and Hyundai’s
senior management meeting in South Korea on the same
weekend couldn’t have been foreseen.
But that’s not to say all’s well with WRC right now. Opinion
is divided in the service park on the value being delivered by
WRC Promoter to the stakeholders. Certainly, you don’t have
to delve too deeply into the manufacturer pool to find a degree
of negativity. Citroen’s departure, it’s claimed by many, was
simply due to the lack of eyeballs on the programme.
I’m not so sure. According to its official communication,
Citroen’s departure was because Sebastien Ogier wanted to drive
a Toyota next season. That’s nonsense. Citroen was done with the
WRC by the summer. That’s why CEO Linda Jackson couldn’t and
wouldn’t tell me anything about the hybrid commitment when
I talked to her at summer’s Goodwood Festival of Speed.
What concerns me is that, when looking into Peugeot’s
next move in motorsport, PSA went for the World Endurance
SAVING THE WRC
FIESTA R5 £210,000
“THE LAST MONTH OR SO HAS BEEN
AMONG THE MOST TURBULENT IN
THE CHAMPIONSHIP’S HISTORY”
Championship rather than a hybrid WRC effort in 2022.
The lion on the bonnet has, let’s not forget, roared louder
and longer in rallying than racing.
Immediately, that point has unearthed a couple of major
issues for rallying: hybrid technology, and the lack of young
driver development. We’ll come to those in a bit.
But first, let’s put this Citroen story to bed. From the outset,
the C3 WRC programme was underfunded and pretty much
doomed to fail, courtesy of PSA chairman Carlos Tavares’s policy
of cutting budgets to the bone. And then cutting them again. How
far did this go? A very long way. Starting the 2018 season, the
team was reportedly given a pair of shorts and a couple of T-shirts
in its hot-weather kit. Need more? Recycle last season’s threads.
It was the same story for testing and development. While the
senior management requested a return to former WRC glories,
it simultaneously tied one arm behind the team’s back.
1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9 AUTOSPORT.COM 8 9
SAVING THE WRC

Only now that Citroen’s gone are we hearing more and more
of the horror stories from 2017 onwards. Let’s just say that
the treatment of Kris Meeke and Paul Nagle (when they were
sacked after crashing out of Portugal in 2018) was beyond
harsh, given what they were trying to achieve with what they
had in their hands. And the supremely hard-working team
members deserved far more than a press release blaming a
six-time champion for the end of the road. Their heart was
in it, but Citroen’s wallet was nowhere to be seen.
Oddly, in a media landscape that has evolved so much in the
past decade, so many still put so much stock into being able to
watch rallying on the telly. That argument’s outmoded.
And anyway, last year’s numbers showed that more than
825 million folk did manage to find the WRC on TV. Best bet?
Head to All Live and 30-plus hours of live coverage. That’s every
stage, every service, every event. Granted, we should have had
this a few years ago, but no matter, we’ve got it now and it offers
exceptional opportunities for the armchair fan. The signal does
go a bit wonky every now and then, but that’s understandable
given the terrain the series runs through.
On the social-media side, the WRC’s popularity continues to
grow, with Facebook up 6% at 2.65m followers and Instagram
rocketing by 68% to 1.19m.
WRC Promoter managing director Oliver Ciesla has heard
the television rant before. Plenty of times.
“I don’t say it would not be great to have more prominence on
free to air,” he says, “but this alone is not the solution anymore.
Like every form of entertainment in the world today, when it
comes to television, either the market demands it or you buy the
airtime – but this doesn’t guarantee you the audience. Being on
TV alone is only the first step. The second step is to attract the
audience who then sits in front of the TV and watches it.”
And that’s where social media is really working, in increasing
visibility and driving the demand for the WRC.
The calendar is another bone of contention. FIA rally director
Yves Matton is determined that the WRC should follow the
road map that president Jean Todt laid out more than a decade
ago. Remember that missive about putting the ‘world’ back
into the World Rally Championship?
“The championship needs to go to three new destinations:
China, Russia and North America,” says Matton. “And we will
work together with the promoter to be able to go to these
How the WRC is
covered has been a
bone of contention
countries. The approach will be different, we will be proactive,
we will go on the market and study how we can have a WRC
event in America, Russia and China between now and five
years. This is one of the stakeholder requests.”
Getting back to Japan next season is a big step, but everybody’s
aware that Matton’s big three – and arguably India – need
sorting. Kenya and New Zealand are both interesting additions
next season. I’m delighted to be back on Safari and the North
Island for some truly fabulous roads, and the sporting aspect of
those events is beyond question. But as a long-term economic
solution for the championship, both are debatable: neither
has a car market demonstrating the sort of demand found
elsewhere in the world and, while each will make significant
contributions to the associated logistical costs, there’s a
school of thought that wonders if those two calendar
slots could have been put to better long-term use.
Maybe there’s another way of looking at the WRC’s cost-
benefit conundrum. Maybe it’s time we looked at the cost of
the current World Rally Cars. There’s strong evidence that they’re
too expensive. Citroen’s budget couldn’t support a three-car entry
under the current regulations. And the days of entry lists being
padded out by a fleet of private cars are long gone. Mads Ostberg
tried and failed; even Lorenzo Bertelli, scion of the Prada dynasty,
couldn’t make the numbers stack up.
The charismatic Italian, along with Martin Prokop and Sheikh

Current WRC cars

are fast and
spectacular

9 0 AUTOSPORT.COM 1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9

Safari Rally makes a
welcome return in 2020,
but is it the right move?
Khalid Al Qassimi, all added to the WRC spectacle, even though
the podium was largely beyond their reach.
Hayden Paddon knows more than most about trying to balance
the WRC books. The Kiwi twice did a deal to drive an M-Sport
Ford Fiesta WRC in 2019. Unforeseen circumstances meant he
didn’t manage it on either occasion, but he did the maths and
is well placed to comment on the price comparison between
an R5 and World Rally Car.
The cost of covering each kilometre 1.5 seconds faster in the
fancier motor? Four times that of an R5. A full-on World Rally
Car’s going to cost around £230,000 to hire for a round, and
if you want to buy one outright it’s £750,000 – and it’s once
you own the car that things start to get expensive. Increased
downforce is all well and good, but the by-product of the
car being forced down is the alarming rate at which front
splitters get chewed up and chucked out. What follows is
“THE CURRENT PROPOSAL FOR 2022
H Y B R I D W I L L R E S U LT I N T H E F I R S T
M I L L I O N - P O U N D W O R L D R A L LY C A R S ”
another bill for thousands.
And what’s going to follow the current car is even more
concerning. The current proposal for 2022 hybrid will result in
the first million-pound World Rally Cars. That’s nuts. And it’s
not what the WRC is about. For years we had a situation where
the local hero could take on the international stars when they
were in town in almost equal machinery. Remember Mark
Higgins in a pukka Ford Focus RS WRC? Or Jorge Recalde in
Argentina, Possum Bourne in New Zealand? Those drivers
generated massive local interest and raised the domestic profile
of individual rounds of the series. Those days are gone. And
they won’t be back any time soon.
Manufacturers have until the end of April to sign up for 2022.
If the FIA doesn’t get the necessary support, there’s reckoned to
SAVING THE WRC
THE WRC’S PREVIOUS BOOM AND BUST
Forget the switch to 1600cc engines nine years ago, the
last regulation change on the magnitude of what’s coming
for 2022 was the introduction of World Rally Cars in 1997
(including the Subaru Impreza WRC 97, above).
Overnight, the FIA opened up the World Rally
Championship to everybody. Gone were the days when
Group A demanded rally cars born out of costly production
specials like Ford’s Sierra RS Cosworth, Toyota’s Celica
GT-Four or Mitsubishi’s tweaked Lancers – in a multitude
of evolutions. From 1997 onward all you needed was a
steel-bodied, front-engined, four-seater and a production
run of at least 25,000. And a base engine of no more than
two litres in at least 2500 of those cars.
It didn’t matter if your car was front-wheel drive and
non-turbo, both of those modifications could be made
by chopping the floorpan open and making room for a
propshaft and rear differential. As for forced induction,
get Garrett on the blower and bolt it on.
It was that straightforward. And it was those regulations
that allowed, for example, Skoda to step up from perennial
bit-part player to a full-time World Rally Championship
campaign with the Octavia WRC.
At the height of its popularity, seven manufacturers
were running those original two-litre World Rally Cars.
If SEAT hadn’t pulled out in 2000, there would have been
eight makes in 2001. And in that 2001 season, 21 drivers
scored points in a factory car.
The boom, however, couldn’t and wouldn’t last. As the
new millennium’s first decade drew to a close, the bust had
well and truly arrived, with only Ford and Citroen remaining.
The FIA’s answer to dwindling numbers and fewer and
fewer stars in cars on stages was to introduce regulations
such as superally, which allowed retired cars to return to
the competition the next day and feature in the overall
classification despite not driving the entire route.
And when the cracks started to show, second-tier
manufacturer teams were included, bolstering a two-
horse race with Citroen’s Junior Team and M-Sport’s
Stobart and Munchi’s squads.
1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9 AUTOSPORT.COM 9 1
SAVING THE WRC

be an increasingly attractive alternative being considered in

the corridors of the governing body’s technical department.
What’s been the most successful category change in the
history of the World Rally Championship? It’s R5. Introduced
six years ago, seven manufacturers have homologated R5 cars
and hundreds have been sold around the world.
The category has proved its worth for the second tier, so why
not take it a step further and use it as a base for the top tier?
Give the engine, currently with a 32mm restrictor, a bit more
room to breathe, give the transmission a tweak and bolt on some
aggressive-looking – but not necessarily effective – aero. Then
take the most cost-effective battery and motor hybrid combo, feed
it some biofuel and rejoice in 20-plus factory World Rally Cars.
It’s possible that we might have oversimplified, but the
FIA is thinking along the same lines. Slashing the cost of
cars by half and delivering considerably more manageable
rebuild bills is understandably attractive.

“ T H O S E PA Y I N G F O R T H E P R I V I L E G E
P O T E N T I A L LY C O S T T H E S P O R T A
CO H O RT O F W O U L D - B E C H A M P I O N S”

The engineers in the service park are less keen. Put that
proposal – albeit in a slightly more dressed-up form – to Toyota
technical director Tom Fowler and he looks decidedly unsure.
Asked to outline his primary concerns, he blows his cheeks out,
very much in a how-long-have-you-got? fashion. “I don’t think
an R5-based World Rally Car could deliver you a championship
worthy of being called a World Rally Championship,” he says.
“From a technical perspective, just slapping the aero from a
current car on something else won’t work – it’s not going to
deliver the performance and certainly you even need to be
careful from a safety point of view.
“The regulations simply aren’t aligned and we’d have to think
carefully about what the R5 car was designed for. Putting more
power into a car that presently isn’t as highly developed from a
safety perspective as the current World Rally Car is something
to think about. It would be difficult to implement those [safety
areas introduced into the World Rally Cars] backwards into
R5 cars, while trying to upgrade the car into a hybrid World
Rally Car at the same time. For me, a move like this
would make things very messy.”
It’s a similar verdict from six-time world champion
Ogier. He admits his grasp of the fiscal side of the argument
may not be complete, but he can offer the ultimate insight
into driving these cars. “In one way those cars are more
expensive, but they also provided a huge step in terms of
the spectacle – more than any of the cars running before
and in that respect it was a good move,” he says. “Maybe
the cost is too much and it needs to be rebalanced to reduce
that cost, but it’s also important to have spectacular cars
that the fans love to see and, if you ask the drivers, of
course, we love to drive cars like these as well.”
A big part of the those rising costs will come from the
introduction of hybrid technology, and that brings frustration
from some quarters. The WRC has made clear its intention
to run cars in electric mode through towns, cities and service
parks. Yes, there is the potential for a power boost in the stages,
but that would come via FIA-controlled software.
There are plenty of cost-effective, off-the-shelf solutions to
supplement the 1600cc internal combustion engine. Should teams
fail to sign up to 2022 before the end of April 2020, this is a real
opportunity for the FIA to take a lead and deliver a set of rules
that could better reflect the current economic environment.
Whether or not those R5-based regulations could include
intended plans for inbound manufacturers to scale production

Fowler isn’t sure

that R5 is the
right way to go

Citroen’s withdrawal
was a key sign that
the WRC is in trouble

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A switch to R5 machinery,
including cars from Citroen and
Ford, could boost numbers
machines into World Rally Cars remains to be seen.
Your take on the cost argument for World Rally Cars would quite
likely depend on your confidence in the series. There are those who
fear the loss of Hyundai and Toyota if the series follows the R5
route, compounding fears that it has been cheapened in terms of
spectacle and technology. The counter-argument of reduced entry
costs could well attract more manufacturers to the table. It’s the
bird in the hand versus the two in the bush…
Doubtless, running an R5-based solution would bring back
privateers and private teams – something the WRC has always
embraced. Crucially, as well as serving the healthy gentleman-
driver market, this could also revive young driver programmes.
The fact that Citroen was able to reach for the argument
that there weren’t enough drivers capable of winning the
title shines the light on another significant issue for the
WRC. Beyond Kalle Rovanpera and Oliver Solberg, where’s
the next generation? We have plenty of drivers paying for
the privilege, but that’s potentially costing the sport a
cohort of would-be world champions.
This problem could be partly solved at the stroke of an FIA
pen, if the governing body regulated third drivers to be younger
than 25 and competing as part of a development structure within
each of the teams. We’re never going to stop drivers paying – it’s
folly to think we could, and their contribution helps sustain cars
on the stages – but we need to be doing all we can to broaden
the top of tree beyond what is an annual three-way title fight.
And when you’ve got the branches at the top of that
tree weighed down with talent, the car becomes even
less important. Let’s face it, those drivers would be
spectacular driving wheelbarrows.
SAVING THE WRC
NOT THE END OF THE WORLD
Markku Alen tells the story far better than most could. And
it comes as a salutary lesson to those who think stepping
down to an R5-based World Rally Car would be the end of
the world in performance terms.
It wouldn’t. If it’s the end of the world you want, rewind
to the WRC’s very own winter of deep discontent in 1986.
Group B was gone. And Group A was coming, in Lancia’s
case in the form of the Delta HF (below).
Running a pre-event test for the Delta S4 late in 1986, Alen
watched suspiciously as the mechanics wheeled out a plain
white Delta from the back of a truck. What was this thing?
“The boys told me to take it out and test it,” says Alen.
“I did this and came back. They told me this is the car for
1987. I told them, ‘Very funny. This is a recce car. Go and
fetch me the rally car.’ That was the rally car.”
An even more graphic illustration of the feeling inside
the car, coming from full-bore Group B madness to the
more sedate pace of the following year’s mildly tuned
road car hardware, was provided by Christian Geistdorfer.
Used to saying hello to the horizon in Audi’s brutal
Quattro Sport S1 E2, the German admitted that the big,
wobbly, breathless 200 Quattro took some getting used
to when he and Walter Rohrl started the 1987 Monte
Carlo Rally. “It was like stepping off a rocket and
sitting on a bicycle,” said Geistdorfer.
At their peak and boosting to the max, Group B cars
were capable of delivering outputs north of 600bhp.
And, rudimentary as they were, the snowplough-style
front splitters and ironing-board rear wings still
produced significant downforce.
It’s little wonder that 250bhp on a cold morning in
the French Alps, with aerodynamics apparently modelled
on a house brick, did little to whet the appetite for the
FIA’s new world order of 1987 and Group A.
Suddenly, and by comparison, a step down to an
R5-based World Rally Car doesn’t sound so bad…
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JAGUAR IN NASCAR

WHEN THE
BIG C AT LIC K ED
THE NA SC A R
DOGS
A Jaguar win in NASCAR’s premier division?
Yes, it really happened – 65 years ago
PA U L F E A R N L E Y

he circuit comprising the runways and taxiways of

Linden Airport, a few miles southwest of Manhattan
T and just off the New Jersey Turnpike, was flat. But
– in NASCAR terms at least – it was far from
featureless: one of its turns was right-handed. Its
International 100 of 13 June 1954 – midpoint of the 37-round
Grand National Series – broke new ground, therefore, and so
provided a slew of firsts, as well as lasts. And not just for Jaguar.
‘Big Bill’ France’s racing empire was in its seventh year and
threatened on its borders by the seaboards’ thriving sportscar
scenes. Not yet sure of defeating them, he invited them instead.
This wasn’t the first time that ‘foreign jobs’ had gone wing-
to-fender with NASCAR’s Detroit heavy iron. The grid for the
International 200 of June 1953 had been dotted with Jags –
Toronto’s Lloyd Shaw put his XK120 on pole (a NASCAR premier
division first and so far last for a Canadian driver) – and also
included Porsches, an Aston Martin and even a Beetle. But that race
had been at Pennsylvania’s Langhorne, a rough, tough, oiled-dirt
oval – and 200 passes through its notorious Puke Hollow left
the imported exotica feeling somewhat sick. Dick Rathmann’s Keller poses with the
somewhat sturdier Hudson shot into the lead from the outside XK120, and more familiar
of the front row and was never challenged, winning by four laps; users of Linden Airport
the best Jaguar was sixth; the best Porsche eighth.

New York, on 11 April 1920, Keller had migrated south in 1948

“WE DIDN’T HAVE MUCH PRACTICE
AND THEY DIDN’T HANDLE WELL,
D I D N ’ T F I T T H AT T R A C K W E L L”
The switch to Linden – NASCAR’s first road course, where ‘four
on the floor’ was of benefit rather than an extravagance – had been
predicted to even things up second time around: 21 interlopers –
13 Jaguars, five MGs and one apiece of Austin-Healey, Morgan and
Porsche – were ranged against 22 regulars. The sportscar brigade
received a shock, however, when Buck Baker’s Oldsmobile – on pole
at 80.54mph – and Herb Thomas, reigning champion in Smokey
Yunick’s ‘Fabulous Hudson Hornet’, locked out the front row.
Seventh on the grid was the red-and-white XK120 Fixed Head
Coupe entered by Paul Whiteman – a famous pre-war bandleader
recently reinvented as TV host of the Goodyear Revue – and driven
by Florida-based journeyman Alvah ‘Al’ Keller. Born in Alexander,
and mechanicked at a speedshop while earning a reputation
aboard Midgets and Modifieds. His distinctly non-PC nickname
– especially for a deputy sheriff! – was said to be indicative of
his native lineage, fiery temper and the lengths that he was
willing to go to: ‘The Dirty Indian’.
Single-seaters were his preference, but he had dabbled in
NASCAR since 1949, and landed a full–time seat in George
Miller’s Hudson for 1954. Regularly at the sharp end in qualifying,
he had won at Savannah’s Oglethorpe Speedway and finished
second at Langhorne and Wilson, North Carolina. But Linden
offered him an opportunity that he was very keen to take.
Baker and Thomas disputed the early lead of this 50-lapper,
and were joined by the XK120 of Hershel McGriff, winner of the
inaugural Carrera Panamericana of 1950 – and still racing, at 90,
as of 2018. “The Jaguars that Keller and I drove were actually owned
by Bill France,” says McGriff. “We didn’t have much practice and
for some reason they didn’t handle well, didn’t fit that track well.
“I was surprised by how well the stock cars handled it. I was
pretty good on road courses – I won that Carrera, 2135miles,
by 76 seconds when I was just 22 – and had been racing since

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I was 17. But guys like Baker and Thomas were quick on dirt,
and if you are quick on dirt you can handle anything.”
McGriff came off worst from an unequal tangle with Baker –
and eventually crashed out on lap 37 – and Thomas was able
to edge away. Keller, however, was coming on strongly, having
nursed brakes and tyres. He took the lead around mid-distance –
Thomas would fade to seventh – and held it to the end, averaging
77.57mph to win by a half-mile from Joe Eubanks’ Hudson. Baker,
brakes faded, was a lapped third, and Jaguars finished fourth
through sixth: Bill Claren, Bob Grossman and Harry LaVois.
This remains the only NASCAR Grand National win for a
foreign-built car – despite the best efforts of a couple of Citroens,
a Renault and a Goliath(!) at Riverside in June 1958, plus those
of several MGs, Healeys and Sprites in the annual invitational
at Bowman Gray Stadium, Winston-Salem, from 1960-63.
Keller’s victory made him the first NASCAR driver to win
on an oval and a road course in the same season. It earned him
$1000 – plus a shot at his dream. He immediately announced
his retirement from stockers – though he would contest four
more Grand National races in a self-prepared Chevy in 1956
– and embarked on a rocky road to the Brickyard. He obtained
GETTY IMAGES
just a single Champ Car ride in the remainder of the season
but was not easily deterred and would be big news at the
Indy 500 of 1955 – for all the wrong reasons.
Having qualified Sam Traylor’s Kurtis-Offenhauser 22nd, he
was running conservatively at quarter-distance when runaway
leader Bill Vukovich, gunning for a hat-trick, loomed in his
mirrors, for a second time. Suddenly Rodger Ward’s Kuzma
suffered a broken axle exiting Turn 2 and crashed. Keller
swerved and braked – a handbrake to the rears – when faced
by a stationary car, and slid towards the abutment of the golf
course’s bridge. Snapping the other way, he punted Johnny
Boyd into poor Vukovich’s path: a deadly sequence that shocked
a motorsporting community soon to suffer the ‘Le Mans Disaster’.
Keller, who lost a thumb to the Langhorne crash that curtailed
his 1955 season in June, renewed his association with Traylor for
1956 and was denied a victory at Atlanta in July by a signalling
error that caused him to wave Eddie Sachs through to victory.
(Some reports have the race running a lap longer than it ought.)
Opportunity missed, driver and car owner parted company
before the year’s end.
There would be very slim pickings thereafter. Keller started
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GETTY IMAGES
“ T H AT ’ S W H Y I A LW A Y S H A D T O
R A C E W I T H F E N D E R S A N D A R O O F.
I W A N T E D A LO N G L I F E ”
just eight Champ Car races over the next three seasons – enduring
in 1957 a second crash at Indy, this time with less cataclysmic
consequences. His best moment came when he failed to qualify
for the Indy 500 of 1960 and was instead drafted into the Ken-
Paul pit crew, overseen by Yunick and famed engine tuner Chickie
Hirashima, that helped Jim Rathmann beat Ward in the greatest
duel of Indy’s Roadster era.
Keller’s persistence finally received its reward when Konstant
Hot’s boss Bruce Homeyer signed him for 1961. The team’s name
was apt given the feisty relationship between its mercurial owner
and his laconic – ‘Nothing’s perfect’ – crew chief Jud Phillips. But
its cars were quick – on pave and dirt – and that’s all Keller cared
about. He wouldn’t have been Phillips’s first choice – far from it
– but he knuckled down to an impressively consistent campaign:
fifth at Indy; second at Milwaukee; pole at Langhorne, where he
led for 11 laps before being hit in the eye; fifth at DuQuoin;
fourth at Syracuse; and fifth at Trenton.
The final round of 12, on 19 November, was the Bobby Ball
Memorial at Arizona State Fairgrounds, Phoenix. The drivers,
hardly shrinking violets or shirkers, were horrified by the mile
oval’s rutted condition; Ward reckoned it the worst he had seen.
Ray Crawford’s injurious flip during practice confirmed their fears.
Keller put it on pole, by almost a second, breaking a three-year-
old track record in the process. AJ Foyt, Eddie Sachs and Ward
JAGUAR IN NASCAR
Keller celebrates Linden win.
Afterwards he announced
fateful switch to Indycar
were out of reach, but fourth in the championship was up for
grabs still, from Shorty Templeman.
At the start, however, Keller was jumped by Ward and, from
the second row, by Parnelli Jones – he was keeping very good
company – and lost several places in the opening laps. That
qualifying speed had deserted him. Eventual winner Jones –
his first in a Champ Car – lapped him on lap 42 and, seven laps
later, Keller lost control in a deepening hole. The car tumbled
several times before landing back on its wheels, ensnared by
chain-link fencing, its broken windshield bloodied; its courageous
driver dead. The race continued for two more laps – so that it
might be considered ‘completed’, according to more hard-bitten
observers – before booing from the grandstand triggered a
stoppage. Undisputed tough guy Foyt was among the most
vocal protestors but the ill-starred race restarted – and was
finally put out of its misery on lap 90 of the scheduled 100.
Keller’s winnings that year were $24,214. He had paid the
heaviest price for his heftiest pay cheque. “That’s why I always had
to race with fenders and a roof,” says McGriff. “I wanted a long life.
I won four Grand National races in 1954 but then stopped racing
[until 1967]. Family and business were more important. I made
the right decisions – I’m 92. I didn’t know Keller. He was an
open-wheeled guy. But clearly he was skilled and adaptable.”
So, too, was McGriff. On 14 August 1954 he took that same
Jaguar to the 0.2-mile bullring of Baltimore’s Westport Stadium
for a round of NASCAR’s Short Track Division Central – and
showed 35 stock cars, plus another Jaguar, the way home over
200 frantic laps. The Carrera it was not. “It was a baseball
stadium,” he says. “No room. There was no tail to that field.
Just cars from first base to home plate.”
Though McGriff ’s was arguably the greater feat, it’s Keller’s
Linden success that will remain the quirky forever link between
Jaguar and NASCAR.
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 WHAT DR IVERS
W IL L D O FOR MONE Y
Raising budget for racing is often a challenge and some wannabe stars
have come up with novel, not to mention dubious, solutions…
G A R Y W AT K I N S
TRYING NOT TO GET MURDERED
Justin Keen’s short-lived exploits in Formula 3000
in the early noughties were funded by a small
group of private backers intent on living what the
Brit calls “the James Hunt motor racing lifestyle”.
That’s how he ended shooting a movie that — his
words again — “bordered on soft porn” in New York.
Keen’s patrons had bought into a business in the
USA and thought they could bottle the experiences
they were enjoying as they travelled Europe
watching their driver compete on the international
arena. The film was planned as a marketing tool
for a venture that involved fast cars and, if you
believed the hype, beautiful women.
“I played the role of a racing driver hanging
around with rich blokes who came draped in hot
chicks,” recalls Keen, who managed five F3000
races with the Monaco International and European
SUTTON
Minardi teams in 2001 and 2002.
“There was one scene where I was driving
a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro SS with the police in
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MAIN IMAGE: MOTORSPORT IMAGES/SUTTON
hot pursuit and a girl sitting next to me.
“The implication was that she was doing
the kind of thing most blokes can only dream
of. I always remember the director was a guy
called, appropriately enough, BJ. It was all
a bit cringeworthy to be honest.”
Keen isn’t sure what became of the film
and whether it was ever completed. But he’ll
never forget some of his experiences with the
backers, whom he declines to name.
“Putting money into my career was basically
an excuse for these guys to fly to Europe for the
weekend and get up to all kinds of mischief,” says
Keen, who quickly segued into sportscar racing and
now concentrates on his commercial property
business. “I witnessed all sorts of things.
“I found myself in seedy places mixing
with some pretty dodgy people. On at least
one occasion I remember thinking, ‘I could
get murdered here!’”
RADIO GA GA?
Touring car star Tom Coronel barely
had two guilders to rub together as he
set out on a Benelux Formula Ford 1600
campaign in 1992. So when the Dutchman
needed a new battery for the three-year-
old Mondiale he’d been loaned for the
season at Zolder early in the year, he
knew he was in trouble.
It was actually Coronel’s second new
battery of the weekend. He managed to
wreck the first when he dropped it as he
and his mechanic went to fit the thing.
A temporary fix allowed Coronel to qualify
with an external starter battery perched on
his lap and jury-rigged to the car’s electrics.
That wasn’t an option for the race,
which meant procuring another battery.
The only solution was to buy one but,
with no money in either the bank or
his pockets, Coronel had to sell the only
thing of any worth he had with him.
“If you had a CD player in your car in
1992, you were the daddy,” says Coronel,
who points out that he didn’t actually
own the car into which it was fitted. “I’d
bought it for maybe 900GLD [around £300]
and I sold it to a mechanic from another
team for something like 600. I was so
upset, but it was my only choice.”
Coronel went on to finish in the top six
in what turned out to be an important
weekend in his career. Watching that day
was Peter Scholz from engine tuner Zagk.
“Peter told me he liked my style and he
liked my speed,” recalls Coronel, “and he
was going to loan me an engine.”
STAAT
RAINFORD
CONTROVERSY ON SUNDAY,
SELL ON MONDAY
Bob Berridge’s indecent pace aboard an
antediluvian Formula Ford 1600 nigh on 20
years old raised both eyebrows and suspicions.
So he decided to use his speed aboard the Lotus
69F in the 1980s to financial advantage.
The truck mechanic from Stockton who went
on to start the Le Mans 24 Hours five times did
nothing to dampen rumours that the Kent
four-pot in the back of his Lotus was a bit trick,
hooky even. If anyone claimed he was running
an illegal engine — and they frequently did —
he’d promptly suggest they’d be better off saving
their protest fee and buying the offending unit.
“I’d buy engines out the back of Autosport for
four or five hundred quid, run them for a while,
win a few races and then sell ’em as the dog’s
bollocks latest thing for £1500,” recalls Berridge.
“I must have done that three or four times.”
The canny tactic helped Berridge fund his
FF1600 campaigns, which included winning
the British Racing and Sports Car Club’s
series for pre-1974 machinery in 1985, and
an appearance in the final of the Formula
Ford Festival at Brands Hatch in 1988.
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C R E AT I V E F U N D - R A I S I N G
BORROWING FROM A JOURNALIST
Journalists for the most part don’t have
money to splash around, let alone give to
racing drivers. But Autosport’s own Marcus
Pye came to the rescue of an impecunious
Formula 3 racer in 1985: he bought Simon
Hadfield enough fuel for him to actually race
his Sparton at Silverstone early that season.
Hadfield may have been well on the way to
establishing himself as a top historic racer, but
he still had aspirations to climb the single-
seater ladder. With a loaned Sparton SE420
and a budget comprising what he calls “thin
air and hope”, he managed a couple of outings
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in Class B that year. Just.
Pye came to the rescue as he trawled
the poor end of the pitlane talking to the
runners in older machinery.
“I went up to Simon and his wife, Mandy,
and asked if everything was OK,” recalls Pye.
“He said, ‘Not really, we don’t have any
money to put fuel in the car.’
“I asked him what it was going to take,
stuck my hand in my pocket and gave him
20 or 30 quid. It wasn’t a loan, more about
helping to get someone in the paddock out of
trouble. We’ve been great buddies ever since.”
HOW TO SPEND PRIZE MONEY
The McLaren Autosport BRDC Award came
with a £50,000 cheque when Darren Turner
scooped the prize in 1996. So what do you
think he did with the money? Put it towards
a Formula 3 budget perhaps? No, he bought
a Bentley Arnage!
There was rhyme to his reason, however.
Turner had contested the 1996 British
Formula Renault series with Redgrave
Racing, whose late boss Richard Redgrave
wheeled and dealed in motors. Turner
purchased the Bentley in an attempt to
make a bit more money to add to his F3 pot.
The catalyst for the deal was Richard’s
son, Mark, a former racer himself. He’d gone
to work for an advertising agency in London
and alerted his father that his employer was
on the look-out for a black Bentley Arnage
to use in a campaign.
“Mark gave Richard a heads-up, and in
those pre-internet days buying and selling
cars was all about contacts,” recalls Turner,
who was living with the Redgraves on their
Norfolk farm at the time. “I remember
Richard telling me, ‘Mark needs a car, I’ve
found one, you’ve got the money in the
bank, let’s buy it and split the profit.’”
The Arnage was duly purchased and
stowed in a barn before it was moved on.
“I suggested to Richard that because it
was my money that had bought it, I should
be allowed to drive it around for a couple
of days,” says Turner. “But all I was allowed
to do was sit in it with the engine running
and smell the leather.
“I think we paid 35 grand for the Bentley.
I can’t remember how much we sold it for,
but I recall a profit of £12,000. I think that’s
how much we had to split between us.”
Turner did make it to F3 in 1997 and even
got to rub shoulders with the Bentley-driving
classes. The Portman Racing team for which
he drove had been set up by Piers Portman,
son of the late Edward, Viscount Portman.
 C R E AT I V E F U N D - R A I S I N G

NEW GIRLFRIEND TO THE RESCUE

Johnny Mowlem had a mega deal on the table.
His problem was the three grand of the required
five he was missing in his quest to get out in a Class
A Formula 3 car for the first time at the end of 1995.
But when he recounted his tale of woe on a first
date, he ended up coming away with an interest-
free loan for the said amount.
The luck of a poorly funded driver who’d
managed four class victories in Class B F3 for
year-old cars over sporadic campaigns in 1994 and
1995 was that his new girlfriend was a successful
TV actor and presenter. Fiona Lee-Fraser, to use
her stage name, may be known to readers of
a certain age as Laura Regan, daughter of
headmistress Mrs Regan, in the BBC children’s
soap Grange Hill circa the late 1980s.
“I don’t remember it quite like Fiona does, but
she says I gave her a real sob story and that I was
dropping some pretty heavy hints,” recounts
Mowlem. “It might actually have been our second
date, though I always say first date because it
makes for a better story.”
Mowlem’s dream drive in the DAW team’s
Dallara-Mugen Honda F395 for the non-
championship race at Donington Park didn’t go
to plan, however. He didn’t make it away from a
grid that also boasted Juan Pablo Montoya and
Memo Gidley: he stalled the thing as he adjusted
his foot on the clutch ready for the getaway.
“It was probably the lowest point of my
motorsport life,” he says. “I’d scraped all the money
I had in the world together and borrowed three
grand off my new girlfriend, then missed out on
a big opportunity to further my career. I thought,
‘I’m going to stop all this bollocks.’”
It didn’t end up all bad for Mowlem, though,
as he went on to have a successful sportscar
career. Oh, and he married that girl!

NOT QUITE FLOATING TO F3000

Shares were effectively sold in the late Justin Wilson to pay
for his Formula 1 graduation with Minardi in 2003. Fledgling
Formula 3000 driver Sam Hancock picked up the idea and ran
with it in an attempt to fund a season of F3000 the following
year – he tried to turn himself into a publicly listed company.
The difference was that Justin Wilson plc was a private
placement scheme that offered a return to its investors in terms
of a percentage of the driver’s earnings. Shares in Hancock’s
SH plc would have been listed on the OFEX stock exchange and
traded like any other commodity. That was the idea, anyway.
But the flotation “failed miserably”, according to Hancock.
“I was embedded with a sports marketing agency that also
looked after Sven Goran-Eriksson [England football manager
at the time] and we took inspiration from what Justin had
JEP

done the previous year,” he recalls.

STEPPING INTO THE DRAGONS’ DEN
Formula Ford racer Rob Hall was
looking for a way back onto the
national scene after finishing
second in the local Castle Combe
series in 2007. His solution to the
problem was to try to sell himself
on primetime TV in front of a panel
of entrepreneurs on Dragons’ Den
the following year.
The seed of the idea was sown
on a train journey made by Hall
and some of his mates to Cardiff
for 50% of his future earnings.
“To be honest we weren’t
really after the Dragons’ money;
we were after their contacts,” says
Hall Sr. “I’m not sure we got that
across and we walked away
empty handed.”
The TV appearance did, however,
open doors. The show was seen
by Irish Formula Ford racer Noel
Roddy and resulted in the loan
of a Mygale that Hall Jr raced
“There were so many rules and regulations that we didn’t
launch until just before Christmas. That was a disaster because
you had to reach our minimum stipulated target of £750,000
within 40 days. We only got to something like £450,000.”
Hancock, who’d had three low-key F3000 outings with Super
Nova at the end of 2003, reckons he didn’t have a choice but to
pull the trigger at just the wrong moment after being offered a
seat by Arden following some promising winter testing. “Arden
actually managed to fit me in the car and I’d gone quite well,”
recalls 6ft 2in Hancock, now a successful historic racer. “They
made me an offer, so we had to crack on. My problem was
that it’s always first past the post with the money.”
SUTTON

to watch a few stages of Rally GB.
“We were talking about how
I could raise some money on the
train,” recalls Hall. “Someone
said I needed to get myself on
TV and then someone else
shouted out Dragons’ Den,
and it went from there.”
Rob’s father David, himself an
FF1600 racer in the 1980s, took up
the challenge. He had to wait until
his son was 18, but they made it
onto the show and asked for just
£50,000 to part-fund a season in
a Duratec-engined car in return
sporadically over the next five
years. It was aboard this car,
a Duratec SJ00 converted to
Kent-spec, in which he finished
fourth and then second in the
Walter Hayes Trophy at Silverstone
in 2012 and 2014 respectively.
“We thought it as worth a punt,”
says Rob, who also appeared in
the follow-up Dragons’ Den: Where
are they now? show. “I had my
15 minutes of fame and I guess it
got my name out there, because
that’s how the chance to race
the Mygale came up.”

1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9 AUTOSPORT.COM 1 0 1
    

 
    


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 C R E AT I V E F U N D - R A I S I N G

NOTHING GOING ON BUT THE RENT

Ian Flux had a problem over the
course of his 1978 Formula 3
campaign. The meagre £10,000
budget he had for the season
didn’t cover such niceties as
new tyres. So he came up with
an inventive solution to make
sure he had fresh rubber every
weekend – he worked as a rent boy.
It was a case of needs must,
says the club racing legend, as he
strove to build on the promise of his
1976 and 1977 F3 assaults. When his
team boss, Alan Howell of Cloud
Engineering, explained that they
were all set for the weekend ahead,
save for four new Goodyears for
their year-old March-Toyota 773,
Fluxie said, “leave it with me”.
“I needed 250 quid and you
weren’t going to earn that as a
mechanic in the short time we had,”
recalls Flux, who was then earning
£40 a week working for Howell.
“But you could get that kind of
money in just a couple of nights
by basically whoring yourself out.
“I knew some boys up in
London, so I went and found them
in Piccadilly and just got on with it.
When you go to boarding school,
you learn certain lessons. I was just
putting my education to good use.”
Flux, who insists that at 63 he’s
not retired even though he didn’t
race in 2019, is happy to talk
about his after-dark escapades
of more than 40 years ago.
“It’s how I paid for my racing,”
he says. “It’s part of my life, why
shouldn’t I talk about it? It was
something I did in 1978 because
I had to if I wanted to continue
in F3, though I did go back to
it on occasion when I was
short of money.”
That explains why he calls F3
racer Tim Lee-Davey, a barrister,
the only person who knows the true
story of his foray into the world’s
oldest profession [until now?! – ed].
“I had been done for soliciting
in 1982 and I was looking for my
name on the board at Marylebone
Magistrates’ Court when I had a tap
on my shoulder,” remembers Flux.
“It was Tim, so I told him I’d been
done for speeding, and he pointed
out I was in the wrong court for
that. Then he said, ‘Here you
are Fluxie; I see, soliciting’.”
“He asked me if he could help:
he told me what to say and got
my fine cut in half.”

DIGGING UP AN F1 CAREER
Derek Daly didn’t know how he was going
to find the money to move onto the circuits
after a racing apprenticeship served on
Ireland’s short ovals. That was until his
girlfriend’s brother arrived back from a
six-month stint working down a mine in
Australia with four grand in his pocket.
Within days he and friend David Kennedy,
who’d been racing a Lotus 51 Formula Ford
in their homeland, were on a plane to Perth.
Australia was more appealing than the other
option. Working on the Alaskan oil pipeline
required significant expenditure on clothing.
Heading down under involved, says Daly,
“cutting the arms off our shirts and the
legs off our trousers”.
“Our mission was to make the biggest It was physically demanding work, recalls of Ireland’s most successful racing car marque,
chunk of money possible and be back in Daly: “We were essentially labourers and our offering a new 30F in exchange for the crashed
time for the Irish Formula Ford season,” job was to break iron ore down into small 25F, so long as Daly could source a new engine.
recalls a driver who contested 49 grands prix enough chunks so that it could go on conveyor Thanks to a loan from Kennedy, who would
for Ensign, Tyrrell, Theodore and Williams. belts and then be shipped all over the world.” also go on to race F1 cars, he did just that.
“Within 10 days of the conversation with The two F1 wannabes earned £5000 in their Eleven races and 10 victories later, Daly was
my girlfriend’s brother, we were in Perth. six months over the winter of 1974-75. Daly Irish Formula Ford champion. Just two years
“The key to Australia was that you were ended up winning the Irish title, but not before after that he made his F1 debut at an event
paid straight time for the first eight hours that chunk of money had all but run out. he visited the day after landing in London
and double time for the second eight, but He wrecked the Crossle 25F he’d bought from Australia. Niki Lauda won the 1975
you got paid triple time if you could do three before his departure to Australia at Mondello International Trophy at Silverstone in a
shifts in a row. We would volunteer for as Park in the summer. His luck changed when Ferrari; in ’78 Daly led a race held in dreadful
many 24-hour shifts as possible.” he was approached by John Crossle, founder conditions aboard a Hesketh-Cosworth 308E.

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C R E AT I V E F U N D - R A I S I N G

MORE THAN JUST A PITSTOP

MOTORSPORT IMAGES

A young up-and-comer from Scotland by the name of Anthony Reid,

winner of the grandly titled Jim Russell Racing Drivers’ School
International World Scholarship in 1977, had spent the winter of 1979-80
cleaning toilets by day and driving minicabs by night on the Shetland
Isles to pay for his racing. So he wasn’t about to blow even a fraction of
his budget on rent as he strived to further his career down south.
Why would you when a bijou residence at the very epicentre of
the Formula Ford world could be had for just a few quid a week? Reid
rented one of the pit garages at Brands Hatch – #18 to be exact – on
and off through 1980 and 1981 for both his PRS RH01 and himself.
“It was a fiver a week and you got a couple of days of testing
thrown in,” recalls the former British Touring Car Championship
frontrunner. “I had everything I needed: room for my car, tools and
little camp bed, and then running cold water in the garage and a
shower block at the end of the pitlane.
“The only time we had to move out was for the British Grand Prix
and the big bike race. I remember Barry Sheene having a cigarette
on the pitwall while he waited for me to shift my stuff.”
Reid’s tenancy of #18 The Pitlane, Brands Hatch, Fawkham,
Kent encompassed the 1981 Formula Ford Festival, his
breakthrough race. Tenth place in the final resulted in an invite
from ex-JRRDS boss John Kirkpatrick to drive for his new team
funded by a couple of wealthy benefactors.
Reidy was on his way. And a subsidised drive meant he got to
swap his unheated garage for a shared flat near Market Harborough.

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 C R E AT I V E F U N D - R A I S I N G

REALLY BACKING YOURSELF

Rarely has there been a battle so bitter and so intense as
that for the 1991 British Formula Renault crown, and for
good reason. The two protagonists, Bobby Verdon-Roe
and Jason Plato, both stood to win a hell of a lot of
money if they took the title.
That wasn’t because Renault or series sponsor P&O
Ferries were offering masses of prize money, but because
both drivers had effectively bet on themselves to scoop
the crown. They had taken out prize indemnity insurance
policies in the hope of paying for the next step up the racing
ladder. Verdon-Roe’s was for £100,000, while Plato was on
for a cool quarter of a million quid.
“The money we both had riding on the championship
fuelled the acrimony,” says Plato. “That’s why it all got so
fruity. For me, it was shit or bust – the gloves were off.”
Never was their rivalry more fruity than at Donington Park
in August. The two Van Diemen RF91s – Verdon-Roe’s run by
Fortec, Plato’s by Manor – clashed multiple times as they
squabbled over the lead. Plato was ahead into the final
corner, only for Verdon-Roe to run into the back of the leader.
Opinions still differ as to who was to blame, but Plato today
admits that, even though he was in neutral courtesy of a
damaged gear linkage, he deliberately drove into BVR on
the exit. The Fortec car jumped in the air, spun but still
beat the coasting Manor machine to the line by a tenth.
Verdon-Roe ended up winning the championship and
put his 100 grand into a part season in the British Touring
Car Championship with the RML Vauxhall squad. Plato,
whose title tilt wasn’t helped by two exclusions for
technical infringements, was only fourth and had to
resort to knocking on Van Diemen boss Ralph Firman’s
door at six in the morning to land a Formula 3 drive.

TOP-END TOMBOLA
Former sportscar and tin-top racer Pascal
Witmeur has been a mover and a shaker on the
Belgian motorsport scene for more than 40 years.
So it shouldn’t be a surprise that he came up with
a novel way of funding his Le Mans 24 Hours
campaign with an ageing Rondeau in 1984 – he
organised what was effectively a giant tombola.
The top prize wasn’t a bottle of whisky, but
the chance for the winning entrant to cover the
Cosworth-engined Rondeau M379C Witmeur
planned to race at La Sarthe in its decals. He sold
75 tickets at the equivalent of €1750 a pop to fund
his and old mate Jean-Paul Libert’s campaign with
Jean-Philippe Grand’s Graff Racing team at
Le Mans and the Spa 1000Km in September.
The idea was conceived, says Witmeur, “over
a couple of beers”. It helped that he and Libert
ran a sponsorship agency and that his friend
was editor and publisher of the Belgian edition
of French motorsport weekly Auto Hebdo.
“Every entrant got a page in a special
supplement in the magazine and then maybe 20
tickets to a big ‘Hollywood’ party in a well-known
discotheque in Brussels,” he remembers. “We
managed to sell everything in about two weeks.”
The winning ticket was bought by British
American Tobacco cigarette brand Barclay,
whose motor racing sponsorship Witmeur and
Libert looked after. Smirnoff vodka took second
prize and plastered the Rondeau in its colours
for the Spa race in September. The final winner
was Denim, which put the name of its Rexona
deodorant on the drivers’ overalls.
“We had a lot of big companies enter
because they were our clients,” says Witmeur,
who ended up 11th, and second in Group C2, at
Le Mans together with Libert and Grand. “But
the restaurant next to our office where we used
to eat lunch also bought a ticket.”

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TOP 10 FILMS

TOP 1 0 MOTORSP ORT F ILMS

Racing has enjoyed plenty of exposure on the big screen, but ranking those
releases is the subject of extensive and excellent pub debate. So, here goes…
M AT T K E W

201 7

10 McLAREN
DIRECTED BY ROGER DONALDSON

In the mass media, McLaren did not

fare well, receiving a host of three-star
reviews. They claimed it was too
one-note: a story of success without
adversity. That seems harsh, especially
given Bruce McLaren’s battle with
Perthes disease that particularly
hampered his formative years. It must
be remembered, though, that these
reviews were from the perspective of those more
apathetic about motorsport.
For those more enthusiastic, opening the film with
the thunderous McLaren M8F pounding round a track
instantly generates a few goosebumps.
The reason it only just makes the top 10 is that the
rest of the film doesn’t quite stir the soul. There are tears
from Alastair Caldwell and Eoin Young – who worked for
Bruce – on why his fatal Goodwood testing crash was
2 0 17
such a loss to racing, but as a viewer you feel like you’re
looking in on their circle rather than a part of it.
Like Senna, death hangs heavy in the air as you watch.
9 FERRARI: RACE TO IMMORTALITY
DIRECTED BY DARYL GOODRICH
What does work in McLaren is the amount of screen time
given to the infinitely cool Can-Am series, where Bruce, It feels as though they made the film
Denny Hulme and Peter Revson ensured McLaren won first and then left it to a marketing
every title between 1967 and 1971. consultancy to devise a title that
It’s Patty McLaren – Bruce’s late widow – who brings would sell well. Ferrari: Race to
the most warmth to the screen, alongside interviews Immortality is superb, make no
with Dan Gurney, Mario Andretti, Emerson Fittipaldi mistake, but it’s not a film about
and Sir Jackie Stewart. the Italian motorsport leviathan.
Derived from the book Mon Ami
Mate by the late Chris Nixon, this
film is a love letter to Peter Collins
and Mike Hawthorn, who just so It’s this that lifts a documentary that at
happened to drive for Ferrari, and times seems to bog down in – or, if
features occasional quotes from we’re harsh, gratuitously celebrates
Enzo. The ultimate biopic on Enzo – the death and danger of the era.
Ferrari, as we keep being told, is in As the Autosport review at the time
the Hollywood pipeline… read, “a film about Ferrari in the 1950s
A great deal of kudos goes to that doesn’t mention Alberto Ascari
motorsport film archivist Richard cannot be described as flawless”, but in
Wiseman for his work in collating what was a strong year for motorsport
stunning footage of 1950s Formula 1. movies, this was among the finest.

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 TOP 10 FILMS

2006

8 TAL LA DEGA NI GH TS : T HE BA L LAD O F R I C KY B OBBY

DIRECTED BY ADAM McKAY

The comedy duo of Will Ferrell and John C Reilly
don’t always get it right – just ask the droves
who walked out of screenings of 2018’s Holmes
& Watson. That said, they pretty much nailed it
in their satirical take on the world of NASCAR.
Days of Thunder was funny too, but more by
accident than design.
The saturation of sponsorship (although,
unlike Ricky Bobby, we don’t recommend the
Jack Hawk 9000 as a Christmas present) and
Deep South cliches are lampooned wonderfully
in Talladega Nights. It’s certainly not subtle
comedy, but that’s not what the audience
was expecting to get, and is precisely why
it’s the film on this list that’s most quoted
in the Autosport office.
What works in Talladega Nights’ favour –
the parody and original storyline – mean it’s a
hard task for it to climb any higher on this list,
but Ferrell, Reilly, Sacha Baron Cohen, Gary
Cole and Amy Adams make for an excellent
cast in this genuinely funny flick.

2 01 0

7 SENNA
DIRECTED BY ASIF KAPADIA

There’s a lot to be
thankful for as a result
of Senna being made.
For one, the four other
documentaries/biopics
on this list most likely
wouldn’t have been
commissioned had it not
been for its critical and
commercial success.
Second, director Asif
Kapadia would later work on Amy and Supersonic,
which are also both excellent.
However, all three of those productions share
the same flaw: they feel the need to cast a villain.
This is most problematic with the portrayal of Alain
Prost given in Senna. Yes, he had a more healthy
rapport with Jean-Marie Balestre, but was he
1971
the bad guy? It would be charitable to call Ayrton
Senna himself even an anti-hero after Suzuka 1990.
Although they defined an era of F1 with their
6 LE MA NS
DIRECTED BY LEE H KATZIN
rivalry, Senna and Prost had reconciled come the
Brazilian’s death. A caption at the end to tell the It’s a straight fight between Grand Prix is so mighty that he doesn’t haven’t to say
audience that Prost is a trustee of the Ayrton and Le Mans for a top-five place on this much at all and yet is still able to dominate
Senna Institute doesn’t undo the damage. rundown, but not because they’re from the show. The downside is that there’s
It’s also odd that the opening lap from the same vintage. no character development here.
Donington Park in 1993 is left until the credits Both are beautifully shot and feature Although that doesn’t detract from
to be shown, and the middle third of the film an abundance of monstrous crashes and the motorsport in Le Mans, it has to take
needs an injection of more on-track action, plenty of genuine racing footage. something away from it as a film, by
having laboured its way through the politics. In this film, that involves Ferrari 512Ss which it must be judged.
For that, Senna isn’t higher on this list. racing with wheels on the grass or grazing Le Mans is authentic but somewhat
But it’s still an excellent and emotionally a rival Porsche 917K. Arguably, that’s the misplaced. As much as it’s gone down
charged watch – thanks to the visceral onboard most intoxicating era of sportscars and in folklore as one of the best motorsport
footage – that transcends a motorsport audience. therefore a much more inspiring subject movies, when a flick features so much
matter than the similar-looking cigar- on-track competition with so little
shaped F1 cars of the 1960s. dialogue and plot, at what point does
Another similarity between the two is an it just become a recreation of a race?
absence of any meaningful plot. In Grand That might be blasphemous to some,
Prix that comes courtesy of some drab love but compared to Grand Prix, audience
stories, in Le Mans it comes through a lack members come away slightly colder
of dialogue. It’s testament to superstar and more unsatisfied, despite the
Steve McQueen that his screen presence mesmeric visuals and engine audio.

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TOP 10 FILMS
201 9
4 LE MA N S ’6 6
DIRECTED BY JAMES MANGOLD
For now, it’s hard to place
Le Mans ’66 in this order. The
hype around a new release
will die down, and when that
happens it could well slip a few
positions. With rewatches, the
lack of a hat-tip to Lola and Eric
Broadley, or ‘Ken Miles’ (Christian
Bale) not using the full throttle-
pedal travel on the Mulsanne
Straight might become too
irksome. Equally, it could
climb higher up this list.
What will remain the same is
3 WI L LI AM S
Williams would
appear to have
the most in
common with
McLaren among the films in this countdown.
After all, in documentary format and with
numerous talking-head interviews, it relates
the story of an eponymous figurehead who
carves their way to the top of racing. So why
is one on the fringes of the top 10 and the
other considered among the very best?
Well, the execution of the two films is quite
different. Williams doesn’t plunge in to archive
footage and grip the audience immediately.
In fact, the opening scenes are quite slow-
burning. But it is the far more emotional
and engrossing watch.
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196 6
5 GRAN D PR I X
DIRECTED BY JOHN FRANKENHEIMER
Grand Prix is far too long – viewers barely get a minute’s
change from three hours. Too much of that runtime is
taken up by some fairly hopeless romantic subplots.
Fortunately, you can distract yourself by picking out
the countless cameo appearances from the likes of
Graham Hill and Jochen Rindt. What stands out,
though, is that from the very first frames this film
is a visual treat. No surprise then that it won three
Oscars for its technical prowess.
It’s believed that production was fairly manic –
particularly in Monaco as Formula 3 machines, dressed
up as F1 cars, were fired into the harbour. The upshot
is that in most cases the racing scenes are filmed on
location at the grand prix venues.
James Garner (Steve McQueen was reportedly also in
the running) is perfect as lead protagonist Pete Aron, and
having Bob Bondurant, Phil Hill and Chris Amon driving
the Ford GT40 camera cars will never not be cool.
the two stellar lead performances
from Bale and Matt Damon
(as Carroll Shelby) and a fine
supporting cast headed by Tracy
Letts’ portrayal of Henry Ford II.
The subject matter – namely,
the Ford GT and Ferrari 330 P3
– lends itself to a fantastic
soundtrack of engine noise,
and director James Mangold’s
production is beautifully shot,
whether that’s across rain-hit
night stints at the Le Mans 24
Hours or sun-kissed SoCal.
20 1 7
DIRECTED BY MORGAN MATTHEWS
It’s based on the excellent book A Different
Kind of Life, whose author, Frank Williams’ late
wife Virginia, is the unexpected star of this film.
Through recreations of her interviews with
Pamela Cockerill, it’s not too much of a stretch
to say that it paints Frank as unsympathetic
on an emotional level. He is so transfixed
on motorsport that he borders on being
emotionally distant.
This, then, is not a PR exercise – it’s much
more open and honest. Nor is it an account
of Frank’s accident, Ayrton Senna’s death
or the peaks and troughs of the team’s F1
performance. Director Morgan Matthews isn’t
executing a box-ticking exercise, but instead
focuses on the story that matters and one
that, at times, divided a family.
 TOP 10 FILMS

2013

2 1 : LI FE O N T HE LIM I T
DIRECTED BY PAUL CROWDER

1: Life on the Limit was a straight- improve safety – tracking back

to-DVD affair – and that’s a great
shame. Granted, it was never
going to attract a wide audience
to viewings (although coming out
in the same year as Rush might
have boosted numbers a little),
but it would have been great to
see all the archive footage projected
on to a big screen and have the ace
soundtrack played out in surround-
sound. Whoever decided that Ayrton
Senna’s famous ‘one-handed’
qualifying lap around Monaco
needed to be accompanied by Hocus
Pocus by Focus wasn’t paid enough.
Even among motorsport fans,
this documentary on F1’s push to
to the 1960s from Martin Brundle
surviving his huge airborne shunt
at Melbourne in 1996 and then
running to jump into Jordan’s spare
car – doesn’t get the recognition
it deserves.
Narrated by Oscar-nominated
actor Michael Fassbender and
featuring interviews with Bernie
Ecclestone, Max Mosley, Sid
Watkins, Lewis Hamilton, Michael
Schumacher and more, 1 is a
poignant but engrossing watch.
The subject matter is serious
and covered densely, which means
it won’t be rewatched quite as many
times as the number-one pick…

201 3

1 RUSH
DIRECTED BY RON HOWARD

Even the top choice isn’t perfect. Brands Hatch

ends up masquerading as half of the circuits
featured in the film and, despite the editing
trickery employed in the making of a bona fide
blockbuster, the driving scenes frequently look
as though they were filmed at sub-50mph
speeds. Whether that was down to budget
or a tight shooting schedule, both are
entirely forgivable.
Rush follows in the tracks of other
works by director Ron Howard – Apollo 13,
Frost/Nixon – in that it’s not far short of a
masterpiece. It captures the 1970s so well
in the soundtrack, the wardrobe and so on.
The performances by Chris Hemsworth
(James Hunt) and Daniel Bruhl (Niki Lauda)
are phenomenal. Hunt and Lauda are depicted
with all their flaws, but the actors, and Peter
Morgan’s script, ensure both remain totally
likeable. Unlike Senna, viewers aren’t forced
to side with one more than the other.
Yes, there are liberties – Hunt didn’t
batter a journalist for his comments about
Lauda’s appearance – but that’s the nature
of the film industry.
The 1976 title fight, settled by just a single
point in Hunt’s favour, doesn’t need much
in the way of embellishment. But this isn’t
some paint-by-numbers action flick either,
as Anthony Dod Mantle’s cinematography
is wonderfully creative – think cameras
inside the actors’ helmets.
Crucially, there’s no need to make a
compelling case to those who don’t care
for racing to watch Rush. It transcends
the sport with its beautiful presentation
of the era and the human stories.

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INDEX
W H AT WA S W R I T T E N I N T H E M A G A Z I N E T H I S Y E A R , W H E N , A N D BY W H O M
MA Mitchell Adam KC
BA Ben Anderson SC
DA David Addison AC
GA Gary Anderson JC
MB Matt Beer LD
JB Jack Benyon TE
JBL Jake Boxall-Legge DE
CB Charles Bradley PF
SB Stephen Brunsdon GF
Aston Martin Autosport
BRDC Award
Three decades of winners
(10 Jan-KT)
2019 contenders (5 Sept-KT)
Tom Gamble’s F1 test (14 Nov)
Why Aston Martin is now part
of the Award (28 Nov-KT)
How the 2019 Award winner
was chosen (5 Dec-KT)
Autosport Awards
Voting nominations (7 Nov)
All the night’s winners (12 Dec)
Autosport International
Show preview pt1 (3 Jan)
Show preview pt2 (10 Jan)
The 2019 highlights (17 Jan)
British Touring Cars
Why Blundell is taking on
the BTCC (14 Mar-MJ)
Season preview (4 Apr-MJ/MK)
1. Brands Hatch (11 Apr-MK)
2. Donington Park (2 May-MK)
3. Thruxton (23 May-MK)
4. Croft (20 June-MK)
5. Oulton Park (4 July-MK)
6. Snetterton (8 Aug-MK)
7. Thruxton (22 Aug-MK)
8. Knockhill (19 Sept-MJ)
9. Silverstone (3 Oct-MK)
10. Brands Hatch (17 Oct-MK)
Season review (31 Oct-MK)
Who is the BTCC’s greatest?
(5 Nov-MK/ES/KT)
Club Column
Formula 5000 at 50 (17 Jan-MP)
Mini Challenge: from strength
to strength (24 Jan-JB)
Club racing’s grasp is exceeding
its reach (31 Jan-SL)
Club racing for the pros (7 Feb-JB)
Parisian pilgrimage (14 Feb-MP)
Racing’s Brexit headache (21 Feb-SL)
The best club series for beginners
(28 Feb-SMA/SL)
Gone but not forgotten: Ginetta
in British GT (14 Mar-KT)
BTCC support acts’ ups and downs
(21 Mar-SL)
Formula Ford celebrates again
(28 Mar-MP)
The last great British single-seater
grid? (4 Apr-SL)
Members’ Meeting magic
(1 Apr-SMA)
Cricklewood characters (18 Apr-MP)
Great British motorsport menu
(25 Apr-SL)
SMRC’s paths of glory (16 May-SB)
HSCC’s changing landscape
(23 May-MP)
Time for clubs to get ruthless
(30 May-SL)
Have noise restrictions gone
too far? (6 June-KT/SMA)
Could Brexit help club racing?
(13 June-MK)
1 1 0 AUTOSPORT.COM 1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9
Karun Chandhok AH
Stuart Codling JH
Adam Cooper MJ
Jack Cozens AK
Lewis Duncan GK
Tom Errington MK
David Evans VK
Paul Fearnley JK
Glenn Freeman GKU
Standards are slipping (20 June-MP)
Shock of the new (27 June-SL)
Can Barwell hold on? (11 July-JNE)
Anything can happen in the next
half-season (18 July-SL)
Rose-tinted spectacle (25 July-KT)
Forward-thinking historics
(1 Aug-MK)
Formula Ford’s future (8 Aug-SMA)
Will it be third time lucky for
the DTM meeting? (15 Aug-MK)
When rules aren’t rules (22 Aug-SL)
How Priaulx Jr has emerged as
a GT4 frontrunner (29 Aug-JNE)
Welcome to mad September
(5 Sept-MP)
All to play for in British GT
(12 Sept-JNE)
No to historic hysterics (26 Sept-MP)
Arrive, drive and jive (3 Oct-JNE)
Showdown drama (10 Oct-SL)
Return of the Mac (17 Oct-JNE)
Formula (Ford) for growth
(31 Oct-MK)
National racing’s star appeal
(7 Nov-SMA)
Press the reset button? (28 Nov-SL)
Does club racing have a future?
(5 Dec-MP)
Why McLaren has swerved the
obvious (12 Dec-JNE)
F1 launches
Renault RS19, Haas VF-19,
Toro Rosso STR14 (14 Feb)
Ferrari SF90, Mercedes W10,
Red Bull RB15, McLaren
MCL34, Racing Point RP19,
Alfa Romeo C38 (21 Feb)
Williams FW42 (28 Feb)
Formula 2
Jack Benyon
2018 season review (3 Jan)
Season preview (28 Mar)
1. Sakhir (4 Apr)
2. Baku (2 May)
3. Barcelona (16 May)
4. Monte Carlo (30 May)
5. Paul Ricard (27 June)
6. Red Bull Ring (4 July)
7. Silverstone (18 July)
8. Hungaroring (8 Aug)
9. Spa-cancelled (5 Sept)
10. Monza (12 Sept)
11. Sochi (3 Oct)
12. Yas Marina (Nov 29)
Formula E
2. Marrakech (17 Jan-AK)
3. Santiago (31 Jan-AK)
What it takes to win (31 Jan-AK)
4. Mexico City (21 Feb-AK)
Time for the Big Cat to show
its claws (28 Feb-AVDB)
5. Hong Kong (14 Mar-AK)
Gen2 winners and losers
(21 Mar-AK)
6. Sanya (28 Mar-AK)
7. Rome (18 April-AK)
Buemi’s redemption (25 Apr-AK)
Andy Hallbery PL Paul Lawrence
Johanna Husband SL Stephen Lickorish
Matt James TL Tim Lumb
Alex Kalinauckas SMA Stefan Mackley
Graham Keilloh DM David Malsher
Matt Kew SM Scott Mitchell
Valentin Khorounzhiy LM Lucy Morson
Jamie Klein JNE James Newbold
Gerhard Kuntschik JANO Jason Noble
8. Paris (2 May-AK)
9. Monte Carlo (16 May-AK)
Will Porsche rule FE? (23 May-AK)
10. Berlin (30 May-AK)
11. Bern (27 June-AK)
Who can stop Vergne? (11 July-AK)
12. New York (18 July-AK)
Season review (15 Aug-AK)
How F1’s top team plans to
conquer Formula E (19 Sept-AK)
Testing war (24 Oct-AK)
2019-20 preview (21 Nov-AK)
1. Diriyah (28 Nov-AK)
Grand prix features
Robert Kubica’s return (3 Jan-SM)
Michael Schumacher’s 10
greatest victories (3 Jan-GF)
Schumacher’s legacy (3 Jan-JR)
F1 2019: will the new rules work?
(10 Jan-ES/JBL)
How Ferrari can beat Mercedes
(17 Jan-ES)
Is Renault ready to win? (24 Jan-ES)
Could McLaren’s F1 2050 idea
happen? (31 Jan-ES/JBL)
Big questions of 2019 (7 Feb-KC)
Autosport’s top F1 drivers of
the decade (7 Feb-KT)
F1’s forgotten champion (7 Feb-PF)
Under the skin of testing (14 Feb-GA)
F1 greatest era poll: your verdict
(14 Feb-KT)
When was F1 closest? (14 Feb-KT)
Invigorating Ferrari (21 Feb-SM)
Mercedes bids to snatch Ferrari’s
record (21 Feb-ES)
Can Honda lift Red Bull? (21 Feb-SM)
McLaren: sleeping giant or
busted flush? (21 Feb-ES)
Mercedes plays catch-up as
Ferrari leads the way (28 Feb-ES)
The real order in F1 testing
(28 Feb-GA)
How teams are reclaiming
lost ground (28 Feb-JBL/GP)
Hamilton: harder, better,
faster, stronger (28 Feb-SM)
F1 season preview (7 Mar-ES/JBL/
GP/KC/AC/SM/JNO/JR/GA)
Kimi’s new life at Alfa (14 Mar-ES)
2001: a Kimi odyssey (14 Mar-AC)
Ferrari: false start or false dawn?
(28 Mar-ES/SM)
F1 1000: Driving the game-
changers (11 Apr-BA/MK/KT)
The path to 1000 (11 Apr-KT)
Ayrton Senna’s 10 greatest
F1 drives (25 April-KT)
Senna: myth v man (25 April-ES)
Remembering Roland
Ratzenberger (25 Apr-GKU)
The battle to topple Hamilton
(9 May-ES)
Lauda remembered (30 May-NR)
Lauda’s greatest F1 races
(30 May-KT)
Piola’s greatest F1 cars (30 May)
Inside the tech race (6 June-GA/JBL)
British GP preview (11 July-ES/
DE/JB)
JNO Jonathan Noble
GP Giorgio Piola
MP Marcus Pye
MR Michael Renouf
JR James Roberts
NR Nigel Roebuck
DR Dan Ryan
JS Jeremy Shaw
MS Marcus Simmons
What has Red Bull done for F1?
(25 July-SM)
Grand prix racing’s greatest loser?
(1 Aug-PF)
Will 2021’s new rules improve
the show? (Sept 13-SM)
Is Ferrari now ready to beat
Mercedes in 2020? (10 Oct-ES)
How Ferrari tackled its
weaknesses (10 Oct-GP)
10 moments that decided the
F1 title (7 Nov-SM/ES)
We drive Hamilton’s title winner
(14 Nov-KC)
Petronas boss Q&A (28 Nov-SC)
Season review (12 Dec-ES/JNO/JBL/
GP/SM/AC)
Grand prix reports
1. Australia (21 Mar-ES)
2. Bahrain (4 Apr-ES)
3. China (18 Apr-ES)
4. Azerbaijan (2 May-ES)
5. Spain (16 May-ES)
6. Monaco (30 May-ES)
7. Canada (14 June-ES)
8. France (27 June-ES)
9. Austria (4 July-ES)
10. Great Britain (18 July-ES)
11. Germany (1 Aug-ES)
12. Hungary (8 Aug-ES)
13. Belgium (5 Sept-ES)
14. Italy (12 Sept-ES)
15. Singapore (26 Sept-ES)
16. Russia (3 Oct-ES)
17. Japan (17 Oct-BA)
18. Mexico (31 Oct-ES)
19. USA (7 Nov-ES)
20. Brazil (21 Nov-ES)
21. Abu Dhabi (5 Dec-ES)
Have-a-go hero
Jason Bright’s CART dream drive
(28 Feb-MA)
Matt Neal’s ASCAR foray
(6 June-MK)
Sarah Fisher’s taste of F1
(27 June-JNE)
James Thompson’s Bathurst
memories (24 Oct-MK)
Mark Skaife’s European F3000
damp squib (21 Nov-JNE)
Mads Ostberg in a 911 (12 Dec-SB)
IndyCar
The Swede who could
rock IndyCar (14 Feb-MS)
Season preview (7 Mar-DM)
1. St Petersburg (14 Mar-DM)
2. Austin (28 Mar-DM)
3. Barber (11 Apr-DM)
4. Long Beach (18 Apr-DM)
5. Indianapolis (16 May-DM)
Alonso’s Indy failure (23 May-DM)
6. Indianapolis 500 (30 May-DM)
7. Detroit Belle Isle (6 June-DM)
8. Texas (13 June-DM)
9. Road America (27 June-DM)
10. Toronto (18 July-DM)
11. Iowa (25 July-DM)
12. Mid-Ohio (1 Aug-DM)
IS Ian Sowman
ES Edd Straw
KT Kevin Turner
AVDB Andrew van de Burgt
AVL Andrew van Leeuwen
GW Gary Watkins
AW Andy Willsheer
RW Richard Wiseman
EW Elliot Wood
13. Pocono (22 Aug-DM)
14. Gateway (29 Aug-DM)
15. Portland (5 Sept-DM)
16. Laguna Seca (26 Sept-DM)
Season review (17 Oct-DM)
In the paddock
The path to glory (3 Jan-ES)
F1 needs unpredictability,
not randomness (10 Jan-ES)
Will F1 rookies be doormats
or matadors? (10 Jan-AC)
Kimi’s happy place (17 Jan-ES)
Out of Africa (17 Jan-GW)
Faster but slower: how modern
F1 is often off the pace (24 Jan-ES)
Verstappen watches the
watchmen (24 Jan-AK)
WRC’s Casino Royale (24 Jan-DE)
Alonso – beyond the
‘triple crown’ (31 Jan-ES)
The impossible dream of
winning in F1 (7 Feb-ES)
Will British GP be lost? (7 Feb-AC)
Can Gasly do the business?
(14 Feb-ES)
F1 test transformation (21 Feb-ES)
Blundell joins Plato’s republic
(21 Feb-MJ)
Why Mercedes must catch up now
(28 Feb-ES)
Aston Martin’s mission
impossible? (28 Feb-JC)
McLaren must be aware of Alonso
(7 Mar-ES)
F1’s ticking Doomsday Clock
(7 Mar-AC)
Why fastest lap is irrelevant
(14 Mar-ES)
Is Mexico for the high jump?
(14 Mar-DE)
Norris’s debut was better than
it looked (21 Mar-ES)
Williams on the ropes (21 Mar-SM)
F1 and IndyCar: speed versus
spectacle (28 Mar-ES)
The end of ‘proper’ F3 (28 Mar-MS)
Ricciardo’s reality check (4 Apr-ES)
The clock is ticking (4 Apr-AC)
1000 and counting (11 Apr-ES)
Young talent ensures F1’s future
(11 Apr-SM)
Qualified approval (18 Apr-ES)
Conquering the Chinese way
(18 Apr-BA)
Time to back Binotto (25 Apr-ES)
Principles of a principal (25 Apr-MS)
Irresistible rise of Leclerc (2 May-ES)
Making a (Racing) Point (2 May-AC)
Bottas’s ‘Rosberg moment’
(9 May-ES)
When new rules aren’t new
(May 10-MJ)
Alonso’s second Indy chance
(16 May-ES)
Thirty is a magic number for
FIA F3 (16 May-JB)
Kubica’s Monaco masterclass
(23 May-ES)
Long may Monaco reign (30 May-ES)
Rally GB requires urgent attention

(30 May-DE)
Portugal’s tactics dust-up
(6 June-DE)
Watching the watchmen
(13 June-ES)
DTM’s star attraction (13 June-TE)
Vettel is still Ferrari’s best hope
(20 June-ES)
Sportscars’ new lease of life?
(20 June-GW)
McLaren’s new road to recovery
(17 June-ES)
Honda’s jet-tech boost (28 June-SM)
Giovinazzi makes an impression
(4 July-ES)
GPDA stands together (4 July-AC)
Ultimate driving machinations
in the BTCC (4 July-MK)
Can Gasly recover? (11 July-ES)
Fuelling foolishness (18 July-ES)
New York was not Formula E’s
‘Crashgate’ (18 July-AK)
How to be best of the rest
(25 July-ES)
Hidden danger of track limits
(25 July-BA)
An F1 driver reborn (1 Aug-ES)
The way forward for F1? (1 Aug-AC)
Decision at Wolff’s door (8 Aug-ES)
Opportunity knocks for Albon
(15 Aug-ES)
Will Ocon be back in an F1
race seat in 2020? (22 Aug-ES)
What W Series needs to do next
(22 Aug-LM)
Williams: a work in progress
(29 Aug-ES)
Is a GP special enough? (5 Sept-ES)
Does grid need to grow? (5 Sept-AC)
Vettel’s Ferrari dream
appears over (12 Sept-ES)
McLaren’s next IndyCar step
(12 Sept-DM)
Hulkenberg: so near, so far
(19 Sept-ES)
Rules are rules at the Revival
(19 Sept-MK)
The enigma of Romain Grosjean
(26 Sept-ES)
This time it’s war (3 Oct-ES)
McLaren’s Mercedes motivation
(3 Oct-AC)
The confusion of F1 names
(10 Oct-ES)
Makinen’s challenge to Meeke
(10 Oct-DE)
Jenson Button’s driving lessons
(17 Oct-ES)
Did the best driver win the BTCC?
(17 Oct-MK)
F1’s missed opportunity (24 Oct-ES)
A legend bows out (24 Oct-MS)
Hamilton’s magic moments
(31 Oct-ES)
A feel-good champion story
(31 Oct-MS)
The signs are there for Russell
(7 Nov-ES)
Why F1 has to go green (7 Nov-AC)
Albon deserves 2020 shot
(14 Nov-ES)
Bring the racing back to the
WEC (14 Nov-GW)
Who is the real Pierre Gasly?
(21 Nov-ES)
Flying the electric privateer flag
(21 Nov-AK)
The wrong place for a finale?
(28 Nov-ES)
When the WRC music stops
(28 Nov-DE)
What next for Vettel? (5 Dec-ES)
Beating fear of failure (5 Dec-AC)
How Hoggard won our Award
(12 Dec-KT)
Formula E’s coming of age
(12 Dec-AK)
Introducing
Hailie Deegan (17 Jan-TE)
Mikel Azcona (16 May-SB)
Job van Uitert (8 Aug-JNE)
Robert Shwartzman (7 Nov-JB)
Marco Mapelli (28 Nov-SB)
MotoGP
Season preview (7 Mar-JK)
1. Losail (14 Mar-JK)
2. Rio Hondo (4 Apr-JK)
3. Austin (18 Apr-CB)
4. Jerez (9 May-LD)
5. Le Mans (23 May-LD)
6. Mugello (6 June-JK)
7. Barcelona (20 June-VK)
8. Assen (4 July-LD)
9. Sachsenring (11 July-LD)
10. Brno (8 Aug-LD)
11. Red Bull Ring (15 Aug-VK)
12. Silverstone (29 Aug-LD)
13. Misano (19 Sept-LD)
14. Motorland Aragon (26 Sept-LD)
15. Buriram (10 Oct-VK)
16. Motegi (24 Oct-LD)
17. Phillip Island (31 Oct-LD)
18. Sepang (7 Nov-LD)
19. Valencia (21 Nov-LD)
Season review (28 Nov-LD)
Motorsport memory
1985 RAC Rally (7 Feb-DE)
1995 2CV 24 Hours (21 Mar-JR)
A tantrum before the 1979
Brazilian Grand Prix (13 June-AVDB)
The family heirloom (22 Aug-AVL)
National focus
Rating the new series of 2018, and
introducing this year’s offerings
(3 Jan-JB/MJ/MK/SL/SMA)
Club racing’s underdogs
(10 Jan-GK/SMA/MP/IS)
Legends king Mickel keeping the
American dream alive (24 Jan-SMA)
Matt Greenwood – the boy who
would be king (31 Jan-SMA)
Britain’s best club racer (7 Feb-JB)
Daytona prize drive that almost
never was (14 Feb-GW)
The TOCA racer enabling
big-screen dreams (28 Feb-MK)
BRSCC’s roadster risk (28 Feb-MK)
How to make an Austin A40
35 seconds faster (7 Mar-KT)
Driving Attwood’s 928 (14 Mar-BA)
How to get started in racing
(21 Mar-SMA/PL/SL)
BTCC supports preview (Apr 4-SL)
British GT preview (18 Apr-JNE)
British F3 preview (18 Apr-SMA)
Donington Historic Festival
preview (2 May-MK/MP)
Combe celebrates Formula Ford
milestone (9 May-GK)
MRF adventure (13 June-SL)
Historics at Knutstorp (18 July-MP)
Michael O’Brien’s journey to
McLaren (15 Aug-JNE)
Orange army’s battle (22 Aug-SL)
British F3 review (26 Sept-SMA)
British GT review (17 Oct-JNE)
Formula Ford Festival preview
(24 Oct-SMA)
TOCA supports review (7 Nov-SL)
IndyCar legend races an MX-5
(14 Nov-GK)
Hugo Spowers’s design prowess
(21 Nov-MK)
National club analysis (28 Nov-SL)
The 2019 club racing champions
(12 Dec-SL/SMA)
Obituaries
Charly Lamm (31 Jan)
Robin Smith (14 Feb)
Peter Shaw (21 Feb)
Charlie Whiting (21 Mar)
Jim Russell (11 Apr)
Zach Anderton (25 Apr)
Hubert Hahne (2 May)
Tommy Sopwith (16 May)
Bill Gowdy (16 May)
Niki Lauda (23 May)
Roger Andreason (30 May)
Robin Herd (13 June)
Alan Rollinson (13 June)
Norman Dewis (13 June)
Jean-Paul Driot (8 Aug)
Ferdinand Piech (29 Aug)
Anthoine Hubert (5 Sept)
Andrew Cowan (24 Oct)
Russell Brookes (7 Nov)
Martin Down (14 Nov)
Brian Hampsheir (14 Nov)
Brian Fisher (21 Nov)
Pit+Paddock
McLaren eyes 2021 Le Mans
24 Hours (3 Jan)
Binotto replaces Arrivabene
at Ferrari (10 Jan)
Seidl leaves Porsche to join
McLaren (17 Jan)
Loeb’s whirlwind route to
Monte Carlo (24 Jan)
Todt slams rallying tech
lethargy (31 Jan)
Remote regions for Extreme E
(7 Feb)
Button becomes GT team boss
(14 Feb)
Opening salvos fired in F1 testing
(21 Feb)
BMW launches BTCC 3 Series
(28 Feb)
Formula E back in the UK (7 Mar)
Williams regroups after Lowe
departure (14 Mar)
Charlie Whiting’s legacy (21 Mar)
Hyundai must hit back in WRC
(28 Mar)
Progress on F1 2021 regs (4 Apr)
Young guns star in Bahrain F1 test
(11 Apr)
Vettel blames media for team
order woes (18 Apr)
Kubica: Williams problems
run deep (25 Apr)
Aston Martin debut heralds
DTM rebirth (2 May)
Formula 1 set for Zandvoort
return (9 May)
Zandvoort is back – but what
will F1 lose? (16 May)
Pagenaud tops Indy qualifying
(23 May)
IndyCar to introduce aeroscreen
for 2020 (30 May)
Why Le Mans privateers have
fallen back (6 June)
Vettel fury over Canadian GP
penalty (13 June)
Aston and Toyota to race
hypercars (20 June)
Renault considers 2020 driver
options (27 June)
What Verstappen decision
means for F1 (4 July)
Focus on leading Award
contenders (11 July)
How new deal saved the
British GP (18 July)
What F1 could look like in 2021
(25 July)
Motorsport Games inspired by
Olympics (1 Aug)
Is Honda a match for Merc? (8 Aug)
Albon replaces Gasly at Red Bull
(15 Aug)
Honda’s engine dilemma (22 Aug)
Mercedes sparks F1 silly season
(29 Aug)
Porsche unveils Formula E
programme (5 Sept)
Hulkenberg versus Grosjean for
Haas seat (12 Sept)
Aston’s Le Mans attack (19 Sept)
Grosjean stays, Kubica exits
(26 Sept)
McLaren and Mercedes back
together (3 Oct)
F1’s new team: what’s really
going on (10 Oct)
F1 reveals reversed-grid
trial races (17 Oct)
Ferrari engine questioned by
rivals (24 Oct)
Tanak set for switch to Hyundai
(31 Oct)
F1 finally reveals 2021 rules (7 Nov)
Fires cause Rally Australia
cancellation (14 Nov)
Peugeot commits to Le Mans
return (21 Nov)
BTCC star Sutton switches
to Infiniti (28 Nov)
Hamilton’s 25% Ferrari chance
(5 Dec)
Ocon starts his F1 return with
Renault (12 Dec)
Reports – miscellaneous
Race Of Champions (24 Jan)
Daytona 24 Hours (31 Jan-GW)
Bathurst 12 Hour (7 Feb-AVL)
Daytona 500 (21 Feb-DM)
Sebring 12 Hours (21 Mar-GW)
Goodwood Members’ Meeting
(11 Apr-MP)
Nurburgring 24 Hours (27 June-DA)
Goodwood Festival of Speed
(11 July-MK)
Spa 24 Hours (1 Aug-GW)
Silverstone Classic (1 Aug-MP/PL)
Goodwood Revival (19 Sept-MP/KT)
Bathurst 1000 (17 Oct-AVL)
Petit Le Mans (17 Oct-JS)
Motorsport Games (7 Nov-GW)
Macau Grand Prix (21 Nov-JB)
GT World Cup (21 Nov-AVL)
Super GT x DTM Dream Race
(28 Nov-TE)
Special features
Daytona 24 preview (24 Jan-GW)
Penske’s sole Daytona enduro win
(24 Jan-KT)
Daytona 500 preview (14 Feb-TE)
Brabham: David fights Goliath
(28 Feb-GW)
F5000 – 50 years of European
thunder (28 Feb-MP)
Jann Mardenborough:
last man standing (28 Mar-TE)
Goodwood Members’ Meeting
preview (4 Apr-MP)
FF2000 track test (25 Apr-BA)
Steve McQueen’s lost racing film
(9 May-RW)
Blowing away the NASCAR
old school (23 May-JB)
Why the FIA is getting into Esports
(6 June-TL)
Chaos in single-seater racing
(June 27-MS)
Goodwood Festival of Speed
preview (4 July-MP)
Head-to-head in the McLaren
Pure GT Series (18 July-BA/DR)
Naoki Yamamoto interview
(25 July-MS)
Capri Kings (25 July-GW)
Robin Shute’s Pikes Peak
triumph (25 July-DE)
Porsche 917 at 50 (15 Aug-KT/JBL/
TE/GW)
Women in motorsport (22 Aug-LM/
TE/JNE/AW/JC/MJ/AK/MS/AVL/GW/
SC/PL/PF)
1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9 AUTOSPORT.COM 1 1 1
INDEX
Powerlist 50 (29 Aug-MB/JB/CB/SC/
AC/LD/TE/DE/AK/DM/SM/JNE/JNO/ES/
AVDB/GW)
W Series season review (5 Sept-LM)
Behind the scenes at the Spa 24
Hours (12 Sept-EW)
Q&A: Clement Novalak
(12 Sept-JANO)
Motorsport’s biggest shocks (24
Oct-JB/DE/MJ/MK/DM/MS/ES/KT/GW)
Solberg’s 10 best drives (24 Oct-DE)
Inside the Silverstone Experience
(24 Oct-KT)
Greg Moore retrospective
(31 Oct-AH/JH)
Q&A with Le Mans ’66 director
James Mangold (14 Nov-MR)
The real Ken Miles (14 Nov-PF)
Tom Gamble’s DTM test (21 Nov)
Christmas gift guide (28 Nov)
Jack Brabham’s greatest drives
(5 Dec-KT)
Supplements
Engineering (10 Jan)
Performance (7 Feb)
Engineering (14 Mar)
Performance (28 March)
Engineering (9 May)
Indy 500 preview (23 May)
Le Mans preview (6 June)
Performance (13 June)
Engineering (4 July)
Historics (25 July)
Performance (2 Aug)
Engineering (5 Sept)
Historics (12 Sept)
Rally GB (3 Oct)
Performance (10 Oct)
Engineering (7 Nov)
Top 5
Rehomed race engines (3 Jan-MK)
Most superior cars (14 Feb)
Racers that never raced (4 Apr-MK)
GPs decided by penalties
(20 June-MS)
Last hurrahs (5 Sept-MK)
Ford GT drivers (14 Nov-MK)
WEC
6. Sebring (21 Mar-GW)
7. Spa (9 May-GW)
Under the skin of the Le Mans
favourite (13 June-JBL)
8. Le Mans (20 June-GW)
2018-19 review (11 July-GW)
2019-20 preview (29 Aug-GW)
1. Silverstone (5 Sept-GW)
Hyper over hypercars? (26 Sept-GW)
2. Fuji (10 Oct-GW)
3. Shanghai (14 Nov-GW)
What could have been
Matt Neal (10 Oct-MK)
Adrian Newey (14 Nov-JNE)
Darren Turner (5 Dec-KT)
WRC
David Evans
Season preview (24 Jan)
1. Monte Carlo (31 Jan)
2. Sweden (21 Feb)
3. Mexico (14 Mar)
Loeb and Gronholm look back
(28 Mar)
4. Corsica (4 Apr)
5. Argentina (2 May)
6. Chile (16 May)
7. Portugal (6 June)
8. Italy (20 June)
9. Finland (8 Aug)
10. Germany (29 Aug)
11. Turkey (19 Sept)
12. GB (10 Oct)
13. Spain (31 Oct)
Season review (5 Dec)
 NEXT STOP, DAYTONA!

Our 2020 Sunoco Challenge winners Johnathan Hoggard

and Robbie Dalgleish will have one eye on the mince
pies over the Christmas break but the other will be firmly
focused on their two trips to Daytona in January. For both,
the adventure starts in the first days of the New Year when
they jet off to Florida to take part in the Roar Before The 24,
allowing them to gain valuable testing mileage ahead of
the main event.
After a few weeks at home, and appearances at the
Autosport International show, they will then make the
return trip for the main event - the Rolex 24 At Daytona.
You can follow their progress via the Sunoco Challenge
social channels by searching for Sunoco UK.
A key partner of the Sunoco Challenge programmes is the
Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, also
known as Team Fox. Every year the Anglo American Oil
Company makes a donation to the foundation in the days
before the start of the Rolex 24 Hours At Daytona.
This year, with the introduction of a five point bonus
system, we have been able to raise thousands of dollars for
the charity. Currently the total stands at just over $4,000 but
we want to do more, so please help out by donating to this
worthy cause by using this link: shorturl.at/EGS57

For a full list of challenge points scorers visit www.sunocochallenge.com

Anglo American Oil Company

+44 (0) 1929 551557 www.aaoil.co.uk
 Only the best products can help
you travel at 3,000 times the speed
of sound to deliver 321,000 tonnes of
presents in one night.

Wishing all our

customers a very
Merry Christmas

This advert is not endorsed by Father Christmas. All figures correct at

time of publication but unable to be verified due to the elves being busy.

Anglo American Oil Company

+44 (0) 1929 551557 www.aaoil.co.uk
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 CLASSIFIEDS MOTORSPORT JOBS

RECRUITMENT
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PAS SI ON
MOTORSPORT JOBS

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2020 Work Experience Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Motorsport

As part of our on-going commitment to developing the best
emerging talent, we are proud to advertise places on our
exciting Work Experience programme for 2020. The purpose
of work experience is to raise awareness of the role within
engineering, and to encourage young people to explore
roles within engineering and the wider STEM industry. Our
aim is to bring engineering and business subjects to life,
enthuse students about the options out there, and help to
equip them for their future careers, particularly in a precision
engineering environment such as ours. Alongside the Work
Experience Programme, we run a “Taster Week”, also known
as “Five days in the life of Williams” and can accommodate
10 students.
Would Work Experience or Taster Week suit me? If you’re
interested in engineering and love subjects like science,
technology, engineering and maths, then please do apply!
Successful candidates are:
• Passionate about engineering
• Enthusiastic, interested and eager to learn new things
Do you have a passion for and experience in Motorsport?
Myerscough College are looking for a dynamic and
motivated individual to join the Motorsport team to deliver
a range of Motorsport related subjects to Higher Education
students.
The successful candidate must have relevant industry
experience particularly in competition car preparation and
data analysis. It is essential that you hold an Honours
Degree in Motorsport or an equivalent qualification in a
related subject as well as Maths & English GCSE Grade
C or above. It is also a requirement that you either hold a
teaching qualification or that you are willing to undertake
teacher training within an agreed time period.
In return the College can offer a fantastic working
environment, an attractive benefit package, including
access to the Teachers Pension scheme, a generous holiday
entitlement and a wealth of professional development
opportunities.

• An interest in subjects such as maths, science, technology

and engineering

• Hard-working and good at thinking on their feet

• Polite and helpful – you’ll be helping out so should try hard

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To apply now visit www.motorsportjobs.com To apply now visit www.motorsportjobs.com

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 Two non-
championship races
will take place at the
Spa WEC weekend on
23-25 April in 2020
@AutosportNational
@AS_National
CLUB AUTOSPORT F E AT U R E S
O
TRACK TESTS

READ

BRITCAR HEADS TO SPA AS

O

SUPPORT FOR WEC RACE

HISTORICS

BRITCAR The Spa event will follow the first round of the main
Britcar Endurance Championship, which is due to take
O

Britcar will support the World Endurance Championship place at Donington Park on 10 April. The provisional
N AT I O N A L R A C I N G

for the first time next season with a visit to Spa.
Two non-championship races will take place at the
Spa WEC weekend on 23-25 April next year. Qualifying
will be on the Thursday, with two 50-minute races, one
on the Friday and the other on the Saturday. The races
will be open to any car that complies with regulations
for class 1-7 of Britcar and a large entry is anticipated.
It will be the first time Britcar has run an overseas
event since Claire Hedley took over the management of
the championship for 2016. “We’re over the moon,” said
Hedley. “It’s a great opportunity for us and puts us on
the world stage. It’s amazing, we were approached by
them [WEC organisers] because of our reputation –
we put on a good show and have good grids.”
Hedley says interest has been “phenomenal” after
receiving a significant number of enquiries from
prospective entries in the first 24 hours after the
races were announced.
“I’ve had European teams approach me already –
we’ve had some teams run with us in the past and
they’ve said they’re coming back,” she added.
calendar also features three visits to Silverstone – two
of which will be on the Grand Prix circuit – alongside
rounds at Snetterton and Brands Hatch.
Britcar will also introduce a new Trophy category for
2020, which a number of drivers have signed up for.
This category, for production-based cars, will run in
additional races in order to be separate from the GT
machinery in the main Endurance Championship.
Generally the Trophy races will take place on the
same weekend as Endurance contests – the Endurance
races will typically be on Saturdays followed by the
50-minute Trophy bouts on Sundays.
“Over the two championships, we’ve got 15 drivers
signed up already and a lot of those are for the Trophy
– people have seen it as a great opportunity,” said Hedley.
“The Trophy was a gut feeling – we thought there
was a market for production cars, but when you
amalgamate them with GT cars they want to win
races outright, so we had the idea of splitting them
up and opening it up to smaller hot hatches.”
STEPHEN LICKORISH

Martin moves up with Richardson
PORSCHE CARRERA CUP GB
Ginetta Junior frontrunner Will Martin
will switch to the Porsche Carrera Cup
GB next season.
Martin, who took the most Junior
wins of any driver in 2019 with nine,
will make the step up alongside his
Junior team Richardson Racing, which
will compete in the Porsche series
for the first time.
“Getting the
opportunity to
race in such
a prestigious
championship
so early in my
career makes me
so excited and
I am extremely
humble,” said
Martin.
“It’s a big step New Porsche Carrera
into the Carrera Cup GB driver: Martin
Cup GB for a new
Horsten steps up with Lanan
BRDC BRITISH F3
BRDC British Formula 3 team Lanan Racing
has recruited Australian Bart Horsten to its
roster for the 2020 season.
The 17-year-old Australian moves up from
British F4, where he took a race win at Donington
Park as well as nine additional podiums on his
way to fifth in the standings this season.
Horsten got his first taste of British F3’s
Tatuus-Cosworth at Donington in October as
part of Lanan’s evaluation day, where F1 driver
George Russell – who raced with Lanan on his
way to the 2014 BRDC F4 title – was on hand.
N AT I O N A L N E W S C L U B A U T O S P O R T
FIESTA CHAMP
SMITH INTO BTCC
driver and new team to the series and we’ll SUPPORT SERIES
have a lot to learn, but I’m confident that
we can all work together to improve even MINI CHALLENGE JCW
more and make our mark on the series
across the upcoming campaign.” Fiesta champion Isaac Smith
Team boss Gwyn Richardson added: will step up to the Mini
“We know that the Porsche programme is Challenge JCW series next
going to provide us with a new challenge, year, when the category joins
but it’s one that we are ready to embrace the British Touring Car
during the year ahead. Championship bill.
“We’ve worked hard in recent years The teenager took the Fiesta
to put together title this season (below) in his
a team that first year out of junior racing,
has the skills having finished fourth in
and expertise Fiesta Junior in 2018.
to fight at the “I’m really excited about 2020
front of the and was attracted to the Mini
grid, and are Challenge JCW championship
confident that because it’s the highest level I
we will be able can go to before touring cars,
to build on the so it’s the perfect feeder series,”
success we have said Smith, who will drive for
enjoyed so far the Excelr8 Motorsport squad.
in this new “This year I added
venture.” consistency to my racecraft and
learned to never give up, and the
results came my way across the
second half of the year. It was
amazing to win the senior
Fiesta title as at one stage
Horsten with Lanan
boss Graham Johnson
I was 130 points behind!
“For next year I’ll be going
all-out for the Rookie Cup
title. That’s the first aim, and
if I can achieve that it should
put me in the fight for the
overall championship, which is
definitely where I want to be.”
Another junior racing
graduate to switch to driving a
Mini next year will be Leonardo
Panayiotou, who finished fifth
in this year’s Junior Saloon Car
Championship for Citroen
Saxos. He will now graduate to
the Cooper class of the Mini
Challenge, like Smith racing
for Excelr8 Motorsport.
JEP
“I’m very excited to be moving up to the
BRDC British F3 Championship with Lanan
Racing for 2020,” said Horsten. “They have an
excellent track record at this level, and I’ve really
enjoyed working with them since our day at
Donington a couple of months ago.
“That day made a big impression on me,
the car was amazing and it was great to meet
George Russell too. Since then I’ve got more
familiar with the car and the team, and I’m
very much looking forward to a competitive
year with Graham Johnson [team boss] and
JONES
the Lanan guys in 2020.”
STEFAN MACKLEY
1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9 AUTOSPORT.COM 1 2 9
C L U B A U T O S P O R T N AT I O N A L N E W S

Ingram tested Supra

last week in Spain

Speedworks sizes up GT4 entry with Supra

TOYOTA

BR I TI S H GT
British Touring Car Championship team
Speedworks Motorsport is eyeing a move
into the British GT4 series next season
with the new Toyota Supra.
Speedworks runs the factory
supported Team Toyota GB Corolla in
the BTCC, which claimed four wins in
Tom Ingram’s hands in 2019.
Ingram and team boss Christian Dick
went to Jarama in Spain last week to test
the GT4 car and learn more about it. Dick
said that the squad was assessing its
options ahead of the 2020 season.
“The car is such a nice bit of kit, and I
was able to quiz all the engineers and get
a really good look around it,” he said. “It
would be great to introduce the Toyota to
the British GT Championship and it would
fit really nicely with the BTCC programme.
It’s certainly something we are a long way
down the road to introducing.”
Speedworks has previously run a
Ginetta and a Chevrolet in the British
GT Championship in 2010 and 2013.
Ingram said he was impressed with the
six-cylinder, three-litre machine despite
greasy conditions during his extended
run at the former grand prix circuit.
“It might as well have been Snetterton
given the conditions we had,” he said. “But
the car was great. It had plenty of grunt in
it – it’s pushing out around 430bhp.
“It has yet to have any balance of
performance introduced, so it was very
pokey and the build quality of the car was
simply superb. It’s a really great car to drive.”
MATT JAMES

De Haan leaves Barwell RAM Racing will run

two Mercedes-AMG
GT3s next season

for RAM Racing in 2020

BR I TI S H GT
British GT runner-up Sam de
Haan will switch from Barwell
Motorsport to RAM Racing as
part of an expanded two-car
Mercedes GT3 effort for the
Silverstone squad next year.
Dan Shufflebottom’s team
will run two of the latest
generation Mercedes-AMG
GT3s, with Mercedes factory
driver Yelmer Buurman
returning to the series alongside
Ian Loggie, while de Haan will
share with Finn Patrick Kujala
in an all-Silver line-up.
De Haan was allowed to
compete this season as a
derogated Bronze because his
entry for 2019 was accepted
as a Bronze prior to the FIA
upgrading his driver rating to
Silver. But he has been unable
to keep his Bronze grading for
2020 and thus continue his
Pro-Am partnership with
Gold-rated 2004 champion
Jonny Cocker. As an all-Silver
pairing with former GP3
racer Kujala, who anchored
Barwell’s Am Cup-winning Spa
24 Hours line-up in 2018, de
Haan will have to carry extra
weight in the car, but believes
the Mercedes will still be a
competitive prospect.
“The Mercedes is nice
on its tyres and I think the
Lambo would struggle more
with the extra weight across
the stint,” he said.
“It’s very Am-friendly and
inspires confidence. Ian did a
fair amount of testing before
his first season in the car and he
really got on well with it, so I’m
hoping that I can follow suit and
we’ll be in the right ballpark.”
JAMES NEWBOLD

1 3 0 AUTOSPORT.COM 1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9
 N AT I O N A L N E W S C L U B A U T O S P O R T

IN THE HEADLINES
SUTTON
Jaguar took Le Mans
wins in 1988 and
1990 (pictured) O’BRIEN AND JOHNSON AGAIN
Michael O’Brien and Graham
Johnson will resume their GT4
Pro-Am partnership in British GT
next season in a Balfe Motorsport-run
McLaren 570S GT4. Johnson, the GT4
champion in 2016, teamed up with
O’Brien this season, when they
finished second in the Pro-Am class.
They managed two class victories
at Oulton Park and Spa.

THUNDERSPORTS TO EXPAND
The Historic Sports Car Club’s
Thundersports series will expand
to a full six-event schedule in 2020
Le Mans-winning Jaguars to based on the success of this year’s
three-event pilot series. With an

be celebrated at Goodwood average grid of 32 cars across the

HISTORICS
The Jaguar Le Mans victories of 1988 and
1990 will be celebrated at the Goodwood
Members’ Meeting next March with
high-speed demonstration sessions for
up to 16 Group C and IMSA machines.
In what is likely to be the biggest ever
on-track gathering of Jaguar sports-
prototypes from the 1980s and early
1990s, the spectacular cars are due to
run sessions at the West Sussex track
on both days of the 78th Members’
Meeting on 28-29 March.
The cars, developed and built by Tom
Walkinshaw Racing, will be represented
by models ranging from the 1985 XJR-6
to the XJR-16 of 1993.
Jan Lammers, Andy Wallace and Johnny
Dumfries won the 24 Hours in 1988 in
the XJR-9, and two years later Martin
Brundle, Price Cobb and John Nielsen
took honours in an XJR-12. The 1988
victory was the first for Jaguar since the
Ecurie Ecosse D-type victory in 1957.
Across the era of the XJRs, Jaguar used
V12, 3.5-litre V6 turbo and 3.5-litre V8
engines. It is hoped that famous drivers
will be back in their period cars, including
Andy Wallace, who continues to work with
Jaguar on its motorsport heritage.
“We won’t give away the exact cars just
yet, but expect to see some of the most
iconic liveries, including Silk Cut, Bud Light
and Castrol,” said a Goodwood spokesman.
Also featuring at Goodwood will be
demonstration sessions by Lotus 72
Formula 1 cars, among other grand
prix machinery from the early 1970s.
PAUL LAWRENCE
three events, the category hit the
ground running and the series will
now add the Oulton Park Gold Cup,
Dijon and a Donington Park date for
2020. The high-profile Silverstone
Classic 40-minute race will run again.
JEREMY RICHARDSON
Jeremy Richardson, who died recently,
enjoyed a season of F2 in 1971 with the
ex-Derek Bell Brabham BT30. Having
first raced a Lotus 7, he developed
a version with independent rear
suspension for Clubmans Formula.
After racing a factory-supported
Ginetta-Climax G16A internationally
in 1969, he and brother Peter drove
a pair of FVA-powered Daren Mk2s.
As late as the 1990s he was working in
the sport for Magnus Laird’s Hyperion
Motorsport Caterham equipe.
BURTON TO GT4 SUPERCUP
Ginetta Junior podium finisher Gus
Burton (below) will graduate to the
GT4 Supercup next season. The

Steward’s Legends Live Action return 16-year-old, who finished seventh

AUTO SPO RT
I NTERN AT ION AL
Legends and National Hot
Rod star Tick Steward will
get back behind the wheel
at next month’s Autosport
International show in the
Live Action Arena.
Six Legends Cars will
form part of the Live Action
display at Birmingham’s NEC.
“I’ve always kept in contact
with Phil [Cooper, series
owner], we’ve done so much
together in Legends from the
start right back to when we
had guys like Stirling Moss
and Jody Scheckter having
a go,” said Steward, who has
not competed in Legends
for almost two decades.
“I did all of the original
demos at Silverstone when
Phil first brought the cars to
the UK and I was the first
driver to do the Live Action
shows, the first to buy a
Legend as well.
“I’ve been involved from
day one so it’s fantastic to
be back and doing the Live
Action in January. I’d seen
on Facebook about the
in this year’s Junior standings, tested
a G55 with Century Motorsport at
Legends being back there, Donington Park last month and
so I got in touch with Phil impressed the team with his pace.
and we got it all agreed. “He was super-fast on the test we
“There are some great did at Donington Park and he fits
memories, winning the first in with the team very well,” said
British title, the first World Century boss Nathan Freke.
Championship, so many
highlights over the years and
it’s going to be fantastic to be
back out there at the NEC.”
Joining Steward as part
of the performance will be
2019 champion Miles Rudman
and runner-up Sean Smith,
along with Nathan Anthony,
James Hall-Morton and
Connor Mills.

1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9 AUTOSPORT.COM 1 3 1
 C LU B AU TO S P O RT M E M O R I E S
Magic moments of 2019
Mount Panorama fire-breathers and sliding chain-driven chariots caught
the eye and gladdened the heart during a stellar national season
MARCUS PYE
here was never a dull moment on my 2019 historic
and club racing travails, made more enjoyable by
T new elements. Sweden’s longest-established
classic car race meeting at Knutstorp, the
Historic Racing Drivers Club’s splendid Lydden
Hill debut and the Historic Sports Car Club’s first visit to
Anglesey all left lasting impressions. But it was also a season of
long-anticipated and unexpected happenings. The realisation
of years of promise for Historic Formula 2 – which showcases
the stunning cars of my youth and trumped diluted three-litre
F1 across the board this term – and a heroic drive in the Spa Six
Hours made indelible memories.
Bathurst record-setter a car to behold
Tony Longhurst’s sensational 1990 Bathurst 1000 qualifying
lap record-setting Ford Sierra Cosworth RS500 turned heads
at Brands Hatch in June. Had I been able to make another trip
to Australia’s wonderful Phillip Island Classic in March, I’d
have been familiar with the Benson & Hedges billboard.
Nevertheless, it was great to have owner Carey McMahon
here for a grand tour of European races, taking in Silverstone,
Oulton Park and Spa. The Sydneysider’s ‘yellow peril’ was my
car of the season, so I was mortified when this, the successor
to Longhurst’s 1988 Bathurst winner, was damaged at
November’s Algarve Classic Festival.
The season’s end was
painful, but McMahon’s
RS500 was a real gem
HAWKINS
132 AUTOSPORT.COM 1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9
Two slugs of Thruxton
Two weekends at Thruxton – one third of its annual raceday
allocation – was as much a treat for club and historic racing
fans as for competitors on Britain’s fastest circuit. June’s
Motorsport Celebration was topped by a David v Goliath
Motor Racing Legends 50s Sports Cars win for Keith Ahlers
and Billy Bellinger in Eric Broadley’s little Climax-engined
Lola Mk1 prototype, first raced just after I was born in 1958.
In September, the Classic Sports Car Club returned with its
broad spectrum of categories and pleasant paddock atmosphere.
Jamie Sturges’s tenacious New Millennium victory in his
SEAT Leon Supercopa contributed to his superb year.
Frazer Nashes at Castle Combe
A tasty slice of Frazer Nash’s pre-war Isleworth chain-gang
production – plus a few GN cousins and hybrids – skittering
and tail-sliding round Castle Combe was an unmissable element
of the annual Autumn Classic event. Witnessing the bravest
drivers – Patrick Blakeney-Edwards, Tom Waterfield and Eddie
Williams – jostling 90-year-old Super Sports models, front
wheels apparently constantly at odds with the rears, through
Camp Corner was among my sights of the season. As a tribute
to Wiltshire’s marque hero Freddie Giles, it could not have been
better. Both he and Archie Frazer Nash would have been blown
away by the capacity grid, and virtuoso displays of car control.

Lotus Exige driver
Taylor impressed
in 750MC enduros
80th anniversary endurance
The 750 Motor Club, celebrating its 80th anniversary this
year, has provided top value racing since 1950. For members
who prefer a longer race, the Club Endurance format found
increasing favour in 2019. While it attracts serious BMWs,
SEATs and Hondas, they are not de rigueur. Lengthened
pitstops for previous winners help to balance performance
in each class, and single or two-driver team options add
intrigue. Porsche Boxster driver Steve Cheetham emerged
a worthy champion with a quick and consistent campaign in
Class B. The person who really impressed me, however, was Joe
Taylor in his Lotus Exige S3. He took the fight to the mightiest
tin-tops and won the Silverstone International round.
A reinvigorating rebrand
Competing in Thundersports in the 1980s – in Chevrons, a
Lola T492 and a Porsche 934 – was fantastic. As such, seeking
founder and promoter John Webb’s blessing (via former Motor
Sports Association – now Motorsport UK – colleague John
Symes) to reinvigorate the name for the HSCC’s hitherto
underperforming Sports Prototype series was a no-brainer.
The rebranding helped turn its fortunes around, with the likes
of John Burton – double European two-litre championship
runner-up of the 1970s – still winning. But the 43-year-old
Sports 2000 category’s revival within it, which attracted 20
Blakeney-Edwards and co
stood out in sliding Frazer
Nash theatrics at Combe
READ
M E M O R I E S C LU B AU TO S P O RT
JONES
Ford Pinto-powered cars to the Silverstone Classic
showpiece, was the big talking point. Both should go
from strength to strength in 2020.
Bentley ‘100’ stars at Goodwood
The centenary of Bentley Motors Ltd, whose robust products
won the Le Mans 24 Hours five times between 1924 and 1930,
was widely marked in 2019. Silverstone’s modern topography
made photographing the echelon start to the Vintage Sports-
Car Club’s ‘Spring Start’ race in April almost impossible. The
Llewellyn family’s Bentley Special won the MRL Pre-War race at
the Classic in July. But the piece de resistance was the exclusive
Brooklands Trophy race at September’s Goodwood Revival.
With fastest cars handicapped by having to run longest with
their hoods erected, the jostling juggernauts from Cricklewood
provided arguably the spectacle of the event.
GTSCC’s stunning Algarve Finale
The GT & Sports Car Cup, promoted since 2007 by Flavien and
Vanessa Marcais, is the doyen of European Pre-’66 GT race
action. Classily run over an aspirational four-event programme,
it is renowned for its sportsmanship, driving standards and off-
track camaraderie. October’s finale at Portugal’s superlative
Algarve circuit was sensational. Braces of thunderous AC Cobra
289s and potent Jaguar E-types plus a 5.3-litre Chevrolet
Droptop drama at the Revival
proved a fitting centenary
celebration for Bentley
STYLES
1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9 AUTOSPORT.COM 1 3 3
 
 
 
    
 
 
 
  


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Overseas trip to Knutstorp
featured eclectic grids and
an ace paddock atmosphere
V8-engined Bizzarrini slugging it out up front, trading places
constantly, was a heady start. After two hours, 1.3 seconds
separated the top two, and the safety car remained dormant
throughout! Magical, and lessons to be learned…
An overdue return to Lydden Hill
I’d last visited Lydden Hill for a race meeting in 1981, so the
opportunity to go on to the Canterbury circuit from the
Masters Historic Festival at Brands Hatch was unmissable.
Historic Racing Drivers Club founder Julius Thurgood’s take
on grassroots racing is a breath of fresh air. From brilliantly
conceived promotional material to relaxed paddock atmosphere,
the focus is on fun. The action in the Kentish amphitheatre
enthralled a sizeable crowd and was the closest I’ve seen to
1960s-style racing since I was a kid back then! The battles
between Nick Swift and Patrick Watts in Minis were
mesmeric. I can’t wait to return next July.
Fresh calendar gives a fresh sea breeze
Seasoned competitors get bored with the same old calendar
year on year. That’s a fact. The HSCC’s maiden appearance
at Wales’s Anglesey Circuit was a welcome opportunity to try
these islands’most picturesque venue, overlooking the Irish
Sea. Apart from some great contests (Matt Wrigley’s three
wins, including the UK’s first Historic Formula Atlantic race,
in his March 79B were memorable) it proved a fine social event.
Some attendees barbecued freshly caught fish, others attended
a morning service in the rarely accessible coastal church. If
you’ve not visited Anglesey yet, then make plans. I’d not
been in years, but can’t wait to return.
Inaugural W Series
champion Chadwick
caught historic bug
J BLOXHAM
M E M O R I E S C LU B AU TO S P O RT
No school like the Swedish school
Having heard good things about it, and weathered a
convoluted trip to Helsingborg via Copenhagen and the
extraordinary Oresund Bridge, my first experience of the
Svensk Sportvagnsloppet at Knutstorp was memorable.
Talented racers, different cars – two-stroke Saabs to Historic
Formula Vees – huge enthusiasm and warm hospitality at a
super venue will speed my return to Sweden. Thank you to
the organisers for welcoming me (being the odd one out
among three commentators named Bo was hilarious), and
local 1000cc F3 champion Leif Bosson for making my trip
so special. It was all about fun, not egos or spending power.
This was proper old-school racing.
Historic F2 comes of age
European F2 championship rounds at Thruxton and
Silverstone were hugely popular when superstars Jochen
Rindt, Jackie Stewart, Graham Hill and Ronnie Peterson
graced them. For those of us with long memories, the 1600cc
cars of 1967-71 and shrill two-litre machines of 1972-78 in
the HSCC-badged retrospective remain very special. It’s
taken a long time to build, but Roger and Mo Bevan have
cajoled and inspired competitors. Following a promising
start at Brands Hatch, unprecedented fields of 50-plus cars
at July’s Silverstone Classic were a major draw. ‘Euro F2’
deservedly won the Race Series of the Year accolade at
the inaugural Royal Automobile Club Historic Awards.
Jamie Chadwick, Queen of Spa
Rod Jolley’s wet outright Historic Grand Prix Cars Association
victory in the Ecurie Ecosse Lister-Jaguar ‘Monza’ at Spa would
have merited my ‘Historic Drive of the Season’ award in most
years. But the previous evening, in the event’s Six Hours, I’d
witnessed something extraordinary. Inaugural W Series
champion Jamie Chadwick debuted in a Jaguar E-type fixed-
head coupe and inspired Slovakian amateur Katarina Kyvalova,
brilliant in her supporting role. They finished a magnificent
11th overall, second Jag home behind a semi-lightweight in
ninth. That the slight 21-year-old Chadwick wrestled it round
Spa for two long traffic-heavy stints – and looked fresh
afterwards – underlined her talent and growing reputation.
P137 OUR CLUB SEASON HIGHLIGHTS
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 M E M O R I E S C LU B AU TO S P O RT

Autosport’s fondest
memories of the season
Mini mayhem, a last-gasp British GT title turnaround and epic 1950s sportscar
duelling stand proud for the Club Autosport team
S T E P H E N L I C K O R I S H , S T E F A N M A C K L E Y A N D M AT T K E W

STEPHEN LICKORISH
S P E C I A L CO N T R I B U TO R

In a week where one club series has secured a

plum Spa World Endurance Championship
support slot (see p128), it seems right to
remember two other series that had the
chance to shine on the big stage. The Mini Miglias and Se7ens
starred at the May Thruxton British Touring Car Championship
meeting and put on a brilliant slipstreaming show. They
regularly ran four or five abreast and all four races were thrillers,
where it was very difficult to predict a winner. Another
highlight, featuring machines at the opposite end of the power
spectrum, was my long-overdue first visit to Santa Pod for
JEP

the FIA European Drag Racing Championship finale.

ST E FA N M AC K L E Y
S P E C I A L CO N T R I B U TO R

As I congratulated Jonny Adam on a fourth

British GT3 title shortly after the Donington
Park decider, he was a great deal happier
than he had been just an hour before.
Adam had taken his TF Sport Aston Martin – shared by Graham
Davidson – across the finish line to apparently lose the title
by half a point to the Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini of Jonny
Cocker and Sam de Haan, after the Barwell duo’s fellow Huracan
driver Dennis Lind had knocked Adam out of the way with
minutes remaining. The incident went to the stewards, with
Lind getting a penalty, allowing Adam and Davidson to
JEP

gain an extra position and with it a well-deserved title.

M AT T K E W
E D I TO R I A L A SS I STA N T

An essential part of this job is to remain

impartial to ensure our reporting is fair. That
can take something away from the drama of a
race. But at the Goodwood Revival, watching
the Sussex Trophy bout, I found myself cheering for Sam
Hancock from the circuit banks. In his stunning Ferrari 246S Dino
he was outgunned on the straights, but was so daring and fast
through St Mary’s that he kept repassing Roger Wills’s Lotus 15
and Jon Minshaw in his Lister Knobbly. Aided by a safety car
J BLOXHAM
interlude, Hancock missed out on the win by just 0.275 seconds,
but it was one of the finest displays of control and precision
this year, all accompanied by a sonorous V6 soundtrack.

1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9 AUTOSPORT.COM 1 3 7
C LU B AU TO S P O RT TO P 1 0 D R I V E RS

TO P 1 0 C LUB
D R IVERS OF 2019
There were hundreds of standout performances across the busy
club racing season, but these drivers impressed the most
E N T R I E S B Y D O M D ’A N G E L I L L O ,
G R A H A M K E I L L O H , PA U L L A W R E N C E , M A R K L I B B E T E R ,
S T E F A N M A C K L E Y, M A R K PA U L S O N A N D M A R C U S P Y E

BEN STILES TOM HILL

10 HSCC CLASSIC FORMULA FORD 2000 9 BRSCC ALFA ROMEOS

Schooled in racing in New Zealand where his British father – long-time
Crossle FF1600 racer Trevor – is based, Ben Stiles impressed when he
tasted Classic FF2000 at Silverstone in June 2018. Two seconds to
benchmark Ian Pearson made Stiles resolve to return with the Van
Diemen RF82 this season. He did, winning eight races and the URS title,
the Pinto class running alongside Classic F3 or Historic FF2000. Tenacious
Stiles’s crowning glory was a double outright victory at Anglesey.
Formula E engineer Tom Hill became the first driver to win the Alfa
Romeo Championship three times as he continued to dominate the Twin
Spark Cup class. He took his trusty Bianco Auto Developments-prepared
156 to class honours in 12 of 16 races, enough to hold off the challenge
of similarly dominant Power Trophy runner Dave Messenger. It could so
nearly have been a fourth consecutive title for Hill – who was runner-up
in 2017 after a final-round decider – and he’s still only 22 years old!

STYLES
JONES

M A RT I N O ’ CO N N E L L MILES RUDMAN
8 HSCC HISTORIC FORMULA 2 7 BARC LEGENDS CARS

Here’s a driver who fought his way to the front of Formula 3 in the late
1990s. Now, Martin O’Connell is one of the most accomplished historic
racers, even though his main focus is fielding a fleet of period cars for
customers. Racing campaigns are sometimes a bit sporadic, but he can
jump into anything and make it perform. He loves quicker single-seaters
and did enough races in Historic Formula 2 in his Chevron B40 to seal the
highly competitive Bruno Giacomelli Trophy for the later two-litre cars.
LAWRENCE
Typically, there was no shortage of close and competitive action in the
UK Legends series, but the identity of the champion was different for the
first time since 2014. Fending off challenges from Sean Smith, Sy Harraway
and outgoing, multiple title winner John Mickel, Miles Rudman strung
together an impressive campaign that yielded no fewer than eight wins
and 22 podium finishes. Two victories at the Brands Hatch finale, including
one success from 13th on the grid, rounded off his year in fitting style.

HONOURABLE
ME NT I ON S
Graham Ross
MGCC MG Trophy
Chris ‘Chippy’ Wesemael
750MC RGB Sports 1000
HAWKINS

Isaac Smith
BRSCC Fiestas

1 3 8 AUTOSPORT.COM 1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9

CAMERON JACKSON
6 HSCC HISTORIC FORMULA FORD 1600
Cameron Jackson describes himself as a Formula Ford junkie in need
of a regular fix. His pace and ability could have taken him further as
a youngster, but now as a just-turned-30 family man and businessman,
period FFord competition fits his racing desire perfectly. He barely put a
wheel wrong in 2019, wrapping up a second Historic FF1600 crown in style
having switched to a Winkelmann chassis. Even when beaten by former
champion Richard Tarling, Jackson was quick to congratulate his rival.
LAWRENCE
S COT T M c K E N N A
4 BARC GINETTA GT5 CHALLENGE
One-make series are often competitive and the Ginetta GT5 Challenge
was no exception. The fact that Scott McKenna could sit out the final two
races of the season at Donington Park was testament to how dominant
he had been. In his first full season of car racing he had to wait until
the sixth race at Silverstone to record his first win of the campaign.
But from there he dominated, winning five of the next eight races,
and another five podiums throughout the year secured him the title.
JEP
S T E V E N D A I L LY
2 BRSCC BMW COMPACT CUP
Three consecutive titles is no mean feat and, for Steven Dailly, his third
Compact Cup championship was far from easy. Just as he was losing
ground in the title race, Dailly faced tougher times on a personal level.
En route to Anglesey, he received the sad news of his grandmother’s
death but, instead of heading home, he used it as inspiration for more
success, taking a win and two seconds. The momentum spurred him
to the title, taking three wins from the final four races.
BOURNE
TO P 1 0 D R I V E RS C LU B AU TO S P O RT
SHAUN TRAYNOR
5 750MC TOYOTA MR2s
Such has been Shaun Traynor’s dominance in the Toyota MR2
Championship over the past few years that he decided to swap his
regular Mk2 for a Mk3 to give himself more of a challenge before the
end of the season. He took nine wins during the year to record his third
title on the bounce and fourth in his career. In an ominous sign of things
to come, he took a best result of third during the final round at Oulton
Park having not driven the Mk3 car prior to the event.
JONES
M AT T H E W B O O T H
3 750MC F1000
Sport Specials champion Booth “was looking for a bit of a change”
for 2019, and got it in F1000. This was his single-seater debut, and the
contrast was stark. Yet by round two he’d won and by the year’s end he
was champion. It wasn’t easy either, up against the likes of 2013 champion
Lee Morgan. Every meeting featured rain, plus Booth encountered
technical woes, like his engine letting go on the dyno mid-year. He still
won the next race at Cadwell with a “stock engine straight out of a bike”.
JONES
LEE DEEGAN
1 BRSCC CIVIC CUP
Returning to the Civic Cup after a year away, Lee Deegan picked up where he
left off after claiming the 2017 title with a dominant win from pole position
and second from 10th on the reversed grid at Snetterton. Eight further wins
followed in a crushing display of superiority. Six poles in seven meetings
demonstrated Deegan’s searing pace, with his margin over the field regularly
around half a second – as much as would cover the rest of the top six. He
was also a winner in Mini Miglias and the MRF 1600 Challenge in India.
HAWKINS
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C LU B AU TO S P O RT TO P 1 0 R I VA L R I E S

TO P 1 0 C LUB
RI VAL RI ES O F 2 019
From title protagonists clashing to drivers being excluded by scrutineers,
there was no shortage of battles during this season
E N T R I E S BY RAC H E L H A R R I S - GA R D I N E R , G RA H A M K E I L LO H ,
M AT T K E W , M A R K L I B B E T E R , S T E P H E N L I C K O R I S H , S T E F A N M A C K L E Y,
J A M E S N E W B O L D , J A S O N N O B L E , M A R K PA U L S O N A N D P E T E R S C H E R E R

ASHLEY DIBDEN V ALEX FORES LU K E H E R B E RT V J AC K H A R D I N G

10 Qualifying sanction proves key in the battle between
two Dallara F301 drivers for the Monoposto F3 spoils
Just two points separated racing returnee Ashley Dibden from Alex Fores after
a qualifying sanction at the season finale played a key role in the destiny of the
Monoposto F3 title. The margins were tight between the pair throughout 2019
as they claimed 10 of the 14 class wins between them in their similar Dallara
F301s. At the Brands Hatch decider, Fores beat Dibden to pole in race one, only
to see his time disallowed for failing scrutineering. That, followed by a fuel-
pump problem in the race itself, handed Dibden a narrow title triumph.
9 Hotly fought Mazda MX-5 Supercup title ends with
Harding heading home early after losing out to his rival
There wasn’t the depth of the past, but the front of the Mazda MX-5 Supercup
grid remained competitive. Luke Herbert took his third title but was pushed
hard by arch-rival Jack Harding. Going into the Donington decider, Herbert
held a 10-point lead, with seven wins to Harding’s six. The clerk’s reversal
of Harding’s final-corner move to win the opener was a blow and his hopes
were ended by Herbert’s win in a feisty race two. Not interested in second,
and with an overstretched budget, Harding headed home before race three.

WALKER
STYLES

GOODWOOD SCRUTINEERS V RICK MORRIS V JORDAN HARRISON

8 ST MARY’S TROPHY GRID
Revival officials get tough on cheating among the historic tin-tops
The pace of historic racing has increased at a frenetic rate. With falling lap times,
there are frequent accusations of cheating at the blue-riband Goodwood
Revival – it’s an event for ‘hot rods’, so they say. But scrutineers dispelled any
notion that they were willing to turn a blind eye, no matter how famous the
car or driver. At this year’s Revival, 13 entries were excluded from the two
St Mary’s Trophy races for 1950-59 touring cars. That included the on-track
winners of both contests. All were thought to have run illegal roller rockers.
7 It wasn’t for the Classic Formula Ford 1600 title, but that
didn’t stop this rivalry from reaching boiling point
The mid-season stand-off between Formula Ford legend Rick Morris and
Jordan Harrison wasn’t even a championship battle; Harrison shares his car
with father Mark. This was about sheer competitiveness. Harrison succeeded
in subduing Morris at Donington after two rounds of trying to outbrake and
outmanoeuvre the eventual champion. The next time they met at Thruxton,
their rivalry culminated in a collision at the last corner as Harrison took a
desperate line into the chicane. Both were furious but the crowd loved it.
JONES

J BLOXHAM

1 4 0 AUTOSPORT.COM 1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9

TF SPORT V LAMBORGHINIS
6 The British GT season was defined by a battle between
Aston Martin and Lamborghini for the GT3 spoils
The season-long battle between British GT rivals Aston Martin and
Lamborghini was doubly significant in 2019 as each pursued a landmark
success: a first title for the new Vantage GT3 versus a first for Lambo after
four years with Barwell. Mark Lemmer’s team made its familiarity with the
Huracan count by taking three early wins, but Aston squad TF Sport gradually
pegged them back and Jonny Adam/Graham Davidson usurped the Barwell
cars at the final round – but only after a post-race penalty for the WPI Lambo.
JEP
JEFF SMITH V JOE THOMPSON
4 Two very different racers are evenly matched in the fight
for the Mini Se7ens crown, as a jumped start proves crucial
Jeff Smith and Joe Thompson could scarcely have had more disparate
starting points. Yet they were locked together on track and on points all
season in the ultra-competitive Mini Se7ens. Smith was in the latest stage
of his 2017 British Touring Car Croft crash recovery; Thompson was a rapid
and maturing up-and-comer, and one long surrounded by Minis as son of
multiple champion Paul. And they were only separated in the last race by
Thompson getting a jumped-start penalty, tilting the race and crown to Smith.
READ
J A C K Y O U N G V M A X C O AT E S
2 Clio Cup contenders who came to blows on more than
one occasion as they fought for the tin-top crown
There have been some epic rivalries in the Renault UK Clio Cup over the
years and Jack Young up against Max Coates is another to add to the list.
The duo were the class of the field this year and started coming to blows –
literally – at Snetterton in August. But the moment everyone will remember is
Young punting Coates out at the Club chicane on the final lap at the following
Thruxton round. The rivalry had well and truly boiled over by that point and,
while Young was disqualified for that move, it was he who won the crown.
JEP
TO P 1 0 R I VA L R I E S C LU B AU TO S P O RT
DOMINIK JACKSON V JEROME DE SADELEER
5 Wheelnuts decide the destiny of the Radical Challenge title
as fortunes swing wildly in the Donington Park finale
It was already a hotly contested season in the Radical Challenge as Dominik
Jackson fought to defend his title from Jerome de Sadeleer, but no-one
could have foreseen the dramas of the Donington Park finale. Jackson was
third behind de Sadeleer in the first race, but crashed out of the second when
leading as de Sadeleer took second. But it was de Sadeleer’s turn to dominate
race three, until the wheelnuts jammed at his pitstop. He lost a lap, the race
and the title, while Jackson came from the back to take third and the crown.
READ
J A M E S G O R N A L L V N AT H A N H A R R I S O N
3 The pair clashed at Brands Hatch as they battled for Mini
Challenge JCW honours and were separated by just two points
In a year that featured bumper grids of 30-plus cars it was James Gornall and
Nathan Harrison who engaged in an almighty scrap for honours in the Mini
Challenge. The pair scored five wins apiece with the honours falling to 2008
British GT champion Gornall by just two points. But had dropped scores not
been a factor it would have been Harrison’s year – he scored at every race,
meaning he had to concede 13 points. Gornall’s off into the gravel at
Silverstone ended up not costing him, as he could discard that non-score.
HAWKINS
CHRIS SALKELD V ROB KEOGH
1 A final-lap tussle decides the outcome of the Ginetta
G40 Cup title after a dramatic season of twists and turns
The battle for the Ginetta G40 Cup title went down to the last lap of the
final race of the season at Donington Park, as rivals Chris Salkeld and Rob
Keogh went into the race tied on points. Ginetta stalwart Keogh had fought
past his rival at the start of the final tour, but there was one more twist when
Salkeld retook the position – and the crown – at the Melbourne Hairpin as
the pair swapped paint. Their embrace on the podium signified a season-
long rivalry that had been hard-fought but was always fair.
JEP
1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9 AUTOSPORT.COM 1 4 1
 NATIONAL
PIC TURES OF THE Y E A R
During the past 12 months our photographers have captured some amazing
images. Here’s Autosport’s best picks from 2019.
C O M P I L E D B Y S T E FA N M A C K L E Y
Neil Maclennan in his Spectrum is chased by
a pack of Formula Ford 1600s at Brands Hatch
GARY HAWKINS
C L U B A U T O S P O R T N AT I O N A L P I C T U R E S O F T H E Y E A R

John Gillett’s MG K3 and Jean Georges van Praet’s Cooper-Bristol

Mk2 come together during the Donington Park Historic Festival
RICHARD STYLES

1 4 4 AUTOSPORT.COM 1 9 - 2 6 D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9
 N AT I O N A L P I C T U R E S O F T H E Y E A R C L U B A U T O S P O R T

The Honda Civic Type-R of Scott Sharp gets some

air during a 750 Motor Club meeting at Silverstone
STEVE JONES

Jordan Spencer and James Wheeler use all the

track and a bit more in their MGs at Donington Park
STEVE JONES

Eamon Matheson’s self-built MM3

spitting some flames at Kirkistown
ROY DEMPSTER

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C L U B A U T O S P O R T N AT I O N A L P I C T U R E S O F T H E Y E A R

JEP
A bird’s-eye view of the British GT Championship
in action along the Kemmel straight at Spa

The start of the Freddie Giles Memorial Trophy for

Frazer Nash cars at the Castle Combe Autumn Classic
OLLIE READ

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N AT I O N A L P I C T U R E S O F T H E Y E A R C L U B A U T O S P O R T

Cameron Jackson was flying this year at

Cadwell Park aboard his Winkelmann WDF2
MICK WALKER

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Making a splash: a Benetton B190 in action

at the Donington Park Historic Festival
JEP

Roger Wills (24) leads the start of the Sussex Trophy

at the Goodwood Revival in a Lotus-Climax 18
RICHARD STYLES

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Jerome de Sadeleer tackling Eau Rouge on the
Radical Challenge’s visit to Spa-Francorchamps
OLLIE READ
FINISHING STRAIGHT
QUIZ
O
ARCHIVE
PHOTOGRAPHING THE DEFINING
O
IN THE MEDIA
BOOK REVIEWS
MICHAEL SCHUMACHER
– A LIFE IN PICTURES
RRP £44.00
The emotion surrounding this
book is unmissable from the
word go. The opening chapter
describes Michael Schumacher’s
tragic skiing accident, just five days before his 45th
birthday – with even a reference to the Pope’s activities
at the time of the incident. It ends with the words
‘Silence as a deafening act of love that allows us to
be closer to him’, referring to the family’s choice of
keeping Schumacher’s rehabilitation very private.
Michael Schumacher – A Life in Pictures is written by an
Italian journalist who was so excited when Schumacher
joined Ferrari in 1996 that he organised a meal out for
all his ‘press’ friends to welcome the young German
to Italy, and completely misread the bill and ended up
paying way over the odds for the pleasure. Pino Allievi
– who reported for La Gazzetta dello Sport during
Schumacher’s F1 career – admits he was so wrapped up
with Michael that he didn’t even realise why the waiters
and kitchen staff were all bowing as they left!
The photography in this work is so good that you
don’t even mind the often poorly translated script,
which tells its own tale with such passion – after
all, it started life in Italian.
The book is scattered with fantastic images from
his whole career. The ones that jump out include a
shot of Schumacher sporting his Benetton jacket in
1992 – right in front of the huge Ferrari logo on one
of the trucks. There’s also the podium shot from Spa
1995 where he won the race from 16th by controlling
his car in the changeable conditions, while others were
having to make frequent tyre changes. He finished 19.5
seconds ahead of second-placed Damon Hill and 25s
ahead of Martin Brundle. The way Brundle is looking
at Schumacher in this photo is one of pure admiration.
Another standout shot is of Ross Brawn – who was
one of the technical masterminds all though Michael’s
career at Benetton, Ferrari and then Mercedes –
actually carrying him as though he is his child.
Both beaming, of course.
Throughout the storytelling, his relationships with
other drivers – especially Ayrton Senna, Hill and Eddie
Irvine – are scrutinised. There are a lot of hitherto
untold secrets in here too, and 100% you’ll get a deeper
understanding of the human side of the seven-time
world champion. There’s also a Q&A section, randomly
printed on yellow pages, with Brundle – one of
Schumacher’s first Formula 1 team-mates and someone
he knows well, on and off the track. He concludes
by saying: ‘I think Michael was driven more by his
head than his heart.” Pretty sure the tifosi would
say it was the other way around…
One chapter goes into immense detail on his top 10
races, or ‘masterpieces’ as they’re known here. Spa 1995,
Spain 1996, Japan 2000 are the top three, and there are
amazing photos and anecdotes from each race. It is also
where the author throws in extra information about
things such as previous accidents at certain corners and
circuit evolution. It’s a great section of the book, but
would have been better if information on each car was
provided – there’s an element of assumption that you
know which team he was at each year, before you look
at the photos, which are often on the following pages.
This is not a book that you’d actually sit down
to read since it is so big, but it’ll give you hours of
 FINISHING STRAIGHT

Schumacher with
Brundle after he autosport.com/podcast
fought back from 16th
for spoils at Spa
in 1995

WHY MOSS IS MORE THAN

THE BEST NON-CHAMPION

Stirling Moss celebrated his 90th birthday this year.

He’s heralded as the greatest driver never to win the
Formula 1 world championship, but the Autosport
team argues that this still sells him short. For his
exploits in sportscars, 500cc F3 and more, could he
perhaps be the best driver of all time? That’s what we
discuss in the latest edition of the Autosport podcast.

MOMENTS youtube.com/AUTOSPORTdotcom

Brawn and
Schumacher’s
close dynamic
is captured
MOTORSPORT IMAGES/SUTTON

10 TIMES F1 TEAMS
USED INTERIM CARS

entertainment when you want to dip in for a quick fix
of Michael magic. It is wonderfully refreshing in these
days of gawping at images on small screens to have
such quality images printed so well and so big.
The book concludes with Schumacher’s F1 Mercedes
return and then another evocative piece on his accident
and health situation right now, but without doubt the
Ferrari years are at the core of this epic.
Whether it’s through a lack of finance, teething
problems in testing or just needing more development
time to get a new car ready, Formula 1 teams have often
used development machines on an interim basis. In
this video, we explore 10 of grand prix racing’s most
interesting interim cars, each of them enjoying
varying degrees of success. Go to bit.ly/interimF1

FERRARI: ALL THE CARS

RRP £24.00

If you too are captivated by those W H AT ’ S O N

Ferrari years then you’ll enjoy
the new enlarged fifth edition of
Ferrari – All the Cars. It is literally
a list of every single Ferrari ever UK MOTORSPORT
JONES

produced – for road and track.

Every single technical detail is Mallory Park BRSCC
provided and then there’s a ‘Roll of Honour’ covering all 26 December
the race victories. If you like Ferraris, what’s not to like? The Plum Pudding: Sports Cars,
C STA MM ERS Open Saloons, motorbikes

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FINISHING STRAIGHT
FR O M T H E AR CHI V E
Ah, the days before the globe got
warmer… Or so you might think. Just five
years earlier, competing on this frozen lake
near Karlstad would have been impossible
after the 1990 Swedish Rally was lost
to the absence of winter. This is Marcus
Gronholm enjoying himself and his
Toyota Celica Turbo 4WD in a long, drifty,
left-hander. The big Finn’s fun was halted
a few stages later when the gearbox failed,
forcing him into retirement. Kenneth
Eriksson won from fellow Mitsubishi driver
Tommi Makinen, but only after the soon For classic rally DVDs head to
to be world champ was slowed down. dukevideo.com
FINISHING STRAIGHT
FINISHING STRAIGHT
QUIZ

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From a key port to the garden of three different marques. Name them. Social Media Editor Joshua Folks Jonathan Noble
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CORRESPONDENTS
he moved onto the world stage with the when he claimed his ninth and final win? Argentina Tony Watson Australia Andrew van Leeuwen Austria
classiest team on the grid. The finest Gerhard Kuntschik Belgium Gordon McKay Brazil Lito Cavalcanti
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Formula Five racer of his generation, the C Trevor Taylor was born on 26 December
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while he drove the charts crazy. D Which legend started his first single- Mark Libbeter, Dan Mason, Lucy Morson, Jason Noble, Mark Paulson,
With his foot to the floor he suffered seater race on 26 December in 1958? Brian Phillips, Hal Ridge, Peter Scherer, Ian Sowman, Ian Titchmarsh,
terribly as he left for pastures new, but Richard Young

defied the odds to make a return. Having
seen the light, but lost his back hair, he
shifted his focus to the auto parts industry
initially with his brother Barry. He returned
to the fold and made an early foray into
E On December 26 Adrian Newey will be
celebrating his birthday. What was the first
F1 team he worked for?
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 N O T H I N G L I K E I T.

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