racer spring

FORMULA 1

NTT INDYCAR SERIES

THE 2019 PREVIEW ISSUE

SPRING 2019 U.S. & CAN $8.95 RACER.com

WEATHERTECH SPORTSCAR CHAMPIONSHIP

MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP

AND MORE

Discover F3 Americas Powered by Honda The future of open wheel racing in the Western Hemisphere now has a defined path with the introduction of the F3 Americas Championship Powered by Honda. Affordability is a key component to the FIA supported championship, from the Ligier JS F3 chassis to the 303-horsepower Honda Performance Development version of the new Honda Civic® Type R® turbocharged K20C1 motor and the Hankook tires designed specifically for the series, the car is completely made and assembled in the United States. The F3 Americas teams race chassis that meet the most current global FIA safety specification, including the first North American application of a race car Halo. Compared to the F4 U.S. Championship car, the F3 chassis features more configurable aero components, 47% more horsepower, increased impact safety structures and more sophisticated data acquisition.

ENGINE 2.0-Liter, 4-cylinder K20C1 ·· Honda 303 horsepower, turbocharged dual overhead cam with VTEC® ·· 16-valve Direct injection · HPD-developed engine management GEARBOX sequential shift ·· 6-speed Pneumatic shift system-paddle shift STEERING 4 piston monobloc calipers ·· Alcon Rack and pinion vented steel rotors ·· PFC FIA collapsible steering column adjustable pedal mounting assembly ·· TILTON Quick release steering wheel

safety features cockpit Halo bar side and front intrusion panels FIA-specification 6-point harness ·· 2018 ·· 2018 ·· 2018 6 kj wheel tethers, 2 per corner On-board fire control system 2018 FIA-specification extractable seat · 2018 FIA headrest compatible with HANS® dimensions

·· Wheelbase: Front Width:

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2920 mm 1850 mm

·· Length: Rear width:

4895.5 mm 1850 mm

650 kg ·· Weight: Fuel capacity: 62 Liters

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2019 calendar April 5-7 April 18-20 June 21-23 July 26-28 August 22-24 September 13-15

Barber Motorsports Park Road Atlanta Pittsburgh International Race Complex Virginia International Raceway Road America Sebring International Raceway

2018 CHAMPION Kirkwood, Abel Motorsports ·· Kyle 15 wins · 15 poles

DATA SYSTEM configurable data logger ·· 4GB Damper potentiometers analysis software included ·· Data GPS Capable ELECTRONICS backlit color display ·· LED CAN controlled power management · 3-axis accelerometer with yaw TIRES F200 Slick Tires ·· Hankook Front-230/560R13 · Rear- 280/580R13 PRICE

CHASSIS LIGIER JS F3

$99,750* ·· ChassisEngine- $33,000*

*price at the time of printing

composite monocoque built to 2018 FIA F3 technical regulations ·· Carbon Composite bodywork 2020 FIA safety compliant ·· Full The F3 Americas car is the only chassis to feature the Halo in United States for junior-open wheel racing, adding an extra element of safety.

F3 Americas is a FIA-supported championship.

The top eight drivers will receive FIA Super License Points with the champion receiving 15 points.

Learn more about F3 Americas at f3americas.com For purchasing information or to join F3 Americas, contact dhelman@sccapro.com

Photo by Gavin Baker Photography

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CONTENTS

THE 2019 PREVIEW ISSUE

20

297

Does Formula 1 winter testing ask more questions than it answers? We search out the hard data behind the smoke and mirrors in our 2019 F1 preview

Can Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton add a sixth Formula 1 World Championship to his trophy cupboard in 2019?

Photo illustration Charles Coates/LAT; Sean C. Rice

Rudy Carezzevoli

CONTENTS

44

10

EDITOR’S COLUMN

12

THE SPIN Daytona 500; Formula 1 and IndyCar testing

20

ON THE COVER 2019 FORMULA 1 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW

20 26 28 34 36

38

UNFASHIONABLY EFFECTIVE

44

KNOCKING ON THE DOOR

50

ZINGING IN THE RAIN

54

M-POWERED AT DAYTONA

58

17 AND COUNTING...

62

A 50-50 CHANCE

68

BETA MODE

74

AN AMERICAN IN...BELGIUM

78

LUCAS OFF ROAD RESET

88

DIARY | TV | DIGEST | REAR VIEW

91

2019 BLANCPAIN GT WORLD CHALLENGE PREVIEW

Sure, Mazda was disappointed not to bring home a victory in the Rolex 24. But the evidence says wins are not far away...

Michael Levitt/LAT

68

John K Harrelson/LAT

NASCAR veteran Kurt Busch is far from done yet, and a switch to Ganassi Racing for 2019 could be a win-win for all involved

4

SPRING 2019

The key storylines for every team Will Red Bull and Honda win together?

Why Daniel Ricciardo chose a Renault reset Charles Leclerc: should Vettel be worried?

McLaren starts the long road back

The Ferrari anachronism that ruled Formula 1 in 1979 Why Mazda is tantalizingly close to grabbing IMSA glory A Rolex 24 washout becomes the stage for a rare breed How BMW headed home the closest class in IMSA Roger Penske’s incredible Indianapolis 500 hit rate Toyota’s intra-team battle for WEC super season glory Kurt Busch brings a new mindset to Ganassi Racing Why U.S. motocrosser Darian Sanayei is in the Euro zone Exciting changes set to unite short course off-road racing

It’s a new era in GT and touring car racing in America

Check out for the latest racing news and views, blogs by the stars and up-and-comers, updated TV listings and much more. twitter.com/racermag youtube.com/TheRacerChannel

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THE OPPOSITE OF GOLF What we do isn’t quiet. It isn’t reserved. And we wouldn’t call it relaxing, in a traditional sense. The stakes are high—on and off the track. But there’s no better feeling than competing against friends who become family. If you’ve been out here, you know. And if you haven’t, let’s start making some noise.

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FREEZE FRAME The art of racing in the rain... Corvette Racing wanted the final Rolex 24 at Daytona appearance for its mighty C7.R to end on a high. Sadly it ended with a whimper. Oh, and it rained...a lot.

WHERE Daytona International Speedway, Fla. WHEN 01/27/19 PHOTOGRAPHER Camden Thrasher

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FREEZE FRAME Stephane Peterhansel’s X-raid Mini kicks up the dirt during the 2019 Dakar Rally’s fourth stage from Arequipa to Tacna, Peru.

The 13-time winner would crash out on the penultimate stage.

WHERE Arequipa to Tacna, Peru WHEN 1/10/19 PHOTOGRAPHER Vytautas Dranginis/Red Bull

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THE EDITOR

PRE-SEASON PROSPECTS

Editorial Business Office Racer Media & Marketing, Inc. 17030 Red Hill Avenue Irvine, CA 92614 (949) 417-6700 Fax (949) 417-6116

LAURENCE FOSTER

Editor-in-Chief Laurence Foster Racer.com Editor Mark Glendenning Executive Editor Andrew Crask Art Director Rob French

Editor-in-Chief

Founding NASCAR Editor Gerald Martin (1943-1999) We remember Michael C. Brown, RACER founding photographer, and Peter Foubister, a mentor to all

“The optimists are seeing some intriguing trends and storylines emerging from the subterfuge and the sandbagging”

Senior Writers Peter Brock, David Evans, Paul Fearnley, Mark Hughes, Richard S. James, Eric Johnson, Tom Jensen, Chris Medland, Robin Miller, Jeff Olson, David Phillips, Marshall Pruett, Jeremy Shaw, Edd Straw, Todd Veney, Gary Watkins

Digital Artist Ree Tucker Illustrations Paul Laguette, Ricardo Santos Advertising Director Nicole Szawlowski Global Sales Director John Chambers Advertising Operations Victor Uribe Business Development Raelyn Stokes Accounting Manager Sandra Carboni-Alexander

RACER Special Projects Creative Director George Tamayo Manager Molly Binks Founder, CEO & Executive Publisher Paul Pfanner Co-founder, COO & Publisher Bill Sparks Co-founder & Editorial Advisor Jeff Zwart Toll-Free Advertising Line (800) 722-7140 Outside the U.S. and Canada (949) 417-6700 Fax (949) 417-6116 Website www.racer.com RACER (ISSN 1066-6060) is published six times per year by Racer Media & Marketing, Inc., 17030 Red Hill Avenue Irvine, CA 92614 Periodical postage paid at Irvine, CA 92619, and at additional mailing offices. © 2019 by Racer Media & Marketing, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is prohibited.

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A

s I type, Formula 1 pre-season testing is in full swing and the NTT IndyCar Series has just wrapped its two days of Spring Training at Circuit of The Americas. It’s that time of the year when anything and everything is still possible.

The skeptics (Cynics? Realists?) among us might take the times racked up in thrashing around Barcelona or COTA with a pinch of salt, but the optimists – count us in – are seeing some intriguing trends and storylines emerging from the subterfuge and the sandbagging.

In F1, Ferrari’s SF90 appears a genuine pacesetter, with long-run speed and impressive consistency. Add in new signing Charles Leclerc looking totally at ease alongside team-leader Sebastian Vettel, and is this the year when the Scuderia finally gets on season-long terms with Mercedes?

Over at the Silver Arrows, has it taken a wrong turn on front-wing development under 2019’s new aero regulations, and will we see F1’s benchmark squad forced to play catchup in the early grands prix? That’s a fascinating thought. As is Red Bull Racing’s near-bulletproof start with new power-unit partner Honda, and Renault’s straight-out-of-the-box pace as it seeks to narrow the gap to F1’s “big three.”

Speaking of big threes, Andretti Autosport, Team Penske and Chip Ganassi Racing didn’t stray too far from the top of the time sheets

Daimler AG

Photo Services LAT Images Senior Photographers Phillip Abbott, Tony DiZinno, Marc Gewertz, Rick Graves, Peter Harholdt, Nigel Kinrade, Michael Levitt, Lesley Ann Miller, Sean Rice, Steve Swope, Camden Thrasher, Paul Webb

at COTA’s IndyCar dress rehearsals, but some exciting interlopers hint at how wide open the 2019 season could be. Rookie Colton Herta fastest overall for Harding Steinbrenner Racing? Ganassi newbie Felix Rosenqvist edging teammate and reigning champ Scott Dixon? Graham Rahal and James Hinchcliffe putting Rahal Letterman Lanigan and Arrows SPM in the mix, too? This is going to be good!

In the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the Rolex 24 at Daytona provided hard data to go with the speculation. Cadillac made it three wins in three attempts at Daytona but the pace of Mazda’s RT24-P was a revelation. Turn to page 44 to find out why it seems only a matter of time before the DPi class gets a new winner. editor@racer.com

CONTRIBUTOR

STORYBOARD

When you’ve covered F1 pre-season testing as long as Chris Medland (ABOVE) and Edd Straw, you develop a skill for spotting sandbaggers.

Find out who’s genuinely quick, starting page 20.

Photographer Camden Thrasher is one of that rare breed who loves it when it rains, which it did plenty of during the Rolex 24 at Daytona. The deluge also allowed some drivers to showcase their wet-weather virtuosity, page 50.

REPRINTS Contact Nick Iademarco at Wrights Media. Tel: (281) 419-5725 nlademarco@wrightsmedia.com

ELECTRONIC PRE-PRESS: Miguel Vega, Riverside, Calif.

PRINTING: LSC Communications, Pontiac, Ill.

Camden Thrasher

Manuscripts, photos and other material submitted must be accompanied by stamped, self-addressed envelope. RACER assumes no responsibility for unsolicited material.

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ADRENALINE AS AN ART FORM Pushing Lexus LC performance to its most extreme requires a fanatical belief in the power of engineering and craftsmanship. This has resulted in a completely revised chassis with a lower center of gravity. Engine components forged of titanium for greater strength. Laser welding for increased rigidity. Carbon fiber for lighter, yet stronger, body panels. Because if you want to craft extreme performance, you have to take extreme measures.

LC 500 5.0-LITER V8 ENGINE 10-SPEED DIRECT-SHIFT TRANSMISSION 471 HP*

lexus.com/LC | #LexusLC

Options shown. *Ratings achieved using the required premium unleaded gasoline with an octane rating of 91 or higher. If premium fuel is not used, performance will decrease. Š2019 Lexus

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For the first time since 1978 there was no Earnhardt in the Daytona 500 field this year, but Jeffrey Earnhardt did his bit by qualifying on the front row for the Xfinity Series race.

10 LAPS TO GO...

Granted, that’s not the most nuanced take on this year’s “Great American Race,” but it’s the one that many apparently came away with.

It’s not entirely inaccurate, though. The inevitable “Big One” came toward the end and eliminated about half of the 40-car field during a chaotic crescendo that included two red flags and an overtime finish. And it was indeed Hamlin in Victory Lane for the second time in four years, heading a Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 1-2-3 and dedicating his win to JGR co-founder J.D. Gibbs, who succumbed to a rare neurological disease in January.

Teamwork was one of the keywords of the afternoon. JGR played its strategy to perfection; Hamlin and Kyle Busch working together on the restarts before racing it out over the final laps. The Ford teams also coordinated their efforts in the quest for a win on the Mustang’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series debut, but were thwarted when most of their contenders wrecked or

failed to work together when it was go time..

The race was a showcase for several drivers beyond the usual suspects. Hendrick duo William Byron and Alex Bowman formed the event’s youngest-ever front row with a combined age of 46, while the top 10 at the end of the race included Michael McDowell (fifth), JTG-Daughterty rookie Ryan Preece (eighth), and Premium Motorsports’ Ross Chastain in 10th – a considerable reversal of fortunes for the latter, whose off-season was defined by his losing his Ganassi ride following an FBI raid on his would-be sponsor.

And that 20-car wreck? With 10 laps to go, Paul Menard’s over-exuberant bump-draft of Matt DiBenedetto turned the Leavine Family Racing Toyota around and mayhem ensued.

Post-red flag, they were at it again, with a yellow followed by a yellow into red, followed by that overtime finish. In the end, 14 cars finished on the lead lap, with perhaps five looking anywhere near pristine.

CHAOS THEORY

Russell LaBounty/NKP/LAT

“I wrecked a lot of cars. I feel bad about that.” Wood Brothers Ford driver Paul Menard’s remorse was genuine, but was it necessary? The debate about whether the current-era Daytona 500 is a race or a lottery will rage on, but it’s a safe bet that you’ll see slow-motion replays of this year’s Big One in NASCAR promos for the rest of the season.

12 SPRING 2019

Logan Whitton/LAT

...and then everybody crashed, and Denny Hamlin won the Daytona 500.

(ABOVE) At just 21, Daytona 500 pole-winner William Byron is part of NASCAR’s future. (MAIN) But it was JGR veteran Denny Hamlin taking victory in the 2019 “500.”

Zak Mauger/LAT

Glenn Dunbar/LAT

Toyota debuted its Supra at Daytona’s Xfinity Series opener, the first time the marque has run a car other than the Camry in NASCAR. A week later, Christopher Bell gave the Supra a first win in Atlanta.

All the latest NASCAR news at

13

LAT archive

Alfa Romeo’s last F1 win came with Juan Manuel Fangio in Spain in 1951 (LEFT). The race was decided by tires: Ferrari opted for 16in. rears rather than 18in, and had to make more stops.

ALFA PREDATOR The return of the Alfa Romeo name to the Formula 1 grid this year adds a new chapter to the story of the manufacturer that won the first two world championships – and closes another on an F1 stalwart. For now, anyway.

The rebranding means that the Sauber moniker disappears from the grid for the first time since 1993, but don’t be fooled by Milanese styling. Beneath the Italian livery, the team is still staffed by Sauber personnel, and run out of its Hinwil, Switzerland base.

Nevertheless, the change is more than purely cosmetic. Alfa’s investment will help bridge a funding shortfall that had hamstrung Sauber in recent seasons, and the manufacturer’s place under the Fiat Chrysler umbrella also points to a strengthening of Sauber’s relationship with Ferrari. Like last year, the team will use Ferrari power units, and for 2019 there has also been some crosspollination on the driver front. Kimi Raikkonen switches from Ferrari back to the team where his career began (powered at the time by Petronas engines, which were basically Ferraris in fancy dress), with Ferrari protégé Antonio Giovanazzi to drive the second car.

An Alfa Romeo F1 car hasn’t won in 68 years. An Alfa engine hasn’t won in 41. (Alfa engines powered two Brabham victories in 1978). This program isn’t really akin to either, but if Kimi finds the top of the podium, it’s a safe bet that the senior brass won’t care.

WARNING SHOTS?

KING OF SPAIN

Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg was fastest overall in the first Barcelona F1 test, but still expects a tough midfield fight.

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focus mostly on heavy fuel and long runs. Ferrari was quick out of the gates – but then, we’ve seen that movie before.

Both Red Bull and Toro Rosso waxed lyrical about their first experiences with the Honda engines, as you’d expect them to, and STR’s Daniil Kvyat was even more impressed with the number of trouble-free laps the Baby Bulls were able to pound out than the speed at which they did them.

There were promising signs for the factory Renault squad, too, with Nico Hulkenberg topping the final day of the opening test despite stopping with a mechanical problem late in the afternoon.

Also productive was McLaren, which reeled off a total of 445 laps over four days between Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz, Jr. – far more than it’s managed at the same point in recent years.

To what extent will this performances hold up at Albert Park in a few weeks?

Who knows. But of course, that’s what makes this time of the year so intriguing. Nobody other than Williams has had their hopes dashed yet.

(ABOVE) Rookie Alexander Albon impressed by putting Scuderia Toro Rosso on top during the third day of F1 pre-season testing in Barcelona. His time was set on the softest Pirellis, but his feat was part of a trend of improved speed and reliability by enginesupplier Honda.

Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Jerry Andre

The good thing about Formula 1 pre-season testing is that almost everyone can afford to be optimistic.

Cards remain held closely to the chest, and nobody’s going to suffer a really devastating dose of reality until the true competitive order starts to reveal itself in Melbourne.

(Unless you’re Williams, which missed most of the opening Barcelona test because its new car wasn’t ready. Not good...)

Mercedes was solid without stealing headlines early in tbe Barcelona running, opting to

Branding exercise or not, there’s no denying the historical weight of the Alfa Romeo name on the Formula 1 grid.

All the latest Formula 1 news at

2/24/19 9:59 PM

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Andreas Beil

Alex Zanardi made a return to American racing in January when he raced a BMW M8 GTE at the Rolex 24 (LEFT). The indefatigable Italian’s entry finished ninth in GT Le Mans.

ENGINES STARTED The NTT IndyCar Series’ winter hiatus ended with a roar in early February when a full field assembled at Circuit of The Americas for its two-day Spring Training test. All of the usual “can’t read too much into testing” caveats apply – especially at a track that’s new to IndyCar – but there was still plenty to intrigue.

Alexander Rossi was quickest in the fourth and final session, which might not have been a surprise, but few would have expected rookie Colton Herta to have led every session until then and post the fastest time overall. Nor that he’d do it with a Harding Steinbrenner Racing team that was half the size it had been at the start of the week after Pato O’Ward asked to be released from his contract to seek a drive elsewhere.

Sturdy performances by other rookies such as Ganassi’s Felix Rosenqvist and Arrow SPM’s Marcus Ericsson underlined a strong freshman field, while strong representations from both manufacturers in the top 10 alludes to a close fight on that front, too. IndyCar fans have been spoiled in recent years, and the 2019 season is shaping up as another classic.

STARTING FAST

Shawn Gritzmacher/IMS Photo

Shawn Gritzmacher/IMS Photo

Rookie Colton Herta (LEFT) set the fastest overall time in COTA IndyCar testing. 2018 runner-up Alexander Rossi (ABOVE) topped the fourth and final session.

Andy Hone/LAT

Richard Dole/LAT

ANOTHER BOX TICKED

If Fernando Alonso’s 2019 goes to plan, he’ll win three U.S. races in three different series.

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Completing his racing Triple Crown with victory at the Indianapolis 500 is Fernando Alonso’s stated goal for 2019, but he’s not adverse to winning other stuff along the way. And he has the Rolex watch to prove it.

The Spaniard was a quarter of the victorious Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi lineup in the Rolex 24 at Daytona (LEFT), and he’ll be back in the States racing at Sebring on the weekend of IMSA’s second round. But this time he’ll be in the more familiar (for him) surrounds of Toyota’s

TS050 HYBRID LMP1 car for the FIA WEC’s half of the “SuperSebring” double-header.

While on paper the Japanese manufacturer doesn’t have a lot of competition, it’s not taking the race lightly: it opted to spend three days testing to validate new developments on the car and get an early bead on setups for the tough Florida track. The team will get a final look at the track at the group test in early March, three days before the race weekend starts. The 8-hour race will take place March 15.

All the latest IndyCar news at

2/25/19 6:21 PM

DON’T MISS A MINUTE

Road to Indy TV will deliver even more coverage this year, including live streams on Facebook and on-demand material via its dedicated channel on Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire, Xbox and the Road to Indy TV app.

Rinus VeeKay is looking to ride the momentum from a successful 2018 as he moves up to Indy Lights.

For the latest from Indy Lights, check out indylights.com

NEXT GENERATION A new crop of rising stars prepare to battle on the IndyCar bill Which camp are you in: VeeKay, or Askew? It’s premature to start talking about favorites for the 2019 Indy Lights Presented by Cooper Tires series this early, but the prospect of Rinus VeeKay and Oliver Askew going head to head again sets an exciting tone for the year ahead. Both are past Road to Indy scholarship winners, and the pair were at the sharp end of last year’s Pro Mazda battle. (A fight that was eventually settled in VeeKay’s favor.)

But then, it’s entirely possible that neither of these two will be champion. Zachary

SOLID CREDENTIALS

Claman de Melo has made several IndyCar starts already, but the Canadian has opted to return to the Lights field with Belardi this year and has made no secret of his championship aspirations. Then there’s Andretti Autosport’s Ryan Norman, who has two seasons of Lights experience to draw upon and notched up a victory at Gateway last year. And add in David Malukas, a three-time race winner in Pro Mazda last year who’s stepping up in tandem with the BN Racing team. As always, it’s anybody’s game, and everything to play for.

Oliver Askew dominated USF2000 in 2017, and was a race-winner in the newly-renamed Indy Pro 2000 series last season.

NEW NAME, SAME GAME

The state-of-the-art Tatuus PM-18 will return for its second season in 2019.

The 2018 season was a year of reinvention for the second step on the Road to Indy ladder, for it marked the arrival of the new high-tech Tatuus PM-18 racecar.

That reinvention is completed this year with the relaunching of the series previously known as Pro Mazda under the new name Indy Pro 2000 Presented by Cooper Tires. The change reinforces the series’ ties to IndyCar, while the rave reviews that the new car drew

last year have helped attract some strong talent for the 2019 season, including quick Swede Rasmus Lindh. There are also a number of teams preparing for their first full-time campaigns at this level, such as Abel Motorsports and the two-car DEForce Racing squad.

For the latest from Indy Pro 2000, check out indypro2000.com

All the latest Road to Indy news at

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ONLY A RACE? NOT TO US. BMW M8 GTE RACES TO EMOTIONAL VICTORY AT ROLEX 24 AT DAYTONA.

When rain forced officials to wave the red flag and end the IMSA Rolex 24 At Daytona race with 10 minutes remaining, an elated BMW Team RLL celebrated one of the most emotional victories in BMW’s storied history.

During the race’s 23 hours and 50 minutes, we were inspired by the North American return of Alex Zanardi. We were thrilled by Augusto Farfus’s 160-mile-per-hour pass in pouring rain that secured the win. And perhaps most importantly, our victory honored the passing of one of the giants whose shoulders we stand on, Karl “Charly” Lamm.

Only a race? Not to us.

BMW. The Ultimate Driving Machine.®

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©2019 BMW of North America, LLC. The BMW name, model names and logo are registered trademarks.

FORMULA 1 2019

The definition of a successful season varies wildly for the 10 teams racing in the 2019 Formula 1 World Championship.

For Mercedes, at the top looking down, success can only be defined by another brace of drivers’ and constructors’ titles. Over at Ferrari, mission accomplished would be finally living up to those massive expectations again and toppling the Silver Arrows.

Contrast that with, say, Williams, where a positive season will be hauling itself off rock bottom, or McLaren, seeking to restore a once-lofty reputation with a root-to-branch overall on how it goes racing.

Who’ll reach their goal? And who could dig a hole? Let’s check it out...

MERCEDES F1 W10 EQ Power+ 44 Lewis Hamilton 77 Valtteri Bottas

WORDS Chris Medland MAIN IMAGE Joe Portlock/LAT

20 SPRING 2019

Empires rise and empires fall, and for Mercedes, which has reigned supreme in Formula 1 for the past five seasons, it’s about defying gravity and staying at the top of the pile for another year.

The new Mercedes F1 W10 isn’t a car that wows with innovation, but it’s exactly what you’d expect of a team already at the top. It’s a ruthless evolution of its predecessor, building on the positives and massaging out the (relative) negatives.

“The concept has been further refined,” says technical director James Allison. “Every item pushed tighter, made more slender – each change permitting us to improve the aerodynamic performance beyond what would have

Zak Mauger/LAT

RUTHLESSLY REFINE...AND REPEAT?

SILVER AND GOLD

Lewis Hamilton’s fifth F1 world title in 2018 was his fourth with Mercedes.

Adding another seems entirely feasible.

TEAM BY TEAM

FERRARI SF90 5 Sebastian Vettel 16 Charles Leclerc

SCUDERIA RESET

disrupting a tried and proven overall philosophy is the key to success.

Mercedes is the only team on the grid that cannot do better this year than last, except perhaps by winning even more races. But if it does earn a drivers’/ constructors’ championship double again, it will have achieved something no other F1 team – not even Ferrari – has done before. And there’s every chance it will.

But Ferrari is the one team that can put a wrench in that. Relatively speaking, Mercedes hasn’t been as dominant in recent times, slipping from winning 19 grands prix three seasons ago, to “only” 11 last year. The drop-off is primarily down to Ferrari’s resurgence, and a continuation of the trend isn’t entirely unfeasible.

Rudy Carezzevoli

been possible had we accepted the physical limitations of the 2018 design.”

There was room for improvement. The 2017 and ’18 cars could be “divas.” Last year, rear tire temperature management was an issue, so this has been a major focus.

The engine package is also revised, with changes to the cooling architecture and gains in the all-important combustion efficiency and ERS performance. Given the strength of the Ferrari power unit last year, Mercedes needed to respond. Fuel efficiency is still a strength, and despite a 5kg (11lb) fuel increase to 110kg (242lb) for a race, the F1 W10 is rarely, if ever, expected to start with a full load.

Beyond that, adapting to the newfor-2019 aero regulations while not

From one perspective, little has changed for Ferrari. From another, it’s a completely different team. The gloom of the Maurizio Arrivabene era has lifted and new team principal Mattia Binotto, formerly its chief technical officer, is helming a more upbeat, less paranoid Scuderia.

Also adding to the refresh and reset is newcomer Charles Leclerc, who can be expected to keep Sebastian Vettel on his toes more effectively than Kimi Raikkonen has done in recent years. (See page 34.)

Ferrari started winter testing looking almost Mercedes-esque as it racked up vast mileage right off the hauler. Both Vettel and Leclerc set a strong pace, topping the first two days despite the new SF90 (BELOW) never running at close to qualifying levels of fuel. The car looks well-balanced and should allow its drivers to attack.

The big question is, can Ferrari retain the power advantage it had for much of last season, albeit a diminished one in late-season races?

Amid further crackdowns on oil burning and other such trickery, it’s yet to become clear where the balance lies in the engine war.

On current trajectory, Ferrari is due a championship win and appears to have the package to do so. With a revitalized Vettel, who seemed to carry the weight of the world (or perhaps just Italy) on his shoulders last year, one or both titles aren’t off the table – especially if Leclerc hits the ground running.

Then again, in that melodramatic Ferrari way, perhaps testing was too good to be true and it will crumble under the weight of expectation?

After all, this is Scuderia Ferrari, so anything could happen. Stay tuned...

RACER.com 21

FORMULA 1 2019

HAAS-FERRARI VF-19 8 Romain Grosjean 20 Kevin Magnussen

RED BULL RACING-HONDA RB15 10 Pierre Gasly 33 Max Verstappen

Zak Mauger/LAT

CLOSING THE GAP

22 SPRING 2019

The honeymoon period with new engine partner Honda is in full swing, and hopes are high. Having used its second-string team, Scuderia Toro Rosso, to try out the Honda last year, wins are expected from the new Red Bull Racing-Honda alliance.

The first challenge was whether Red Bull could package the Honda power unit to its satisfaction. The retention of last year’s narrow sidepod concept, combined with minimalist “letterbox” inlets suggests cooling is not a major problem.

A bigger question is outright power, and

Honda will start the season lagging behind the Mercedes and Ferrari engines – by just how much will be the key. One area where it could also struggle is fuel economy, which has improved from last year but not enough. At high fuel-consumption races, such as Sochi, Singapore and Baku, that could be a major limitation.

One area where Red Bull continues to excel is aerodynamics. After the mis-step of early 2017 and the revised highdownforce aero rules, Red Bull has recovered brilliantly and was widely regarded as the strongest chassis of ’18.

Will this at least partially compensate for any power unit weaknesses? Both Max Verstappen and the promoted Pierre Gasly were impressed with the car from the off, so the signs are encouraging.

While everyone is hoping for Red Bull-Honda to be in title contention,

Andy Hone/LAT

Andy Hone/LAT

The surprise of 2018, Ferrari-allied Haas has gone from impressive newcomer to credible midfield pack-leader in the space of just three seasons. Last year, it had the fourth-fastest car, but didn’t do itself justice in the final reckoning, missing out on fourth in the constructors’ standings by 29 points. Still, it dramatically improved its consistency, and despite throwing away too many points not just to Romain Grosjean’s early-season errors, but also team errors, Haas has become a very effective unit.

Haas is the ultimate manifestation of a team dependent on its technical partner.

To qualify as a constructor (which teams

FOURTH AND GOAL

Can Kevin Magnussen (LEFT) and Romain Grosjean (ABOVE) deliver a “best of the rest” fourth for Haas?

realistically it’s too early. Starting the season at a similar level to last year, making clear progress toward Ferrari and Mercedes as the year goes on, and picking off a win or two would be a solid jump-off for a 2020 title tilt. In Verstappen, Red Bull has a driver who’s proved time and time again he can win races given a sniff of a chance, and Gasly will be a deceptively quick teammate.

But there are legitimate reliability concerns over the Honda, so there will be failures and grid penalties this year. Too many and it could leave Red Bull playing perennial catch up in its bid to grab victories.

The team’s energy-drink paymasters aren’t known for their inherent patience, so if that’s the case, the relationship with Honda could start to fray. Honeymoon over... l For more on Red Bull Racing and Honda’s fledgling alliance, turn to page 26.

must be to compete in F1), you must design and produce your own “listed parts,” including monocoque, exhausts and the aero package. But this means Haas can use a Ferrari gearbox and engine, share suspension components, and also utilize many of the countless parts crammed out of sight under the bodywork.

The Dallara-run aero program, which uses Ferrari’s windtunnel in Maranello, appears to have produced another solid, user-friendly car and early testing pace was encouraging. Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen should have a tool that can get them into the top 10 on a regular basis.

With faultless execution and no performance dips, it’s not out of the question that Haas could snatch the fourth place it missed out on last season.

If the VF-19 is usually in the top 10 and both drivers rack up the minor points finishes, it might win the midfield war.

But with such tough opposition, including an upwardly-mobile factory Renault team, crammed into the middle of the F1 pack, it also wouldn’t take much for Haas to slip backward, closer to the eighth position it achieved in its first two seasons. Much could depend on the drivers, who need to bring home a lot more double-point finishes than the disappointing five they managed last year.

Mark Thompson/Getty Images

COMPACT, YET EFFECTIVE

FRAME OF REFERENCE

Fresh out of Toro Rosso-Honda, Pierre Gasly (ABOVE) says he can feel the performance lift in Honda’s ’19 engine.

Andy Hone/LAT

TEAM BY TEAM

RENAULT R.S.19 3 Daniel Ricciardo 27 Nico Hulkenberg

ON THE UP SLOPE

Renault is a team transformed almost beyond recognition since it re-absorbed the ailing Lotus squad and went full-factory once again in December 2015. Back then, the team was suffering from underinvestment, a brain drain of personnel to rival teams, and had fallen far from its race-winning form of a couple of years previously. In the seasons since, Renault has poured resources in, revitalizing its Enstone, UK, base and giving it a budget that, while not quite on a par with F1’s “big three,” should put it ahead of its midfield rivals.

In its three years since turning back into Renault, the team has finished ninth, then sixth, then fourth in the constructors’ championship.

It’s an encouraging trajectory, and having won the midfield war last year despite, on average, having a slower car than Haas, the time is right to strike out towards the big three. The trouble is, the gap between F1’s giants and the rest is a chasm, one too wide to clear in a single leap. So for Renault this year, the objective is to finish a stronger fourth and show clear improvement with its engine, particularly on Saturdays.

The arrival of Daniel Ricciardo (ABOVE) from Red Bull Racing is a clear statement of intent, although watching the Australian in testing trying to come to terms with a car that wasn’t as willing to do what he wanted as his RBs of yore suggested he was getting a reality check.

If Renault doesn’t put clear air between itself and the midfield this year, or even falls behind emerging teams like Racing Point, Haas and Alfa Romeo, its French parent company might start to wonder why it’s spending all this cash. Pressure’s on...

RACER.com 23

FORMULA 1 2019

ALFA ROMEO RACING-FERRARI

MID-PACK ALFA MALES

What was once Sauber hasn’t just had a face lift heading into this season. The deal to make it Alfa Romeo comes with added investment that’s allowed it to increase its technical budget and build on a 2018 season during which it was F1’s biggest improver. Having ended last season at the front of the midfield, and with 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen rejoining the team he made his F1 debut for at the start of the century, everything is looking up.

The result is an aggressive car, particularly in the front wing department,

Andy Hone/LAT

Joe Portlock/LAT

C38 7 Kimi Raikkonen 99 Antonio Giovinazzi

RACING POINT-MERCEDES RP19 11 Sergio Perez 18 Lance Stroll

UPWARDLY MOBILE

The then-Force India went into last year’s mid-season break in administration and facing an uncertain future. Today, it’s an upwardly mobile team with a new factory on the way using land acquired adjacent to its long-time Silverstone, UK, base, a big cash injection and even aspirations of breaking into the top three in the next few years.

Lance Stroll, the son of ultra-wealthy Lawrence who heads the consortium that

STILL IN THE GAME

Veteran Kimi Raikkonen begins his 17th F1 season back where it all began – the team formerly known as Sauber.

as the potential of the team’s Swiss base, badly underutilized in cash-strapped post-BMW seasons, starts to bear fruit.

On track, the Ferrari-powed C38 looks the part, too, particularly in fast corners.

Alfa Romeo/Sauber ended last season at the sharp end of the midfield battle, and it can be there again with Raikkonen and Ferrari-contracted Antonio Giovinazzi a classic lineup of experience and youth.

But...if the car doesn’t suit Kimi, or the Italian struggles in his first full-time F1 ride, there’s a risk that a decent car will too often fall into the wrong half of the pack in what will be a very tight season.

saved the team, will partner incumbent Sergio Perez in the driver lineup. And while Stroll is no Esteban Ocon, he’s quicker than he’s given credit for and has proved himself capable of big results.

Racing Point is one of a clutch of teams in realistic contention for “best of the rest.” If it can do that – particularly if it does so by getting stronger as the season winds on – that would be the perfect foundation for its ambitions. But expansion can be a distraction, and if the new factory and re-stocking the design ranks diverts the tech team’s attention in any way, it could mean that Racing Point ends up locked in a season-long dogfight for minor points and closer to the seventh place it took last year than a lofty fourth.

24 SPRING 2019

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TEAM BY TEAM

MCL34 4 Lando Norris 55 Carlos Sainz, Jr.

THE LONG ROAD BACK

“Humility” was the word sporting director Gil de Ferran chose when asked to characterize his and the team’s outlook on 2019. When McLaren’s shortcomings were cruelly exposed by ditching Honda and switching to Renault last year, Fernando Alonso’s pace in a difficult to drive and unstable car provided a thin veneer of credibility. But on the whole, it was the rudest of awakenings.

McLaren has been an F1 midfielder for six seasons now, meaning its first priority is to establish itself at the front of that pack. The chances of this happening in 2019 are slender, but if the MCL34 can show itself to be a well-balanced, solid machine, that will help validate the changes McLaren has made technically.

Some headline lap times by Carlos Sainz, Jr. (BELOW) in testing weren’t backed up by long-run pace, which hints at another tough year. There’s no evidence of a big step in performance yet, and McLaren might well end up struggling even to match its sixth place of last year. But what is critical is that the team understands and makes progress with its car – that’s more important even than overall position.

Peter Fox/Getty Images

MCLAREN-RENAULT

TORO ROSSO-HONDA STR14 23 Alexander Albon 26 Daniil Kvyat

Glenn Dunbar/LAT

BABY BULLS

FW42 63 George Russell 88 Robert Kubica

STOPPING THE ROT

While its rivals were racking up the early miles in pre-season testing in Barcelona, the Williams-Mercedes FW42 was still being assembled at the team’s UK base. After a terrible 2018 season, finishing last in the championship with its biggest performance deficit to the front of the field ever, the only way should have been up for Williams.

But a fraught start to the season doesn’t inspire even the most ardent fan of the venerable team with confidence.

The Barcelona paddock was full of alarming stories about the team’s struggles to find anything like a decent level of downforce, so the big question is whether Williams can improve on its performance of last season. Even with

the feelgood story of Robert Kubica, back after an accident-induced absence of seven seasons, and well-regarded rookie George Russell, it could be a tough campaign.

If Williams can recover from its slow start, it could score points more regularly than last season and perhaps pick off a position or two in the constructors’ championship. But the signs aren’t good and another season at rock bottom would mean the rot hasn’t stopped, especially with rumors circulating about chief technical officer Paddy Lowe’s future...

Glenn Dunbar/LAT

WILLIAMS-MERCEDES

After last year’s starring role as Red Bull’s Honda-taster team, it’s back to business as usual for Toro Rosso.

But with a difference. The departure of technical director James Key last year after signing for McLaren (he’ll start work there late March) has allowed a modified technical approach. Jody Egginton, deputy technical director, is now leading the way with a brief to focus on maximizing ties with big brother team Red Bull Racing. That means taking more non-listed parts than before.

The STR14 uses last year’s Red Bull gearbox, which proved to fit the Honda engine well, despite being designed to work with the Renault, plus RB14’s rear suspension. This should allow Toro Rosso to focus its resources on aero development, making it more cost-effective and perhaps also more competitive.

For the past 10 years, Toro Rosso has bounced around from seventh to 10th in the constructors’ points. It’s likely to be the same this season, yet while the team expects a slightly subdued start there is a chance it could make significant gains as the season progresses, given a planned aggressive drip-feed of upgrades.

But if it falls short of expectations, one of F1’s smaller teams could only be fighting for occasional points.

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FORMULA 1 2019

RED BULL’S POWER PLAY

Red Bull has to get back into the F1 title frame, and Honda needs to show its program has what it takes. Can their partnership deliver on that?

WORDS Chris Medland MAIN IMAGE Thomas Butler/Red Bull

RED BULL-HONDA RB15

With F1 simplifying its front wings for 2019 (a further move in the quest for more overtaking), it’s another opportunity for Red Bull design guru Adrian Newey to steal an aero march. Question is, will Honda provide the grunt and reliability to maximize Newey’s latest design?

26 SPRING 2019

I

t’s difficult to overstate just how crucial 2019 will be for Red Bull Racing. The switch from Renault to Honda marks its first change in engine partner in 12 years, and with it come high expectations. Succeed, and Red Bull will undoubtedly be fighting for championships. Fail, and with F1 in a period of uncertainty regarding the future shape of the sport, the team’s whole presence could be called into question.

After four years back in F1, Honda is primed for the challenge of supplying two teams. It was preparing to do so after agreeing a Sauber contract back in 2017, but the synergy between Red Bull and Toro Rosso makes such an increased workload easier to take on.

The signs from last year were relatively encouraging, but there are unknowns. From a Honda point of view, reliability was improved, but still far from optimal. Yet it was the way the power unit was upgraded that stood out.

A new specification introduced for its home race in Suzuka gave Toro Rosso a clear step forward, but had been rushed through to please management. While Ferrari and Mercedes remain steps ahead, a winter to consolidate that upgrade should mean a power unit somewhere on a par with Renault in 2019.

The biggest unknown relates to Red Bull’s approach to the partnership. McLaren made numerous demands of Honda that ultimately compromised the power unit’s potential, with Honda unwilling to push back hard enough. Toro

(LEFT) Max Verstappen starts his fifth season in F1 in 2019. Can Red Bull Racing’s alliance with Honda (BELOW) bring him into genuine championship contention at last?

Rosso learned from that and gave Honda the freedom it needed last year, but will Red Bull?

Based on past credentials, Red Bull will undoubtedly back itself, and has already been talking up the potential of Honda to the extent where pressure is well and truly on. It’s shades of the overly-bullish rhetoric that came out of McLaren in the early years of its deal.

After a bitter public feud with Renault, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner insists there will be more patience with Honda, due to the partnership being more collaborative than the customer/supplier setup it had with the French manufacturer over so many seasons.

Last year, across two cars and 21 races,

Red Bull’s RB14 retired 11 times – a dreadful record in modern F1. While not all of those DNFs were down to Renault, It’s safe to say that more robust reliability from Honda would be a solid start in keeping Red Bull appeased.

On the chassis side, it’s pretty much a given that the Adrian Newy-helmed RB15 design will be a potent platform. And in Max Verstappen, there’s no doubting the driving talent in RBR, either. So it keeps coming back to Honda, and whether it can keep its side of the performance bargain. For 2019, expect the combination to shine on occasion, but for a consistent package to mount a serious title challenge, that’s likely a way away just yet.

ZERO PIERRE PRESSURE? While Charles Leclerc has high expectations upon him at Ferrari, Pierre Gasly (BELOW) will benefit from relatively lower ones at Red Bull Racing.

The Frenchman is two years older than Max Verstappen, yet far less experienced in F1, with just 26 grand prix starts.

His promotion came almost by default after Daniel Ricciardo’s shock Renault move, and that means a little more patience from Red Bull’s talent nurturers. Still, he’ll need to show he has what it takes to be a factor in the long term.

Red Bull isn’t content with anything less than two world class drivers capable of winning races. Gasly will need to show he has that potential this year, and take his chances as they come.

A few standout results will be the minimum requirement, as well as being consistently close to Verstappen. The way the Dutchman performed toward the end of 2018, Gasly will need to perform at his maximum to do that.

Dustin Snipes/Red Bull

Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Mark Thompson/Getty Images

RED BULL AND HONDA

RACER.com 27

FORMULA 1 2019

WORDS Chris Medland IMAGES Renault F1 Team

Now that the shock over Daniel Ricciardo’s move to Renault has abated, might he have pulled off a masterstroke? It’s possible.

L

ewis Hamilton, the five-time and counting Formula 1 world champion, is the poster child for taking a risk and reaping the rewards.

In Lewis’s case, the risk was leaving McLaren, a team which had taken him to the 2008 championship and, despite losing ground to a rampant Red Bull Racing, was still building race-winning cars when he jumped ship at the end of 2012. His destination was a Mercedes program that, granted, was on an upward trajectory, but had yet to hit the big time.

Second season in, the move paid off. Big time.

Daniel Ricciardo is hoping his risky move will pay off in similar style, having vacated a Red Bull Racing drive that delivered him two victories in the first six races of 2018 and now staked his future on...Renault, a team yet to come within sniffing distance of a podium some three years into its latest tenure as a factory team.

“There is a bit of a gamble with it, but the more I think about it I don’t see it too much as a gamble,” says Ricciardo. “The thing is, here at Renault right now, we’re not coming in saying that we’re going to win, so the expectation and the bar isn’t initially very high.

“But when I joined Red Bull for 2014, they’d taken those four consecutive world championships [in 2010-’13], so there’s a level of expectation built in. Every year you kind of feel it’s going to happen, but the risk is you’re going to be let down every year.

“I guess the risk if I’d stayed there was that it wouldn’t work again, and maybe with Honda it doesn’t happen. But the risk of failure at Red Bull is probably greater than coming here to Renault and having the risk of not winning.

“So I guess they both have their risks, but

28 SPRING 2019

Tell Daniel Ricciardo his move to Renault is a sizable gamble and he’s happy to explain why he believes otherwise.

DANIEL RICCIARDO

RACER.com 29

FORMULA 1 2019

DANIEL RICCIARDO

NICO HULKENBERG PROOF BY COMPARISON

Mark Thompson/Getty Images

with risk comes reward, and I feel that, because the growth here is potentially a lot bigger, the reward can be bigger here. The ability to become less frustrated is better here.”

The word “frustrated” is one that often crops up when Ricciardo reflects on his final season with Red Bull. He uses it in relation to on-track results, but digging a little deeper, it speaks to the off-track turmoil he faced, too.

Ricciardo wanted a move to Mercedes, and talk went on long into the season before Niki Lauda finally told him what Toto Wolff wouldn’t: Valtteri Bottas was staying. With Ferrari never putting a serious offer on the table, Red Bull believed retaining him was a formality. After all, why would he want to vacate a “big three” seat?

Along with a growing feeling that Max Verstappen was the team’s future, it’s an attitude that annoyed Ricciardo, and he’d already made up his mind to leave. Thing is, you can’t help but get a sense that his decision came regardless of if the grass was greener elsewhere.

TREASURE THE MEMORIES...

Daniel Ricciardo celebrates his 2018 Monaco Grand Prix win with Red Bull. How long before he sups from a sweaty shoe again?

Zak Mauger/LAT

Renault’s 2019 challenger, the R.S.19, proved a very decent package in pre-season testing. But is it a winner?

“With risk comes reward.

Because the growth here is potentially a lot bigger, the reward can be bigger here” DANIEL RICCIARDO “There were a few of us who met Daniel last summer to try and convince him to come onboard and we were pretty honest about it,” says Renault executive director Marcin Budkowski. “Cyril (Abiteboul, Renault F1 team managing director) said, ‘We’re not going to bulls**t him; we don’t want him to come for the wrong reasons because that’s just going to be disruptive for the team. We want someone who wants to come and be part of the project.’

“The approach we took was explaining, ‘This is what we do well, and this more importantly is what we don’t do well enough. We know what these things are and this is what we’re doing to improve them.’ Clearly, he felt there was a plan and that we were honest about the road ahead of us, and he jumped in.”

When Hamilton joined Mercedes in 2013, it had already won a grand prix with Nico Rosberg in 2012. Lewis took a victory in his first season, but it was year two, ground zero for F1’s turbo-hybrid era, when the move paid off, with the British driver earning 11 wins on the way to his second world championship.

Renault is nowhere near that level on its development arc, and it isn’t arguing otherwise.

“The best way we are all preparing ourselves for (any frustration) is by being transparent,” says Abiteboul. “I’ve not made any personal commitments that we will be

At the Renault F1 pre-season launch, Nico Hulkenberg walked over to a media session and dryly quipped, “So, who’s got any questions for me about Daniel?

Seriously, I’d love some more…”

Sure, the German is miffed by the interest in his teammate, but that’s what results buy you...

“Ricciardo will be a challenge for Nico,” Renault executive director Marcin Budkowski says. “But Nico is proven and bloody quick, so it’s going to be an interesting one to watch.”

The “bloody quick” description can’t be denied. Those who’ve worked with him rate Hulkenberg’s speed and consistency – rarely failing to get at least close to the car’s potential – but what’s possibly lacking is his ability to grab an opportunity when it comes.

Sergio Perez picked up all the podiums during their time together at Force India, and former deputy team principal Bob Fernley said Hulkenberg’s lack of a top-three finish is not down to luck. His current boss, Cyril Abiteboul, admits it’s a make-orbreak year for the 31-year old.

“Irrespective of the performance of the team, his own performance will be directly measured,” he says.

“He’s not stupid; he’s experienced enough to see that it’s a year of risk, but also such a year of opportunity.

“For the first time he’s not dependent on the team’s performance; it’s his own performance that everybody will be able to read on the basis that he has a proven quantity racing with the same hardware.”

Nico Hulkenberg is the incumbent at Renault. Will Daniel Ricciardo’s arrival be a chance to define his stature?

30 SPRING 2019

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FORMULA 1 2019

DANIEL RICCIARDO

LAT archive

The package: a tidy and, on first impression, effective R.S.19, plus two drivers in Hulkenberg and Ricciardo each with something to prove.

Is Renault about to surprise us in 2019?

IT SEEMED LIKE A GOOD DECISION...

“It’s cool to see that Daniel, similar to me, is wanting to elevate himself, wanting to try something new” LEWIS HAMILTON Hamilton’s, who knew what his new paymasters were planning. If the 2021 rule changes are radical or far-reaching – a design clean slate – Renault has the resources to be well placed to exploit them. But if the changes are mere iterations on current themes, playing catchup and closing down a deficit is far more difficult.

Meanwhile, over at Red Bull...

“Daniel who?” chuckles team principal Christian Horner when asked by RACER if he can see positives behind Ricciardo’s move. “It’s Daniel’s career and you have to respect his decision. If that’s what he feels is best for him, there’s nothing you can do but respect that.

“You can’t really compare it to what Lewis did in leaving McLaren for Mercedes. They’re very different teams and different regulations.”

Actually, maybe somebody who can is Lewis himself, and he’s behind Ricciardo’s decision.

“I’m really happy for him,” says Hamilton.

“It’s always brave to make a decision that’s out of the norm, especially not knowing excatly how the next year’s going to go.

“It’s an exciting period for him. A lot of people are scared of change, of what’s different, and therefore get stuck in a space that’s not their happiest space. It’s cool to see that Daniel, similar to me, is wanting to elevate himself, wanting to try something new, and learn from it – good or bad – and take the risk.”

Charles Coates/LAT

able to race for wins. He knows that.

“But he knows also that his job is more than driving a car to win, it’s also to build an organization capable of winning. If possible next year. If not, then the year after. I think he likes this challenge, which is an extra challenge on top of the pure competitive element.”

If there are words of warning for Ricciardo, it is Abiteboul’s admission – one that tallies with the wider public opinion – that it’s not realistic to expect to fully close the gap to the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari over his contract term.

“We know that the realistic target is 2021.

I was referring to next year because it’s in the public domain that we signed Daniel for two years. So winning in that period is the plan, our ambition. Will it happen? Maybe, maybe not.

“But I would like to hope that even if it doesn’t happen next year then maybe there is a momentum that’s good enough from his perspective and from our perspective to continue the journey together, and hopefully we offer him the first win all together in 2021.”

2021 marks the next set of major regulation changes but they’re not yet finalized, and that’s where Ricciardo’s gamble differs from

Daniel Ricciardo isn’t the first driver to jump ship and raise a few eyebrows.

Lewis Hamilton did it with great success in his leap from McLaren to Mercedes, but for others – world champions included – the switch proved ill-advised.

Fernando Alonso backed himself into a corner and left Ferrari for a struggling McLaren in 2015, ensuring he didn’t take a podium in his final four seasons in F1.

But that’s nothing on his fellow two-time world champion Emerson Fittipaldi…

Two years at Lotus yielded a drivers’ title and runner-up spot, followed immediately by another championship with McLaren in 1974. The following season, he came up just a place short again in defending his crown. That’s quite a run. But then, aged 29 and at the height of his powers, he jumped ship to the familial Fittipaldi Automotive team, alongside brother Wilson.

There were two podiums, but a return of 37 points from five seasons was eight fewer than he managed in his final year with McLaren, who duly won the drivers’ title with James Hunt the year after Fittipaldi left.

While Damon Hill’s move from Williams to Arrows as reigning champion in 1997 was largely out of his hands (and largely disappointing), the man who succeeded him as champion with Williams, Jacques Villeneuve, left for BAR in 1999 while his stock was still extremely high. The result? Try 11 consecutive retirements to kick off five years that yielded just two podiums.

(TOP) Fittipaldi’s move to the familyowned team wasn’t a great choice.

(ABOVE) Ditto, Villeneuve and BAR.

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INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY, August 4

R7:

MID-OHIO SPORTS CAR COURSE, August 10

R8:

ROAD AMERICA, August 24

R9:

WATKINS GLEN INTERNATIONAL, September 7

R10: VIRGINIA INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY, September 22 R11: CIRCUIT OF THE AMERICAS, October 6 R12: DAYTONA INT’L SPEEDWAY, November 16 For Ticket Info Visit gotransam.com/events

2/25/19 11:04 AM

FORMULA 1 2019

WORDS Chris Medland MAIN IMAGE Rudy Carezzevoli

CHARLES IN CHARGE?

While Ferrari still puts Sebastian Vettel front and center in its F1 title aspirations, Charles Leclerc’s signing serves notice for its future plans.

T

here’s no way of sugar coating it: Charles Leclerc’s arrival at Ferrari is a kick up the backside for Sebastian Vettel.

The four-time world champion with Red Bull Racing had become comfortable with the status quo since arriving at Maranello. He had Kimi Raikkonen exactly where he wanted him – quick on occasion, but not a consistent threat – and was clearly the top dog. Signed as a replacement for Fernando Alonso for 2015, he’s delivered all but one of the team’s victories since that date.

But title opportunities slipped away, and with Lewis Hamilton performing at such a high level for Mercedes, Ferrari wanted more from Vettel. Leclerc’s promotion from Sauber/Alfa Romeo was done with two outcomes in mind: Either he pushes Vettel to greater heights, or he marks himself out as Ferrari’s future.

What a huge compliment that is.

Let’s not forget, Leclerc is about to embark on only his second year in Formula 1. You have to go all the way back to Jean Alesi in 1991 to find comparable inexperience ahead of a Ferrari move, Alesi joining after 24 F1 starts over a season and a half with Tyrrell.

Leclerc has been preparing for this day through his role in the Ferrari Driver Academy, but that in itself meant there was no need to rush him into one of the prized seats. Ferrari had control of his career, and had watched him develop at Sauber. With Alfa Romeo’s involvement in the team increasing, it was an attractive option to keep the 21-year old there for a second get-up-to-speed season.

Yet his rookie form was too good to ignore.

The way Leclerc had dominated Formula 2 was one thing, but after a slightly tricky start to his F1 career, his development was spectacular.

It’s the perfect scenario for the Monégasque.

He’s not really expected to get the better of Vettel first time around, but has shown the potential that suggests he might give the German more than a run for his money in the future.

34 SPRING 2019

Leclerc still has a huge capacity to learn, and he will need to do so quickly at Ferrari.

But if last year is anything to go by, it could only take a few races for him to find his feet.

The pressure will naturally be higher at Maranello, but so far Leclerc has shown he is able to perform as the stakes have increased.

You only have to look at the results once Leclerc was announced as a Ferrari driver to understand how his relaxed demeanor transfers into performances behind the wheel.

He scored points in every race he finished after the news was made public – retiring twice through no fault of his own – and ended the year with three-straight seventh-place finishes.

What Leclerc should produce this year are enough standout performances to show he could lead Ferrari one day. But what he could deliver is a consistently high level that gives Ferrari every chance of beating Mercedes to the constructors’ championship. How Vettel responds is not for Leclerc to worry about...

New Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto has already stated that the four-time champ will get priority in the early races, given his experience and standing within the team. But the very fact Binotto feels compelled to clarify that shows he’s aware of Leclerc’s ability to reach Vettel’s level. In reality, it’s just a matter of how quickly he gets there.

MATTIA BINOTTO

New team principal Binotto (ABOVE, right) is Ferrari’s former technical director. His calm demeanor could be an asset in the highly-charged atmosphere within the Scuderia.

CHARLES LECLERC

HIGH IMPACT

LAT archive

Charles Leclerc has everything required to be a success at Ferrari, but he’ll need to do something special to emulate the impact made by Niki Lauda when he first joined the Scuderia.

After taking out loans to buy his way into F1 seats at March and then BRM, Lauda was a slightly surprising choice for Clay Regazzoni’s teammate in 1974. But it was Regazzoni who had seen plenty in the young Austrian, with his glowing review helping to convince Enzo Ferrari.

A second place on his debut was hugely impressive, but Lauda’s run of six consecutive pole positions and two victories marked him out as a future star. After finishing fifth at Brands Hatch (BELOW), Lauda led the points. He would fail to finish any of the remaining five races, but had exceeded all expectations and would win the title the following year.

RACER.com 35

FORMULA 1 2019

WORDS Chris Medland MAIN IMAGE McLaren

REBUILDING FROM THE TOP

First thing in solving a problem is recognizing you have one. McLaren finally did. It reset its key players and is looking for progress in 2019.

T

he halls of the McLaren Technology Center remain unchanged – sterile, yet imposing – but a number of the people walking them are very different compared with 12 months ago.

Racing director Eric Boullier was gone before the summer break, and senior technical figures Tim Goss and Matt Morris also departed. In came sporting director Gil de Ferran and engineering director Pat Fry, while former Toro Rosso technical director James Key sets up his desk late March and erstwhile Porsche LMP1 program boss Andreas Seidl will take on the role of F1 managing director on May 1.

While those are major changes, a year ago a similarly fundamental change – Renault replacing Honda as power unit supplier – led to bold statements about fighting Red Bull for podiums and maybe even race victories.

This time around, things are a little different.

As a team that previously insisted winning was in its DNA, six years without a victory said otherwise. It could no longer hide behind

36 SPRING 2019

Honda, and the finger of blame stopped pointing externally and moved inside the walls of the MTC. Last year’s on-track struggles were painful, but CEO Zak Brown’s strategy on key hires and his desire to make McLaren’s F1 program a focused, fast-paced and reactive racing organization once again are positive steps.

It might not be a popular opinion, but Fernando Alonso’s departure from F1 is a positive for McLaren, too. There was almost a circus-like air around the Spaniard at times, featuring outlandish comments, rave self-reviews and swipes at other teams in attempts to defend his own. He was the right driver at the wrong time.

With Alonso staying with McLaren in IndyCar (a clever side-hustle that gives McLaren its USP and fills a void in terms of North American exposure), he remains part of the setup but releases some pressure on the F1 team. Fellow Spaniard Carlos Sainz, Jr., and Brit rookie Lando Norris won’t play the same

M C LAREN REGROUPS

ANY KIND OF STEP?

MCLAREN-RENAULT MCL34

Joe Portlock/LAT

You could call this an interim car until James Key’s arrival begins to define a longer-term design strategy. Front wing is simplified, per 2019 rules, but overall nose treatment is 2018-esque.

Another famous name seeking a turnaround in fortunes is Williams, but the picture is a little different at Grove. The budget isn’t as big as at McLaren, and the financial dynamic has changed significantly following Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll’s decision to purchase Racing Point (nee Force India).

Williams added a new title partner in telecom company ROKiT, doing well to replace Martini at a similar rate despite ending bottom of the constructors’ standings in 2018.

Robert Kubica’s return to F1 is being warmly received. It’s a brilliant human story, but the feel-good is likely to fade rapidly if Kubica struggles.

That’s what makes George Russell’s acquisition such a shrewd one. As the reigning

Glenn Dunbar/LAT

(BELOW) Sporting director Gil de Ferran with Carlos Sainz, Jr. (LEFT) Sainz and F1 rookie Lando Norris are an all-new driver lineup for the post-Alonso era.

games, but instead represent a young and exciting partnership that will show patience in the rebuilding project.

Sainz has the proven talent to deliver if the car is good enough, and recent experience of another team in transition – Renault. Norris enters F1 with an impressive résumé, but without the expectations placed on some former prospects, nor the same brutal benchmark Stoffel Vandoorne had, for example.

Regardless of how competitive the car is, the ability to show progress will be a victory of sorts. But given the fact the MCL33 was arguably vying with the Williams FW41 as the worst car on the grid toward the end of 2018, a consistent midfield presence this season would also be a forward step.

Those are thoughts now shared by those inside the team. After years of struggle and a reality-check 2018 season, McLaren has stopped talking about where it feels it should be and started focusing on exactly where it is.

Formula 2 champion, Russell is a serious talent and has the right temperament for F1. Given a half-decent car, Russell will get results eventually, even if Kubica doesn’t.

But there’s the kicker.

As noted elsewhere, Williams showed up late for the first pre-season test with its Mercedes-powered FW42 and was resolutely slowest when it did.

To mix it with midfielders such as Toro Rosso or McLaren, Williams has to make a considerable step forward. It’s been going backward since the end of 2015; it’s bottom of the pile, so to merely tread water will be more of the same.

RACER.com 37

FORMULA 1 RETRO

(MAIN) Gilles Villenuve throws his Ferrari 312T4 around Long Beach. The car’s wide flat-12 wasn’t conducive to building effective venturi tunnels, but grunt and “chuckability” were assets on a tight street track.

38 SPRING 2019

1979 FERRARI 312T4

WORDS Paul Fearnley

MAIN IMAGE LAT archive

UNFASHIONABLY EFFECTIVE As ground effect reinvented Formula 1, Ferrari’s flat-12-engined 312T4 of 1979 was a compromised, yet effective world championship-winner. here were just two ground effect cars at the 1978 Monaco Grand Prix. Both appeared during practice but neither raced. And one sealed the deal for the other. A fortnight later Mario Andretti, Lotus 79 fitted with a version of Wolf WR5’s deemed-legal, spring-loaded sliding side skirts, hit the ground sticking and led Zolder’s Belgian GP from pole to goal.

The new Wolf qualified fifth – 1.22sec slower – ran third initially, but spun out eventually. After a remarkable maiden season – Jody Scheckter was runner-up to Ferrari’s Niki Lauda in the 1977 championship – this single-car team was perhaps beginning to leak air. Luckily Scheckter had a $1.2 million “Band-Aid” in his pocket.

“It wasn’t a difficult decision: I joined for the food,” he says – a typically wry referral to his having a Ferrari contract for 1979. “I’d been talking to Old Man Ferrari for years – but he had Lauda then. I’d wanted to sign at the season’s end but he insisted we do it right away. Although it hadn’t been my dream when I was coming out of South Africa, to drive for Ferrari was still a massive opportunity.”

He was to replace Carlos Reutemann, whose second full season with the Scuderia would bring four wins but few friends due to his insistence that the understeering 312T3 was not as good as T2 had been and could never be a ground effect car. Ferrari’s ability to overcome this shortcoming was a strength and a weakness.

Its T4 of 1979 was distinctive rather than distinguished, product of aerodynamicist/ engineer Gianfranco Poncini at Pininfarina’s 1:1 wind tunnel (without a moving ground plane).

Ten inches longer than T3 – half of which was wheelbase – and with cockpit further forward

and ahead of a single central fuel tank à la Lotus, its upper surface was wide and flat – chief designer Mauro Forghieri had much experience of two-seater racers – albeit with a cantilevered needle nose jutting from beneath its leading edge, its wing on a retroussé mount. A narrower bathtub monocoque and more tightly packaged suspension, now inboard at both ends and operated by rockers, were intended to increase airflow along a floor curving to a keel and hemmed by external sprung skirts.

The devil, however, lay not in the detail. The once dynamic positives of a long, wide, flat-12 mated to a neat transverse gearbox – lower CoG and polar moment – now acted like bungs, bottling potential aerodynamic negative pressure in need of channeling. Alfa Romeo

LAT archive

T

CALIFORNIA DREAMING

Gilles Villeneuve (ABOVE, center) headed teammate Jody Scheckter in a Ferrari 1-2 on the Long Beach streets, April 8, 1979.

312T4’s lack of downforce was less of a compromise on such a tight, twisty track.

RACER.com 39

FORMULA 1 RETRO

“I probably didn’t think that far enough [ahead].We lacked downforce at Ferrari, for sure.

But our reliability was excellent”

rushed through a V12 for Brabham and Cosworth repackaged its DFV V8’s ancillaries to accommodate redefined performance parameters. Ferrari didn’t blink.

“Lotus was far ahead because it’d come out with a wing car… Yeah, I probably didn’t think that far enough [ahead].” admits Scheckter.

“We lacked downforce at Ferrari, for sure. But our reliability was excellent.”

Scheckter’s 1979 would be bookended by his only retirements: a wrist injury in Argentina and damage from a burst tire at Watkins Glen. “But those Michelin radials were, when they were good – because they collapsed at the beginning – very fast sometimes. Definitely an advantage.”

Michelin had entered Formula 1 with turbo pioneers Renault in 1977. Keen to widen its experience and knowledge, it agreed in 1978 to supply Ferrari, too; Reutemann promptly won at Rio and Long Beach to rubberstamp the death warrant for Goodyear’s bias-plies. Inconsistency followed, however, as new partners sifted myriad compounds and constructions and chased setups: embarrassingly Reutemann would make five tire stops at the French GP. This situation was vastly improved by ’79, but not yet infallible.

“I was leading by 30sec because I’d started on dries when everybody else was on wets,” says

40 SPRING 2019

LAT archive

JODY SCHECKTER

STARTING ON THE BACK FOOT Ferrari used its 1978-contending 312T3 for the first two grands prix of ’79. Outclassed by its ground effect opposition, the T3 struggled to a fifth- and sixth-place finish in Brazil.

Scheckter. “But then the sidewalls… Under braking it was jumping all over the place and I had to stop to change them [after 52 of 78 laps].”

Thus Ferrari’s new number one and local hero finished behind Gilles Villeneuve as T4 scored a 1-2 on its debut at Kyalami, third round of the series: “We had a rule: if we were 1-2, 2-3 or 3-4, with nobody else was around, we wouldn’t fight,” says Scheckter. “And we stuck to it.”

When this result was repeated at the next round at Long Beach – “I had first refusal on a new rear wing [mounted ahead of the rear axle via its endplates]; I should have refused it” – Scheckter’s career was in the balance. It is a measure of the man that he responded with consecutive victories at Zolder and Monaco.

The former involved forceful early overtakes, a measured middle shadowing squabbling teammates in faster cars, and a late strike on healthier rubber. Monaco hinged on qualifying.

“Gilles and I were swapping times,” says Scheckter. “I was exiting corners touching the guardrail; I liked to slide a car and so I could control that. But toward the end I was hitting the inside curb, too.” Bent steering/suspension was a small price for pole by seven-hundredths.

A rocket start and calmness under friendly fire – until Villeneuve retired with transmission

1979 FERRARI 312T4

LAT archive

(LEFT) Fast, sweeping Silverstone was ground zero for highlighting the T4’s shortcomings.

(BELOW) Jody Scheckter and Gilles Villenueve were respectful of each other as teammates.

PATRICK DEPAILLER (LIGIER)*

CLAY REGAZZONI (WILLIAMS)

26

51PTS 3 WINS 47PTS 3 WINS 40PTS 4 WINS 51PTS 2 WINS 29PTS 1 WIN 20PTS 1 WIN JACQUES LAFFITE (LIGIER)

STARTS

WINS 6 (23%) SECONDS 7 (32%) OTHER TOP-SIX 5 (19%) NON-FINISHES 3 (12%)

1-2 FINISH Williams driver Alan Jones took more wins than Ferrari’s duo, but was compromised by early-season unreliability for the FW07.

ALAN JONES (WILLIAMS)

BULLET-PROOF In an era when non-finishes were toss-of-a-coin common, 312T4 posted only three DNFs from 26 starts, while racking up six wins and seven seconds.

GILLES VILLENEUVE (FERRARI)

failure on lap 54 (of 76) – and the genuine threat of Clay Regazzoni’s Williams FW07 put Jody in the box seat at the season’s mid-point.

A quirky points system that counted only a driver’s four best results from halves of (in theory) eight races each had been skewed by the cancellation of the Swedish GP. The resultant month’s gap did not work in Ferrari’s favor. While surprise package Ligier, winner of three of the first five GPs, would fade after Monaco due to budget shortfall and operational weakness – plus Patrick Depailler’s hang-gliding accident – an even bigger surprise would come on strongly with the car that Lotus ought to have built.

“We were struggling with Type 80,” says Peter Wright, founding father of ground effect in F1. “[Lotus boss] Colin Chapman kept saying that he wanted more downforce, so we gave him more. But we couldn’t control it.

What Williams did with FW07 was turn ‘Type 79’ into a sensible car. Ours had been flaky.

Spring rates had risen from approximately 150 to 2000lb/in by the time we finished with Type 80, and FW07 could cope with that.

“Likely T4 couldn’t. Not that it had to, because it was massively compromised [by its engine’s architecture]. Yet it was quite clever: a good racing car, nice to drive. One problem with a

Four of the flat-12 Ferrari 312T4’s six grand prix wins came in its first five races, giving Jody Scheckter and Gilles Villeneuve something of a cushion as the competitors drew ever-more downforce from their venturi-friendly, vee-engined ground effect designs.

JODY SCHECKTER (FERRARI)

LAT archive

LAT archive

312T4: GETTING IT DONE EARLY...

* The ’79 points system counted the best four results from the first seven races and best four from the last eight. Had all scores counted, Scheckter (60pts) and Villeneuve (53) would still be 1-2 in points.

MONZA: A FINAL PUSH The 312T4 that Scheckter raced at Monza (BELOW) and in the season-closing North American swing featured a revised exhaust layout for cleaner airflow and “chimneys” to vent air from the sidepods. Ferrari’s late push brought two win in the last three races.

RACER.com 41

FORMULA 1 RETRO

LIGIER LOSES ITS WAY

ground effect car is that you can’t chuck it about in the same way. A bit of flex can be good. Classic Ferrari: the engine will win out in the end. It was probably the last car for which this was true.”

Forghieri’s flat-12 was reckoned to give 30hp more than its lighter, more compact V8 rival – Scheckter remains unconvinced – and its torque suited street tracks. Plus Michelin had maintained its edge in slow-corner turn-in from 1978. Plus FW07 did not make its debut until round five and suffered new-car problems that T4 had avoided. So there was an element of right track/right time to Ferrari’s strong early form.

Sweeping, swooping Silverstone in July, however, marked a technology threshold: Alan Jones’ FW07, fairings alongside its V8 keeping airflow attached, took pole for the British GP by 0.6sec. Scheckter, a further 2.1sec adrift in 11th, climbed to third in the race before slipping back because of fading tires and misleading pit signals. The victorious Regazzoni lapped him.

Ferrari began a rearguard action as Jones, who had scored just four points in the season’s first half, won three GPs on the bounce.

Villeneuve continued to catch the eye – banging wheels at Dijon, three-wheeling at Zandvoort – but Scheckter was Mr. Consistent, an empathetic reviving of an overheated clutch and subsequent charge from last to second place at Holland’s Zandvoort being the highlight.

He was now eight points (net) ahead of Ligier’s Jacques Laffite; and 12 ahead of Villeneuve.

“Gilles [six fastest laps] was quicker in the

races, but he also made more mistakes,” says Scheckter. “He enjoyed the image he had. Sure, he worked hard when it came to racing, but he liked to spin his wheels exiting the pits, etc. That gave me comfort: I knew that was his weakness.

Ferrari went all in with a raft of technical changes for its home race, September’s Italian GP at Monza. The four-car roster included two B-spec T4s with twin calipers and outboard rear brakes. Villeneuve raced the B-spec car, while Scheckter stuck with a less-heavily revised – new exhaust layout, “chimneys” to vent the sidepods – take on the T4.

“The car was improved: more rpm, more downforce,” he says. “And Gilles was great. He pushed hard, but he was a very honest guy.”

Not that that stopped Scheckter from putting the hammer down at the end of the Italian GP, Villeneuve having cantered shotgun for 35 laps: “As soon as Laffite dropped out [from third place on lap 41 of 50] I backed off – except for the last two or three laps. Gilles might have been tempted. I didn’t want to take that chance.”

Scheckter’s Monza win – the last of his career – secured his world championship.

“People warned me about going to Ferrari, but I had fun there. Perhaps because I gave them as much bulls**t as they gave me. My only worry had been: will my best be good enough?”

He beat a teammate as fast as you could (n)ever wish for to become champion in a car rapidly going out of fashion: Jody Scheckter’s best was much more than good enough.

LAT archive

Bodywork removed, the Ferrari 312T4’s “bathtub” monococque is revealed. It’s not the greatest design for the torsional stiffness required for optimizing ground effect.

LAT archive

LAT archive

Ligier’s Cosworth V8-powered JS11 won three of the first five grands prix if 1979, with Ferrari’s 312T4 taking the other two. After that, the French cars never finished higher than second. An apocryphal story puts the slump down to JS11 designer Gerard Ducarouge misplacing a list of essential setup data – written on the back of a carton of Gitanes cigarettes. Hmm, maybe...

MAURO FORGHIERI As chief designer for Ferrari’s racecars since 1963, Forghieri (ABOVE) was an engine/chassis man, rather than an aerodynamicist. Instead, Gianfranco Poncini was tasked with shaping the flat-12-powered T4 to produce a modicum of ground effect downforce.

42 SPRING 2019

p38-43 F1 1979 Ferrari.indd 42

2/24/19 10:12 PM

1979 FERRARI 312T4

A SEASON TO FORGET

LAT archive

The champion constructor slumped to 10th place in 1980, its champion driver contributing just two of its eight points.

Three rebuilt Ferrari 312T4s – revised aerofoils, bodywork and suspension; monocoque tapering to a slimmer footwell; and generally lighter – were renamed T5. Shallower cylinder heads, thanks to a wider valve included angle, shaved 4.4cm (1.7in) from the engine’s width. These proved unreliable, however, and were abandoned after the Monaco GP. Small faltering steps in a time of giant leaps.

A T4-A hack in various guises had been photographed during 1979 in wind tunnel and at Fiorano: conventional nose; longer wheelbase; engine jacked tail-up; aggressively angled full-width diffuser; extended skirted tunnels to the very rear; and true sidepod chimneys.

“They were trying to use the whole car to create downforce,” says Peter Wright.

“Desperate stuff. Theirs was a very severe diffuser perhaps because you couldn’t start it until you got past the heads of the flat-12.

“It’s what happens when those trying hard

LAT archive

1980: FLOGGING A DEAD (PRANCING) HORSE

DESPERATE, DISTRACTED (TOP) T4-A was a radical, but desperate attempt to keep the flat-12 car competitive.

(ABOVE) Work on the 126 turbo car distracted Ferrari.

go too far. Plus if your wind tunnel has a fixed floor you won’t get the right answers.”

Jody Scheckter’s grunting at T4-A’s “memory” speaks volumes.

Gilles Villeneuve was irrepressible in the face of inevitable disappointment, and his teammate, who had rebuffed big money from Renault for 1980, suffered in comparison.

“I’d woken up the morning after winning the title and nothing seemed different,” says Scheckter. “Then Enzo asked me to do the [non-championship F1] race at Imola. I told him I’d just spent seven years trying to win this championship and wanted to enjoy it. But he insisted. I got beaten there, so my world championship in my mind lasted a week.”

This forthright talent that had burst onto the scene and eventually reached the summit ended his career with an uncharacteristic whimper: a DNQ in Montreal and, as the last classified finisher, three laps behind new champion Alan Jones, at Watkins Glen.

Scheckter’s agile mind, however, was made up and soon to be engaged elsewhere.

LAT archive

(MAIN) T5 was a half-hearted update of 1979’s title-winning 312T4. But by 1980, F1’s grasp of ground effect had moved way beyond the flat-12-engined car.

RACER.com 43

p38-43 F1 1979 Ferrari.indd 43

2/25/19 6:26 PM

IMSA WEATHERTECH SPORTSCAR CHAMPIONSHIP

Speed blur... Mazda Team Joest’s pole-winning speed and early pace in the Rolex 24 at Daytona bodes well for a winning breakthrough in 2019.

44 SPRING 2019

MAZDA READY TO WIN

WORDS Marshall Pruett MAIN IMAGE Camden Thrasher

KNOCKING ON THE DOOR Mazda’s disappointment at coming up short in the Rolex 24 at Daytona is being rapidly superseded by optimism over the potency of its DPi program.

O

nce the immediacy of 2019 Rolex 24 at Daytona disappointment faded for Mazda Team Joest, a surprising and positive realization rushed in to fill the void.

On the stopwatch in qualifying, and again during the first six hours of the race, its Multimatic-built RT24-P Daytona Prototype internationals were the class of the Rolex 24 field. Raw speed, of the fearsome variety, was the new wrinkle in Mazda’s most recent attempt to win IMSA’s crown jewel in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.

A terminal engine problem KO’ed the

leading No. 77 Mazda, while a blend of frustrating misfortunes for the sister No. 55 stymied its chances at Round 1. But how would the RT24-P’s pace put it in the mix across the nine races left to run? IMSA’s standard-length 2h40m races, a pair of 100-minute street racing affairs, and the 12-, 10-, and 6-hour enduros could, based on all that was shown at Daytona, seemingly play to the brand’s newfound potential.

Somewhere amid the stinging loss at the Rolex 24, the team behind Mazda’s IMSA program realized they could have something

RACER.com 45

IMSA WEATHERTECH SPORTSCAR CHAMPIONSHIP

“In our case, and I think for every team up and down pit road, it comes down to people and processes”

very special on their hands.

“Literally, as soon as I found out that we were done at Daytona, I immediately just said, ‘OK. Well, Sebring is going to be pretty good,’ and for the rest of the year, I’m pretty pumped,” says veteran Mazda DPi driver Jonathan Bomarito. “Obviously, I was disappointed for Daytona, but I’m super excited and I know we’re going to have good success this year and be very competitive.

Mazda Motorsports director John Doonan was the embodiment of the brand’s disappointment at Daytona. Like Bomarito, the severity of the loss was tempered by the promise of what could be looming just over the horizon.

“We went into the race, after the success in qualifying and showing the pace that we showed all month, very confident that this could be our time,” he recalls. “And the issues we ended up facing in the race were unexpected. I would call it bad and unexpected luck. The issues we found were not reliability issues. They were ultimately some human

46 SPRING 2019

Richard Dole/LAT

JOHN DOONAN

DRIVER FIREPOWER

(ABOVE) Jonathan Bomarito and Harry Tincknell are the No. 55 Mazda’s full-season driver lineup, with Oliver Jarvis and Tristan Nunez as the regulars in the No. 77 RT24-P. Olivier Pla bolsters the 55 entry and Timo Bernhard the 77 in Michelin Endurance Cup races.

error in engine build. And while that makes it difficult to swallow the results, that also gives us confidence going into the rest of the season that we hopefully can contend for race wins and be a part of the championship fight.”

Fresh from breaking the 26-year-old Daytona lap record set by P.J. Jones in his Eagle MkIIIToyota IMSA GTP car, Mazda finds itself in similar territory to that great All American Racers program, and the mighty Electramotive Nissan GTP effort from the same era, too.

Prior to their 24-hour wins at Daytona in the early 1990s (Toyota and AAR in 1993, Nissan with a Japanese-run NISMO entry a year earlier), both Japanese marques took a cautious approach to their respective, U.S.-based GTP programs as reliability was being pursued. In Nissan’s case, skipping the season-opening twice-around-the-clock enduro in favor of starting their season at Round 2 – often a short street race elsewhere in Florida – became the accepted workaround.

Unlike the GTP golden era, the points system

in the WeatherTech Championship means Mazda, or any other brand, cannot afford to skip Daytona while fine-tuning its reliability and still be confident of winning a DPi championship.

But left to challenge Acura, Cadillac and Nissan for DPi honors on the strength of all the points it can accrue over IMSA’s nine remaining races, Bomarito is unfazed by the proposition.

“Yes, I think we can fight for the championship, even if the other guys have a head start with points,” he says. “I’m definitely not ruling that out. But we need to be pretty perfect from here on out as far as finishing all the races. That has to happen first and foremost.

I think if we do that, we will get results this year.

Whether it’s reliability with the car, driver errors, any sort of mechanical errors, we have to just nip that now and be solid the rest of the year.”

To recover the lost championship ground, Bomarito and his RT24-P teammates will need to book a few visits to Victory Lane.

“As a driver, the ultimate goal is to fighting for a championship at the end,” he continues.

“If we can do that, then I would think it will mean we’ll have won a race or a few up to that point, which would be just huge for Mazda as well. I mean, we have to put some results on the board to be in the championship fight.”

The across-the-board optimism within the team stems from the vast range of improvements made to Mazda Team Joest’s organizational structure during the offseason. That’s only fortified by the cascading areas of refinement carried out on Multimatic’s RT24-P chassis and the ancillaries that feed the tiny, AER-built 2-liter, four-cylinder turbo engine that powers it.

“There’s so many different variables and factors that end up playing a role in success,” Doonan says. “In our case, and I think for every team up and down pit road, it comes down to people and processes. For us, turning the corner into 2019 after a rookie year, if you will, of 2018 with new people and new faces and newly redeveloped cars, we took a very refined look at all aspects of the program.

“Someone asked me after the Roar Before

Michael Levitt/LAT Richard Dole/LAT

Michael Levitt/LAT

Michael Levitt/LAT

Ignite Media/Al M. Arena

MAZDA READY TO WIN

(MAIN) Olivier Pla takes a pre-Rolex 24 at Daytona team selfie. The Frenchman joins the Mazda Team Joest lineup for the season’s four enduros. (ABOVE, clockwise from top left) No. 55 qualified fourth at Daytona; John Doonan congratulates pole winner Oliver Jarvis; Mazda is going toe to toe with the likes of Acura and Cadillac in DPi; every member of the Mazda Team Joest squad comes into 2019 with a new sense of purpose and expectation.

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IMSA WEATHERTECH SPORTSCAR CHAMPIONSHIP

Richard Dole/LAT

The Mazda RT24-P begins a third season of IMSA DPi competion in 2019, and the second with Mazda Team Joest at the helm.

“We can take what we just learned, adjust and improve, and come back with a legitimate shot at race wins” Richard Dole/LAT

the 24, ‘Geez, you’ve got Multimatic as a chassis and technical partner, you have AER on the engine side, there’s Joest executing on the team side, and you’ve got a group of drivers, some new, some with you for a while. How in the world do you get this whole pot to cook at the same temperature?’ That’s easily the greatest achievement I’ve seen internally this year.”

Promoting Joest’s Jan Lange to the post of technical director has resulted in a level of crisp execution by mechanics and pit stop personnel that proved elusive at times last season. The addition of veteran race engineers Dave Wilcock and Leena Gade at Multimatic, along with the Canadian firm’s deep well of technical sorcery, could ultimately prove to be responsible for the single biggest spike in Mazda’s bullish speed.

“If you’re going to rank the things that have changed, the dedication and the commitment made by Multimatic to refine and transform the race car itself – not a dramatic transforming outside of the homologation of the car, but just refining the engine bay, raising the quality of how the cars are put together – that to me is the most major factor in the off-season,” Bomarito explains.

“It was the busiest off-season I’ve ever had, refining the geometry settings plus the damper work we did. We really improved the front of the car, making more front down force and understanding what we need to have consistent grip. It’s just a little bit everywhere, and now the car is more raceable. Last year, we had to exploit

ADDED PERSPECTIVE Mazda Team Joest’s desire to explore every aspect of its technical and operational setup for improvement included bringing former Audi Sport engineer Brad Kettler (ABOVE) onboard as a consultant.

JOHN DOONAN the braking entry and we were just really ragged to do the lap times of our competitors. Today, it’s like they’re two completely different cars.”

The proverbial punch in the nose at Daytona should, as Doonan concedes, be received as a blessing as Mazda it plots its next moves. A stinging loss, transformed into a call to action, could help achieve a long overdue breakthrough.

“There’s an army of 80 people that executed the race weekend, and every one of them gave every ounce they had to achieve something at Daytona,” he says. “After a few days of processing, once we had all the results of what did cause us to fall out of the race, I think it’s cautious optimism going into the rest of the season.

“Everybody in this camp thinks that we’re now in a place over the nine remaining races where we can take what we just learned, adjust and improve, and come back with a legitimate shot at race wins. I, and the entire team, will work even harder for us to be a factor heading into Petit Le Mans in the championship conversation.”

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MAZDA READY TO WIN

OLIVER JARVIS

LAT archive

It’s one of racing’s most familiar stories. Young and immensely talented driver has dreams of open-wheel stardom in Formula 1 or IndyCar. Skill is demonstrated, races and championships are won. And then the seemingly inevitable stall arrives, brought on by a lack of funding or opportunity. Welcome, star of tomorrow, to a new career in sports car racing.

Britain’s Oliver Jarvis, the tip of Mazda’s RT24-P DPi spear, embodies the tale.

“Single-seaters was my route, and looking toward F1, but unfortunately we never had the finances to really pursue it all the way,” says the new outright IMSA lap record holder at Daytona. “I won the McLaren Autosport Award, I won the Formula Renault UK Championship, won Macau convincingly in 2007. Some years, that’s enough to get you into a development program, and potentially to F1. For me, it didn’t quite work out, but I have no regret in my career, absolutely none. I love what I do now.”

Now 35, the first sprinkling of grey hairs have begun to appear in Jarvis’ short locks.

In F1, his age would likely be seen as a

Richard Dole/LAT

TAKING ONE FOR THE TEAM

A POLE FOR THE AGES Oliver Jarvis’s 1m33.685s pole lap for the Rolex 24 beat the lap record set by P.J. Jones in a GTP Eagle MkIII back in 1993.

liability; in sports cars, it’s received as added value and accumulated wisdom. A veteran of Audi Sport’s DTM and LMP1-Hybrid Le Mans programs, Jarvis finds himself in a sweet spot where pole-winning pace and deep experience can combine to make a sweeping difference.

“I think that my contributions are more than just on the driving side,” he says. “I’m always looking for performance gains. It doesn’t matter how small...trying to understand why we’re losing a tenth here or there, because if we understand why, then we can make improvements.

“Something I’ve really benefited from over the years with Audi is learning how to build a partnership with your engineers, and how to improve the car. I’m not a driver who thinks my job ends once I’ve completed my stint. It’s being a part of how we work to reach this common goal of winning. Coming from single seaters, where it’s all about you, I’ve enjoyed the team aspect of sports car racing a lot. Making sacrifices, doing anything you can to make our Mazdas win. That’s the difference in this form of racing, and I wouldn’t want to trade it.”

Michael Levitt/LAT

(MAIN) Oliver Jarvis switched to sports car racing when his open-wheel career was stymied by lack of finance. It’s a decision the Mazda ace doesn’t regret.

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IMSA WEATHERTECH SPORTSCAR CHAMPIONSHIP

ZINGING IN THE RAIN

When the skies opened during the 2019 Rolex 24 at Daytona, race fans got the chance to savor the skill and daring of the true rain masters.

WORDS Marshall Pruett MAIN IMAGE Camden Thrasher

T

he grandest lie in racing is found within the statement “rain is the great equalizer.”

Repeated in print and over the airwaves for decades without question, the notion’s plain silly.

For those most skilled among us, rain is the great differentiator. It’s where extra servings of talent and gobs of bravery are given a slippery platform to stand proud. Locked in a series where spec tires, homologated cars, and Balance of Performance rules maintain a high degree of parity in the dry, a downpour of the Noah’s Ark variety such as the one that fell over the Rolex 24 At Daytona gave rise to the event’s most memorable drives.

It was Fernando Alonso in the race-winning No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R using the heavy morning rain to break free

and leave his rivals behind. It was his teammate, Jordan Taylor, another wetweather virtuoso, drawing out a lead of 20 seconds around Daytona’s 3.56-mile swimming pool, and it was Acura Team Penske’s Dane Cameron, whose pace in his water logged ARX-05 DPi defied logic.

Under the shining sun, IMSA’s best squabble over tenths and hundredths of a second as they live and play at the car’s limit. Open up the skies, and the story changes as talk of rules and BoP rightly fade; it’s hero time.

“It’s more of a separator than it is an equalizer,” agrees Cameron, a two-time IMSA champion. “It’s risk management or, rather, who’s willing to take the biggest risk to get the biggest reward, because you can drive

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THE RAIN MASTERS

carefully and be OK and just survive, or you can really distinguish yourself. It’s about who can constantly adapt more and faster than the others, which is really fun. When it’s in the dry, it’s pretty much only one lane. The brake points are the brake points, turn-in is turn-in...

“But when it’s pissing down rain, those brake points are going to change huge amounts, and you’re going to see huge swings in lap time. So that’s really fun, because no two laps are ever the same.”

Where a daredevil like Cameron reacts to rain with a menacing grin, Taylor works through a different process before welcoming and embracing its presence.

“I think many drivers might not admit it, but when you see the rain before you’ve gotten in

Michael L. Levitt/LAT

The art of racing in the rain goes to a whole different level of daring and improvisation when darkness falls.

WATER PERFORMANCE

Anchored by the wet-weather prowess of Jordan Taylor and Fernando Alonso, the No. 10 WTR Cadillac lineup celebrates victory in the 2019 Rolex 24 at Daytona.

the car, and you’re not sure what to expect, it’s pretty stressful, and I think just nerve-racking to know how quickly you’ll adapt, and how comfortable and confident you’ll feel,” says the two-time Rolex 24 winner. “At Daytona, I got out, and it started raining right then when Fernando got in, and then it went red.”

With the race stopped due to excesses of standing water caused by the driving rain, Taylor’s respite outside the car was short lived, and it paid off with one of the race’s signature performances.

“During the red flag stoppage I’d fallen asleep,” he continues. “Fernando actually asked for me to be woken up to come talk about the rain a little bit. He’d driven maybe an hour in the rain at that point before the

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IMSA WEATHERTECH SPORTSCAR CHAMPIONSHIP

red. Basically, we went corner by corner and talked about stuff that he’d learned, and that was a huge part of being so well prepared when I jumped in the car – knowing where the standing water was, knowing where to go inside and where to go outside, where the grip was. It was a big help, especially when we went green again. It was just adapting as fast as possible, and I think with some of the other guys in other teams, maybe their teammates hadn’t given them that debrief.”

Compared to racing on a dry circuit, the amount of time most drivers find themselves lapping in the wet is exceptionally small. It makes competing in the rain an improvisational art form more than one might expect.

“I think that’s the hardest part because we just really don’t get a ton of practice driving our cars in the rain, so you’re trying to make educated guesses,” Cameron reveals. “For the first couple of laps when you get in, you don’t know much about the track and how it’s changing in the rain, so you try to take advantage of where it feels good and make up a little bit of lap time there.

“And if there’s places where the track is really bad and really puddly, which is pretty typical for Daytona – like out of Turn Six, or the Bus Stop is obviously really notorious for

52 SPRING 2019

LAT

(MAIN) Water pours from an Acura DPi. (RIGHT) A soggy, but successful aftermath for the No. 10 WTR Cadillac; no backing off in the No. 6 Acura.

DANE CAMERON The Californian IMSA ace is the 2014 GT Daytona class champion with Turner Motorsport and 2015 Prototype title-winner with Action Express Racing.

He joined Penske’s Acura ARX-05 DPi squad for 2018.

flooding – you’re trying to be smart in those couple spots. But if it feels really good in the others, then you try a little bit harder and make up more lap time.”

Tempering aggression with a small, but important dose of fear could be the perfect mindset to adopt in the rain.

“I think a lot of it comes down to your self-confidence,” Taylor surmises. “A lot of people say you want to be ‘one with the car,’ and it’s being so comfortable with your car and confident in it that you’ll push, you’ll trust your instincts and your abilities. Like, ‘If I hit this puddle, I’m confident that, if I carry more speed in, I’ll be able to save it on the other end of it.’

“But at the same time, there’s always that thought in your mind of, ‘If I brake a little bit deeper, maybe I’ll lock the fronts and slide off the track.’ So, you’ve got to keep the risks in the back of your mind, too.”

The ability to enjoy and celebrate audacious car control and splendid risk taking is the gift we’re given by races like the most recent Rolex 24. Across all four WeatherTech SportsCar championship classes, and through frenzied work sawing away at steering wheels and dancing on brake and throttle pedals, IMSA’s wet-weather stars were defined.

Sadly, the sheer relentless of the Floridian

THE RAIN MASTERS

DANE CAMERON downpour meant the 2019 Rolex 24 was red-flagged a second time with just under two hours to run and called for good after 23h50m, depriving us of the chance to see these rainmasters in a head to head fight for the victory. But, man, it was fun while it lasted.

“Every lap is a big adventure for sure, especially when it’s raining like mad in the dark because you can’t see,” Cameron says. “At some point, you just have to pull your socks up and let it rip. Racing in the rain is a lot like downforce.

The faster you go, the better it’s going to get, because you’re going to make more heat in the tires and the more grip you’ll have.

“You have to get with the program a little bit, otherwise it’s going to feel worse,” he adds. “It’s funny, I never really liked the rain when I was a kid. But now, in the right car, there’s nothing I like better.”

LAT archive

devastating effect. Senna’s margin of victory over local hero Damon Hill brought a hushed silence over the crowd: Hill crossed the line 1m23s in arrears in his Williams-Renault FW13.

In 1970, Mexican Rodriguez stood atop the podium with John Wyer Racing teammate Leo Kinnunen having put 13.25 miles between his Gulf-sponsored 917 and Porsche factory drivers Vic Elford and Denny Hulme at the checkered flag.

Rodriguez’s trance-like drive left its closest rival five laps behind, and the third-place factory 917 eight impossible laps to the negative.

“Conditions were miserable, and Rodriguez put in the drive of a lifetime,” Brian Redman says of his late JWR teammate. “He was called into the pits because he ignored a yellow flag and had been overtaking under the yellow flag. The stewards gave him a severe lecture. When he left the pits, he went berserk. It was just the most incredible drive.”

(ABOVE) Pedro Rodriguez put on his legendary 1970 BOAC 1,000km wet-weather masterclass after being adminished by the race stewards.

(INSET ABOVE) Ayrton Senna, the 1993 European Grand Prix.

LAT archive

“Racing in the rain is a lot like downforce. The faster you go, the better it’ll get because you’ll make more heat in the tires”

Think of a singular performance in the rain – one that stands above all others. For many, Ayrton Senna in the 1993 European Grand Prix is the answer. Long after his loss, the Brazilian’s traction-defying drive at Donington Park’s one-and-done F1 race is held aloft as the defining example of a heroic performance on a wet track, and rightly so.

Some 23 years earlier, at the BOAC 1,000km sports car race held at Brands Hatch in the UK, Pedro Rodriguez was the one setting the standard for wet weather brilliance, and he achieved it in the daunting, unforgiving Porsche 917. Depending on your vintage, Pedro in the blue and orange prototype might be the benchmark “all-time greatest rain drive” in perpetuity.

Senna’s feat, aided by F1’s electronic revolution in the McLarenFord MP4/8, was the perfect complementing chapter to the analog brute Rodriguez wielded to such LAT archive

Richard Dole/LAT

Camden Thrasher

Michael L. Levitt/LAT

SPLASH ’N‘ GRAB

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INSIGHT: BMW MOTORSPORT

The No. 25 BMW Team RLL M8 GTE rules the roost(er-tail) in the GTLM class during the 2019 Rolex 24 At Daytona.

54 SPRING 2019

THIN MARGINS IN GTLM CLASS

WORDS George Tamayo MAIN IMAGE Camden Thrasher

RISING TIDE

As pure manufacturer class, IMSA’s GTLM teams continually reset the standard of excellence. BMW Team RLL offers some insights on the level of commitment required.

I

n recent seasons, the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s GT Le Mans class has firmly staked its claim among the most competitive divisions in any form of motorsport.

During this year’s Rolex 24 At Daytona, the nine cars entered in the GTLM class were covered by an average of 0.780sec across three of the four practice sessions and qualifying, compared with the top nine cars in the DPi prototype class, which were covered by an average spread of 1.793sec.

BMW, in particular, has been able to witness the evolution of the GTLM class from a front-row seat. Along with Corvette Racing, it’s the only GTLM team to have made the transition from the American Le Mand Series GT class intact, and contested every season since.

“Today GTLM has evolved into a pure manufacturer class with all the resources and development that you would expect when big car companies are involved,” says Victor Leleu, BMW NA Motorsport manager. “The challenge presented and the ability to transfer lessons learned to our road cars is why BMW is here. Just a race? Not to us.”

“The evolving technology is not something so evident, but I can assure everyone that the leaps forward have been significant” VICTOR LELEU With its GTLM victory in the 2019 Rolex 24, BMW Team RLL has now won at every venue on the IMSA calendar bar one, Mid-Ohio. It’s done it with three different cars – the Z4 GTE, M6 GTLM and the current M8 GTE. Along the way, each successive car has become increasingly more pure-bred for racing and more complex.

“The evolution in technology is everywhere,” says Leleu. “The M8 GTE program uses a third trailer dedicated to our increased engineering staff. Compared with six seasons ago, where most everything on the traditional round steering wheel in the Z4 was identifiable, the bat wing-style wheel of the M8 GTE contains five multi-switches and 12 buttons in order to control most every facet of the car.

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INSIGHT: BMW MOTORSPORT

THIN MARGINS IN GTLM CLASS

XPB Images/LAT

(MAIN) Team work and planning played a big role in BMW’s Rolex 24 GTLM class win.

(BELOW) A first Daytona win the for drivers of the No. 25 car.

With two 2h 42m remaining, Farfus pitted along with the No. 62 Ferrari from second and first places respectively during a caution.

They returned with the BMW now in fourth behind the Ferrari as the field went back to green just four minutes later.

At this point, cars were spinning off all over the race track, but Farfus was undeterred.

Both the Ferrari and the BMW had moved up to second and third positions behind the No. 67 Ford, and now, with 2h 6m to go and masterfully balancing alternating moments of hydroplaning and grip, Farfus passed the Ferrari at the Bus Stop. The Ford GT finally had to pit when the race once again went yellow, moving Farfus into the lead. Shortly thereafter, the red flag was displayed until there were 10 minutes remaining, when the race was officially stopped, warding the win to BMW. The result perfectly encapsulates the razor-thin margin that any GTLM winner holds, regardless of the actual margin of victory.

As if to underscore how quickly the bar rises, Leleu confides that, rather than bask in the glow of victory, the team has doubled down on its effort to maintain its early championship lead. There’s a long season ahead, and every point will be hard earned.

When morning broke at Daytona on the Friday before race day, BMW Team RLL learned that one of the men synonymous with BMW Motorsport, Charly Lamm, had suddenly passed away at the age of 63. The news had a profound effect on the team, particularly the Munich-based members of the squad.

Born Karl Lamm, the younger half-brother of Schnitzer Motorsport founders Josef and Herbert, “Charly” was the principal of BMW Team Schnitzer, leading it since the early 1970s. During his illustrious tenure, Lamm built BMW Team Schnitzer into a powerhouse racing organization with wins in touring car races from Germany’s DTM to the streets of Macau, as well as overall victory in the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans with the BMW V12 LMR. Following Schnitzer’s most recent win, in the 2018 FIA GT World Cup at Macau with Augusto Farfus behind the wheel, Lamm announced his retirement from motorsport. BMW Motorsport Director Jens Marquardt said, “Charly had a significant impact on racing at BMW. Losing him so suddenly is a shock. He will always be closely linked with BMW Motorsport. Thank you for everything Charly. We will miss you forever.”

In tribute, the tails of the GTLM BMW M8 GTEs were adorned with a simple, but moving “Godspeed, Charly.”

Andreas Beil

“The evolving technology is not something so evident, but I can assure everyone that the leaps forward has been significant,” he adds.

“Compared to four seasons ago, we’re producing similar power from significantly less fuel.”

It’s not just fuel efficiency, but most every aspect of the car that’s advanced. Take aero for example. The M8 GTE is the largest car in the GTLM field, and yet its aerodynamics are the most evolved of any BMW GT car ever entered in IMSA competition.

Coming off of two wins at the end of 2018 with the M8 GTE, BMW Team RLL came into Daytona more confident of its chances than in the previous five editions. After 21 hours, the rain was lashing down, leaving the question of whether the race would run the full distance more uncertain. BMW was mindful of the drama that beset them during the 2015 edition of Petit Le Mans, when under similar circumstances they pitted only to have the race red flagged at that moment.

“We learned from that experience,” says Leleu. “When we saw a similar situation coming together, we started making the necessary calculations on two levels. First, we were crunching the numbers on fuel burn against lap times needed to pit at the right time. If the race stayed green, we wanted to stop only once more. The other teams were thinking the same thing, so it was all a matter of timing as to which lap to pit on.

“The other aspect we were aware of was driver time behind the wheel,” Leleu explains.

“We know that Augusto (Farfus) excels in these conditions, so we had to be sure that we timed his stint to not exceed four hours within a six-hour period. In the end he got in with 3hours and 58 minutes left on the clock.”

Jake Galstad/LAT

Michael Levitt/LAT

CHARLY LAMM 1956-2019 A BMW MAN FOR THE AGES

(ABOVE) It’s hard to express the huge contribution Charly Lamm made to BMW Motorsport through the years.

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INDIANAPOLIS 500

AND COUNTING...

Nobody comes close to Roger Penske’s 17 Indy 500 wins as a team owner – and there’s still room in the trophy cabinet for more.

WORDS Mark Glendenning MAIN IMAGE Michael Levitt

58 SPRING 2019

THE PENSKE ERA

“My job is to pick up the trophies,” Roger Penske tells RACER shortly after doing just that with his latest Baby Borg for winning last year’s Indianpolis 500 as an owner.

He’s making a point about the depth of teamwork required to pull off a successful campaign at the Brickyard, but even so, it’s rather self-effacing. Team president Tim Cindric pulls the strings on a day-to-day basis, but Penske himself provides the framework and direction.

(And possibly also the talismanic aspect. How many times have you heard a Penske driver talk about wanting to “win for Roger”?)

However he wants to spin it, the enduring effectiveness of Penske’s approach to the Indianapolis 500 is right there in the record books. His 17 wins as an owner are more than triple what anyone else has managed to achieve. His closest active rival is Michael Andretti, tied for second with Lou Moore on

the all-time list at five – and if Andretti fancies trying to bridge that gap, he first needs to reckon with the fact that Penske still treats the “500” as unfinished business.

“Our motivation to win at Indianapolis is just as strong as it has ever been,” he asserts.

“The Indianapolis 500 has always been a special event for our team, and success there has meant so much to our organization, to our partners, and to our team members.

Winning the Indianapolis 500 is always our goal, every season.”

Of course, that goal is shared by every team and driver in pitlane, and ambition alone is not enough to win races. The road to Victory Lane is paved by having everything go right on race day, but also through the thousands of decisions made by the team over the preceding three weeks – or even months.

It’s one of the ultimate validations of how

(LEFT) With 17 Indy 500 victories going back to Mark Donohue’s 1972 triumph, Roger Penske has won one out of every six ever held.

RACER.com 59

INDIANAPOLIS 500

3 1981 BOBBY UNSER

ROGER’S 17...

After a late battle with Mario Andretti, this one was decided in the stewards’ office.

6 1987 AL UNSER

The veteran Unser didn’t even have a ride at the start of May, and his subsequent win stands as one of Indy’s biggest-ever upsets.

4 1984 RICK MEARS

“The Rocket” dominated the second half of the race to cruise to his second Indy 500 victory.

1 1972 MARK DONOHUE

Capitalized on ignition problems suffered by teammate Gary Bettenhausen to claim Penske’s first.

7 1988 RICK MEARS

5 1985 DANNY SULLIVAN

Penske dominated the entire Month of May, culminating in Indy win No.3 for Mears.

Sullivan battled Mario all afternoon, culminating in the famous “spin and win.”

8 1991 RICK MEARS 2 1979 RICK MEARS

Not even a broken bone in his right foot could stand between Mears and win No.4.

everyone has worked together to achieve a single aim. To Penske, that matters. And then there’s the satisfaction that comes from achieving anything that’s extraordinarily hard.

“We know how difficult of a task it is to win the Indianapolis 500,” he says, “and that is why it is such a challenge, and why it is so rewarding to be standing in Victory Circle at the end of the day.

“There is so much history and tradition at Indianapolis, and we truly appreciate the opportunity we have to compete there.

Everything about that race is special – from qualifying weekend, to Carburetion Day, to the Pit Stop Challenge, and everything along the way, before we get to 500 miles of intense racing. The month of May at Indianapolis is a unique experience in our sport, and that is why winning the Indy 500 is so important.”

Penske doesn’t play favorites, be it with drivers or Baby Borgs. Those 17 victories span five decades, and a gallery of different eras for the team. The list of winning drivers

LAT archive

Mears came on strong toward the end after assorted Unsers were struck by gremlins.

START OF SOMETHING BIG

Owner Roger Penske made his Indianapolis 500 debut with Mark Donohue in 1969. Donohue qualified fourth and finished seventh.

reads like a Team Penske hall of fame, from Mark Donohue and Rick Mears, to Helio Castroneves and Gil de Ferran. Each of those trophies tells a different story. When “The Captain” looks at the 2018 version, he sees the journey that Will Power has taken since arriving at the team as a road- and streetcourse specialist with a lot to learn about ovals.

“This one was pretty special,” Penske says.

“Will’s ability to learn on the ovals…he was the best on the road courses, best in qualifying, but he didn’t have the experience on the ovals, and he has worked hard with his engineer and with the team. And certainly he didn’t win [the 500] by luck. He drove to the front and won the race.

“Of course, all of Team Penske’s victories at Indianapolis are important and memorable in their own way. We’ve experienced unique challenges and opportunities in each of our race wins at Indy, and that is what makes every one of them so special.

“We’re proud of our accomplishments, and

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THE PENSKE ERA

11 2001 HELIO CASTRONEVES Penske returned to Indy after a six-year absence and promptly scored a Helio-led 1-2 finish.

15 2009 HELIO CASTRONEVES Castroneves started from pole, and finished the job on race day to secure his third Indy 500 victory.

12 2002 HELIO CASTRONEVES

Was he under yellow? The debate still rages, but Helio’s second win stands firm in the books.

9 1993 EMERSON FITTIPALDI

16 2015 JUAN PABLO MONTOYA The veteran Colombian claimed his second Indy win after a tense battle with Will Power.

Nigel Mansell stole the headlines, but lost the win to Emmo on a late restart.

13 2003 GIL DE FERRAN

10 1994 AL UNSER, JR.

de Ferran was the “2” in the 2001 1-2, but passed Castroneves to reverse the order in ’03.

14 2006 SAM HORNISH, JR. A thrilling last lap pass on Marco Andretti sealed the win by just over a car length.

“We’re proud of our accomplishments and we do celebrate our victories. But we are focused on what lies ahead” ROGER PENSKE we do celebrate our victories. But our teams are also focused on what lies ahead.

We need to make sure we’re prepared for the next race and the next challenge at the Indianapolis 500 in order to put ourselves in a good position to win.”

Maybe that’s the whole point. Maybe Roger Penske does have a favorite Indy win after all?

But rather than sitting among the 17 Baby Borgs in the display case, it’s represented by the empty space that will be filled by the next one. Team Penske didn’t become the organization that all others aspire to emulate

by resting on its laurels. The priority has always been the next weekend, and Penske says that sticking to that approach for more that 50 years is a big reason that the team stands today as North American racing’s benchmark.

Things have come a long way since the team first rolled a Lola-Offy down Gasoline Alley in 1969, but the ethos remains unchanged.

“I am not sure we could have envisioned where our team would be in 2019 back when we first began competing,” Penske says.

“Our approach has always been to race against the best competition and produce a winning formula to benefit our partners and our team. We have held true to that vision, and we certainly believe in the series where we race today and the competitive programs we have in place for each series.

“We begin each season with the goal of racing for wins and championships in each of the series where we compete. We set the bar high because we believe in our teams and our drivers, and we always race to win.”

17 2018 WILL POWER Three years after his heartbreaking defeat to Montoya, Power found his Indy redemption.

Michael Levitt/LAT

Penske’s secret pushrod engine led to total dominance, and a win from pole for Al, Jr.

ULTIMATE PRIZE The Borg-Warner Trophy was commissioned in 1935 and unveiled in 1936. It has since had two extra bases added to allow more room for its distinctive sculpted winners’ portraits.

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FIA WORLD ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP

WORDS Gary Watkins MAIN IMAGE Jakob Ebrey/LAT

CALL IT 50-50

The battle for WEC LMP1 honors is very much an all-Toyota affair, but which driver lineup will ultimately triumph? Sebring could provide some answers.

O

Toyota Gazoo Racing

n the evidence, Fernando Alonso clearly likes the phrase “50-50.”

When he made his endurance sports car racing debut at the 2018 Rolex 24 at Daytona, he was quizzed on his chances of racing for Toyota in the 2018-’19 FIA World Endurance Championship super season.

“50-50,” came the reply.

And asked at this year’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship opener whether he’ll remain with the Japanese manufacturer for a second season? “50-50.”

So perhaps the two-time Formula 1 world champion should revisit his go-to phrase when talking about his chances of winning the WEC title at his first attempt?

It would probably hold a little more truth than one of Alonso’s other 50-50 claims.

He told a little white lie – so as not to steal

PICKING UP MOMENTUM

(ABOVE) The No. 7 Toyota TS050 lineup of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez heads to Sebring off the back of two wins. (MAIN) The No. 8 includes Le Mans among its two-win haul.

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Toyota’s thunder – when he said a WEC deal was in the balance back in January 2018. It had been done for a while at that stage.

The veracity of his comments about his chances of remaining behind the wheel of a TS050 HYBRID for a second season isn’t clear.

But we do know from the evidence presented so far that it’s even odds on a 2018-’19 FIA WEC title for Alonso.

There are only two driver lineups in with any chance of taking the overall LMP1 title: Alonso, Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima in the No. 8 Toyota, and Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José Maria Lopez in the No. 7.

After a break of three months, the intra-team battle resumes at the Sebring 1000 Miles in central Florida, March 15, and it’s been pretty much honors even between the two crews in the five races held so far.

Alonso and the No. 8 took the big prize at the 24 Hours of Le Mans last June, as well as the Spa-Francorchamps opener. But the No. 7 Toyota earned the “W” in the last two counters, in Japan and China. There’s also the little matter of the Silverstone round in August when both cars were disqualified from a 1-2 finish – the 8 ahead of the 7 — for technical irregularities.

That really means the score is three-two for Alonso’s camp ahead of the American round of the WEC, which takes place the day before IMSA’s iconic Twelve Hours of Sebring. The points race also favors the drivers of the No. 8 TS050. They lead by five, courtesy of the Le Mans win - it now pays out points and a half, rather than the double points of previous WEC seasons – after four 1-2 results for Toyota from the five rounds so far.

But Kobayashi, Conway and Lopez have the momentum – if you can call it momentum

IT’S DOWN TO A “T”

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IT’S DOWN TO A “T”

LAT archive

(MAIN) At a soggy Shanghai, the No. 8 Toyota had enjoyed an advantage over the sister No. 7 until an unusually-executed pace car intervention.

PRIVATE INHERITANCE

Toyota Gazoo Racing

When the Toyota TS050 HYBRIDs were disqualified from a 1-2 finish at Silverstone, the No. 3 Rebellion R13 took the win. Sure, it had finished four laps down on the road, but for a privateer team, it’s still a major booster. when the stop-start, eight-race super season calendar stretches over more than 13 months.

That said, the No. 7 car was fortunate to win in China. Its drivers owed their victory in a topsy-turvy race to an unusual safety car period during which the cars were led through the pitlane to avoid a start-finish straight incident. Kobayashi had been trailing Alonso by a significant margin in the fourth of six hours when he ducked from the safety car crocodile straight into his pit box.

A lap later, when Alonso made his stop, the safety car was taking a more conventional route, which meant the No. 8 Toyota endured a major loss of time compared with its sister car.

Before the caution period, Alonso had been 22sec to the good; two laps after rejoining when the race went green, he was 19sec behind. On such things do championships turn.

There was also an element of good fortune involved in the win for the No. 7 at Fuji, although it would be wrong to say its victory in Toyota’s backyard was in any way undeserved.

Kobayashi made an early stop for tires on a wet track after a gamble – taken because he was starting eighth, courtesy of a pitlane speeding infringement for Lopez in qualifying – didn’t work out. That meant he ended up on intermediate Michelins earlier than Nakajima.

The seconds he gained before Nakajima followed suit put No. 7 in a lead that it wouldn’t lose, pitstop sequences aside.

Kobayashi and his teammates had the edge in all conditions in Fuji, but the No. 8’s Buemi is still smarting over events in Shanghai.

“I’ve no regrets about Fuji because we were slower and they fully deserved the win,” he says. “But I’m disappointed about Shanghai because I felt we were clearly quicker. Basically, we lost out massively under the safety car.”

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FIA WORLD ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP

TRYING TO MAKE A RACE OF IT...

Jakob Ebrey/LAT

Left to its own devices, the technological wonder that is the gasoline-hybrid Toyota TS050 would be putting double-digit laps between itself and its privateer LMP1 opposition over a 6- or 8-hour distance. But to try and make a race of it, the WEC reduced the fuel-flow limit and energy allowed per lap for the Toyota relative to the privateers. Further in-season tweaking of car weights and fuel flow is slowly bringing the performance gap down.

FERNANDO’S EQUALS

The bulk of the headlines might be about Fernando Alonso, but in endurance racing a team is only as strong as its weakest link. In his No. 8 Toyota teammates Kazuki Nakajima and Sebastien Buemi, Alonso has driver partners as fast and reliable as himself at the wheel of the TS050 HYBRID.

The No. 7 Toyota was also the faster at the series opener, though a victory always looked unlikely because it had to start a lap down after a procedural error by the team in qualifying.

The intervention of the safety car helped, but it was looking like a genuine contender for the win when Toyota froze the positions – its normal strategy – in the final hour.

There was nothing to choose between the two Toyotas at Silverstone, although, crucially, No. 8 was faster at the end and took the pre-disqualification (for an underfloor skid block infringement) checkered flag. At Le Mans, it was during the night – so often the critical time – that the No. 8 had an advantage as Alonso led the fightback from a one-minute stop-go penalty.

Each and any of the WEC super season races so far could have gone the other way. It really has been that close. The two crews have been evenly matched. Argentinian Lopez has stepped up to the plate after a difficult debut season with Toyota, just as Conway did. The latter is now one of the stars of the series — though largely unsung, courtesy of his quiet demeanor — after he matured into the drive with time. And Lopez is doing exactly the same.

At Fuji, he went up against Alonso, and more than held his own, almost doubling the lead held by the No. 7 car during his double stint.

Sebring, however, and its eight-hour fixture – the 1000 Miles name is just that – could provide the defining moment of the WEC

“I’ve no regrets about Fuji because we were slower and they deserved the win. But I’m disappointed about Shanghai” SEBASTIEN BUEMI super season. The bumpy, 3.74-mile airfield track is new to Toyota and all its drivers, bar Conway, which explains why it organized additional testing in early February ahead of the pre-event promoter test on the weekend leading into race week.

A reliability slip-up on one of the most rigorous race tracks anywhere on the sports car trail could prove decisive, especially at a time when the chasing privateer pack is edging closer. The best of the rest at Shanghai was only one lap down, rather than the four at the Spa series opener.

If one of the Toyota crews slips off the podium, courtesy of a mechanical gremlin or driver error, and leaves Florida with a significant points deficit, it might prove difficult to close over the final two rounds - return visits to Spa and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

More Toyota 1-2 results can be expected on familiar European territory, but the concrete runways of Sebring might be very different.

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IT’S DOWN TO A “T”

WEC GTE PRO

Porsche/Juergen Tap

Consistency has marked the FIA WEC super season so far for runaway GTE Pro leaders Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen. The Porsche factory duo hold a 43-point lead after notching up two victories and a further two podiums in the five rounds to date. But there’s another hallmark to their season – a conservatism in qualifying.

The No. 92 911 RSR is the only GTE Pro entry to have won twice, including when extra points were on offer at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

What’s more, they’ve never been outside the top five. None of their rivals have managed to make it onto the podium more than twice.

Estre and Christensen have also played what might be described as the long game.

They haven’t chased qualifying glory, preferring to look after their meager tire allocation for the race. Just 18 tires, or four and a half sets, are allowed through qualifying and the six hours of a regular WEC event.

The Sebring eight-hour event will allow for double the amount of tires than a normal WEC race, a reflection of the arduous nature of the track. That means the drivers of the

Jakob Ebrey/LAT

PLAYING THE LONG GAME

SHARING IT AROUND

(TOP) Ferrari was a winner at Silverstone. (ABOVE) Two wins plus consistency have put the No. 92 Porsche out front.

No. 92 Porsche might be unleashed again in qualifying at Sebring International Raceway.

Ferrari and Aston Martin have also won a race apiece after slow starts to the season.

The latest evo of the Italian manufacturer’s 488 GTE and the all-new Vantage GTE were given what are called starting Balance of Performance outside of the automatic system introduced for the 2017 season.

They received a helping hand in time for the Silverstone WEC round in August under what is known as the black-ball round. The other cars, including the BMW M8 GTE, underwent their first auto BoP tweaks for Fuji in October, whereas the Ferrari and the Aston had their first round of changes based on the fully-empirical system at Shanghai.

With us so far? Anyway, bottom line, that’s put the GTE Pro field out of sequence. The BoP of a car can only be changed every two races, which means only the Porsche 911 RSR, the Ford GT and the BMW M8 GTE are due a revised BoP for Sebring. That may or may not change the dynamic of the GTE Pro battle for its only North American round.

Jakob Ebrey/LAT

(MAIN) The Aston Martin Vantage GTE made its WEC debut in the Spa opener, and took a first GTE Pro class win at the most recent round, Shanghai.

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MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES

WORDS Eric Johnson MAIN IMAGE LAT

Chip Ganassi Racing believes Kurt Busch will add firepower and thought power to its Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series roster.

I

t’s race morning at the 61st Daytona 500, a pulsating mix of noise, color, rising temperatures and mounting anticipation as the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season-opener nears. Team owner Chip Ganassi ducks into the hauler of his No. 1 Chevrolet team, grabs a cold bottle of water, takes a seat and gives his take on CGR’s latest signing: some kid called...Kurt Busch.

“Kurt has won the Cup championship and he’s won the Daytona 500, but he approaches everything we do in a beta mode where he’s always looking and thinking,” says Ganassi of the 40-year-old veteran who’ll wheel CGR’s Monster Energy Chevy in 2019. “He’s always in beta mode. That’s exciting and that energizes the people around Kurt and this team.”

Putting context to his beta mode theory, Ganassi nods adamantly when an explanation of the term is dredged up on an iPhone: We’re all chasing something. We seek improvements in our thinking. Our habits. Our actions. There’s something we can always get better at. There is no perfect version of ourselves. We’re all a work in progress. We’re all in beta mode.

“Yes, that’s beta mode, and that’s Kurt Busch, and that’s how he’s helping this team.”

During the NASCAR off-season, Busch, with 648 career starts and 18 years of Cup racing in his mirrors, was on the outside looking in.

Calling time on his five-year relationship with Stewart-Haas Racing at the end of 2018, the ’04 champ contemplated retirement before Chip Ganassi came calling.

“I think one of the things that we’ve been lacking in the team is a better presence and someone who can push Kyle Larson,” offers Ganassi. “I really think we have that now with

68 SPRING 2019

Bringing Kurt Busch into Ganassi Racing’s No. 1 Chevy program has motivated the whole team.

CHIP, KURT & KYLE

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Kurt. To have a guy like him, with the experience he has, but still hungry and still totally motivated – it’s that beta mode thing.”

Shortly before the drivers’ meeting, Kurt Busch is confident, at ease, and raring to go.

This will be his 18th Daytona 500 start, but it’s not an experience that fades with time.

“I still love this,” he says. “My heart that I grew up racing with is still there. Chip knew that, and as fast as the contract came together with Chip Ganassi Racing, that’s all the motivation I needed. He wanted me. There was a forward-thinking process through to this. There is no lack of motivation from me.”

Busch was tapped to replace 16-year Cup veteran and CGR stalwart Jamie McMurray in the No. 1 machine. Teammate Kyle Larson is starting his sixth full season in the No. 42 Chevy and, as Chip points out, having the experience and drive of Busch alongside him can only be a good thing for a guy looking to turn Playoff appearances into true title contention.

“I’m just happy that I’m in a respected situation,” says Busch. “It’s a situation where

70 SPRING 2019

they wanted an upgrade in the driver category, and I’m excited to work with a young guy like Kyle Larson as well. The respect factor was a big thing in my decision making.”

On Larson, Busch has nothing but praise for the prodigiously talented and fiercely competitive 26-year old.

“Kyle is a good racer; he’s smart,” says Busch. “It’ll be a matter of how we’re going to mesh together. The information that we’ll be sharing is obviously very transparent, so let’s mesh these two programs together and let’s really help this Chip Ganassi Racing team.’

“It’s working great so far. Kyle’s been open, not reserved. He’s been on the gas hard.”

And so far, so good for Busch, crew chief Matt McCall, and the crew of the No. 1 Camaro.

“I like all the guys, but it’s easy to like them because they’re a group that’s ready to go after something more,” says Busch. “What’s key to all this, I believe, is that Chip left everybody in the same position and the only thing that changed is the guy driving the car.

Everybody is fired up in wanting to go to that

Russell LaBounty/LAT

(MAIN) For a guy who’s been racing Cup since 2000, Kurt Busch shows zero sign of motivation loss. (BELOW) Teammate Kyle Larson (No. 42) stands to benefit from Busch’s input.

Garth Milan/MXGP

CHIP, KURT & KYLE

LANDING THE BIG ONES

next level and so it’s fun. Everybody has a good amount of experience in all the positions that they’re in. Again, it’s just a matter of trying to make sure that you start off on the right foot with everything. We’re trying to learn as quickly as we can, but at a rate where we’re all digesting it together.

“We want to get everything we can out of the cars and that means approaching each practice session with a plan, a meaning and with a direction,” he adds. “It’s not to just go out there and do laps. You want to have a plan and then have a debrief and go back to the drawing board and be like, ‘Hey, what was it with plan A, B and C?’ Then we’re going to address things from there. In my mind, we need to cover our weaknesses first, and we’ll learn where our strengths are from doing that. We just have to execute with consistency during the first part of the year. We want to build that points base up and then get the hammer down once we get through the first few weeks together.”

It was readily apparent all week long at Daytona that both Chip Ganassi and Kurt

Matthew T. Thacker/LAT

John K Harrelson/LAT

John K Harrelson/LAT

Kurt Busch made his first NASCAR Cup starts at the tail end of 2000 with Roush Racing. In ’04, still at Roush, Busch won the Cup championship in the first season of the Chase format. Some 13 years later, with StewartHaas Racing, he finally added a Daytona 500 win to his résumé (BELOW).

“In my mind, we need to cover our weaknesses first, and we’ll learn where our strengths are from doing that” KURT BUSCH Busch were not only in step with their common goals and objectives, but that the two men genuinely liked one another.

“Chip is great. He’s texting me and calling me,” says Busch. “He’s the most interactive owner I’ve ever raced for. He’s always asking for updates and he’s there to check on things, so it’s great. I love his passion and his commitment.

He’s been here in Daytona for the practices and for each of the races and that’s very different from some owners I’ve raced for in the past. Just in this short amount of time, the conversations, the texts, the dinners. Chip is like, ‘What do you need? What’s going on?” It puts

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CHIP, KURT & KYLE Nigel Kinrade/LAT

MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES

BACK IN THE ZONE

a smile on your face to go to work each day knowing he’s as committed as he is.”

In a marathon season that will see Busch, Larson and their crews race for points 36 times, from the Daytona 500 in February all the way through to the sun going down at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Nov. 17, Chip Ganassi is ready to roll. A proponent of the school of “you can’t get to where you’re going until you know where you’ve been,” Ganassi sees good things ahead.

“We were a little bit challenged last year with the new Camaro from Chevrolet,” he said.

“It was a new body style that we hadn’t really learned. We started going down a path there aerodynamically and it was the wrong one. Our engineers were swimming in deep water. With the three different rules packages being used in 2019, I think you want versatile drivers.

I think we have those in Kurt and Kyle.”

Would having another car or two under the CGR banner, with all the extra data and cross-pollination that can come with it, be worth it? Ganassi ponders for a beat or two.

“That’s an interesting question,” he says.

“Yes, I would. But you don’t want to do the extra car half-cooked. The next car has to be

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110 percent. It can’t be 60 percent and it can’t even be 100 percent. You want more input.

It has to be 110 percent, or you’re learning nothing. I don’t necessarily need more cars on this team, but I would like more cars affiliated with a B-team type of program. I need more engineering expertise from another team, a smaller team. It doesn’t necessarily need to be under a Ganassi banner. It could be a Ganassi affiliation, or maybe a Ganassi engineering share, that type of thing. It’s like two heads are better than one, three are better than two, and

“Kurt brings it on the track, and he brings it off the track. He’s been a bit of an eye-opener for the people on our team” CHIP GANASSI four are better than three...

“Obviously, the goal is to have two cars in title contention at Homestead-Miami Speedway,” he adds. “Nobody is more excited about Kurt and what he brings than our team guys are. Kurt brings it on the track, and he brings it off the track. He’s been a bit of an eye-opener for the people on our team. It’s a motivating factor. Kurt’s the kind of player that you want to work hard for. He leads by example. When our guys are there at 8 o’clock in the morning doing pit stop practice, they know Kurt’s putting in a shift, too. That’s a very motivating thing for me and the whole team. We all want the same thing, and we all know what it takes to get there.”

Logan Whitton/LAT

John K Harrelson/NKP/LAT

Kurt Busch has been suitably impressed by the commitment and attentiveness of owner Chip Ganassi (BELOW).

After four wins and a serious shot at the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series title in 2017, Kyle Larson and the No. 42 CGR Chevrolet bogged a little in 2018, the effort blighted by crashes, mistakes and, much more than anything, inconsistency. Still, the 26-year-old racer with 184 Cup starts coming in to 2019 is looking to get things back on track this season.

“The Daytona 500 is so different from every other race, so you don’t really start to know where you’re at until you get through Atlanta,” he says. “Honestly, you don’t really know how your season is going to be until you get through the west coast swing. That’s when you get a real feel for how consistent everything will be. But I already sense we’re heading in a good direction.

“I’m excited to work with Kurt (Busch) this year. He’s got a ton of experience, obviously, so for a young guy like me to get to work next to him, and to hopefully soak up some of his knowledge, that will be really good.

I’m excited to see if he can make our cars a little better and if we can be better as an organization.

“You know, Chip (Ganassi’s) not mad at you if you’re not winning every weekend, but he obviously wants to win and he puts pressure on everybody in our race trailer, and in our race shop, and on me myself to go out there and do what we can to win. Winning races, and championships, is always the goal.”

(ABOVE) Kyle Larson’s solid start to 2019 included 12th in the Daytona 500 “lottery” and seventh in Atlanta.

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MX2 MOTOCROSS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

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DARIAN SANAYEI

WORDS Eric Johnson

MAIN IMAGE Bavo Swijgers

THE LAST AMERICAN HERO

Darian Sanayei, last man standing when it comes to U.S. riders in the 2019 MXGP Motocross World Championship, will be “holding it down” for America in the MX2 class.

I

Recovered from a 2018 knee injury, Darian Sanayei is raring to go and take up where he left off in the MX2 World Championship.

t’s cold, it’s dark, there’s dirty snow on the ground and there isn’t a 7-Eleven anywhere in sight. Lommel, Belgium, on a quiet Sunday night in January isn’t much of a vacationland for anyone, especially a world class motocross racer.

“It’s 7 o’clock at night here in Belgium and I’m just chilling out in my two-bedroom apartment and it’s pretty lonely,” chuckles American Darian Sanayei, playing for the sympathy vote while deep in the throes of preparations for the start of the 2019 MX2 Motocross World Championship. “There’s been a bunch of snow on the ground here for about a week now. I haven’t really been able to ride. Hey, check this out: I just went to the store across the street because I didn’t have any food in my kitchen and I went to go get some dinner and the store closed at seven. Europe is different, dude.”

Time to rewind and find out why this American is searching for dinner in Lommel…

Following two stout runner-up placings at the 2015 AMA Amateur National Championships in Tennessee, the Kawasaki Team Green racer from the Pacific Northwest wondered what was next.

With no U.S. rides imminent, Sanayei decided to roll the dice and take a shot at the EMX250 European Championship. During the 10-race series that crossed Europe during the spring and summer of 2016, Sanayei excelled, winning six motos and finishing up a fighting second in the overall championship. His reward: A contract to ride for Bike It Dixon Racing Kawasaki team in the 2017 MX2 World Championship.

After a rookie learning season that netted 11th in the final MX2 points, Sanayei was primed to break out in 2018. In the first three grands prix – Argentina, Holland and Spain – he showcased his aptitude for GP motocross,

earning podiums in Argentina and Spain. But a torn up knee suffered at the opening round of the Maxxis British Championship in April sent Sanayei back home to Washington to catch his breath, heal and get his house in order for 2019.

Despite his truncated season, the motos Sanayei did run in ’18 were a letter of intent, and it’s no surprise that Kawasaki and the Bike It Dixon Racing Team are back in his

“I’m confident enough to think every track I’ll race on is going to be to my liking. That’s the mindset I’m going in with” DARIAN SANAYEI corner for another shot at the MX2 class.

“Everything has been improving with me and the team and I’ve been getting more confident,” says Sanayei. “We saw a big step for me in 2018, and hopefully I can take another big step coming into this year.

“Back when I was hurt in ’18, at my low times I would think, ‘Maybe I was going really fast during those first three grands prix only because those three tracks were to my liking.’ But now, I’m confident enough to think every track I’ll race on in 2019 is going to be to my liking. That’s the mindset I’m going in with. And this year, I really like the schedule.

Sure, there are going to be a few tracks that I missed out on while being injured last year, but I think I can be competitive anywhere.”

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Which brings us right on back to Lommel, with its closed signs in the store windows and snow flurries flying all over the place.

“Today, I went to my trainer’s house in Belgium,” offers Sanayei of his late-January pre-MX2 preparations. “He’s about 30 minutes from me, name of Joel Roelants.

He’s a former MXGP contender and [American MXGP rider] Thomas Covington worked with him last year. Anyway, I worked out for a few hours and everything is going pretty good so far – I just haven’t got a lot of time on the bike.

I’ve only rode one time so far in ’19 and that was at Lommel and the track was frozen.

I wouldn’t say that I’m behind or anything, but it does help that it’s such a long season.”

Will Sanayei miss fellow American campaigner Covington, who’s returned to the U.S. to see if he can win an outdoor title and excel at supercross?

“Yeah, definitely,” he says. “I mean, I’m still talking to him and stuff, but it’s a little lonelier in Lommel not having Thomas around.”

It is 6,998 miles from Monroe, Wash., to the far-flung MXGP of Patagonia, Argentina, but that’s where 22-year-old Sanayei and his heavily-modified Kawasaki KX250F would

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Ray Archer

Ray Archer

(MAIN) Darian Sanayei, the only American in the MXGP World Championship, is looking to contend for an MX2 title in 2019.

LEAP OF FAITH

After moving to Europe in 2016 and making his mark in the EMX250 European Championship, Darian Sanayei was snapped up by the Bike It Dixon Racing Kawasaki squad (ABOVE) for an MX2 Motocross World Championship campaign in 2017.

start their 2019 MX2 season, March 3.

“This year I’m only going to do the World Championship,” says Sanayei. “My first race in 2019 is set to be Argentina, and I’m actually pretty good with that. I love any racing, but with the pre-season races I sort of have a different mindset? If I’m going into a race, any race, I want to be going into it with everything. In other words, I don’t want to be thinking, ‘Oh, this race doesn’t really matter. I’m just going to take it easy.’ I want to go into it planning to win.”

Ultimately, Sanayei will have to cross swords with the world’s elite 250cc motocross racers if he hopes to get within shouting distance of the 2019 MX2 title. He knows that, and he knows the guys he’ll need to go toe to toe with if he’s going to contend.

“There are definitely a lot of guys that I think are going to be competitive,” he says, “but the main one is going to be Jorge Prado, because he won the championship last year. Thomas Kjer Olsen is super-consistent. I think those two are probably going to be the toughest.”

All things considered, Sanayei is completely cognizant and thankful of the reality of his grand prix surroundings, as well as the focus

DARIAN SANAYEI

Ray Archer

AMERICAN HEART: BOB MOORE

“I want to kill it. This year, I’m excited that I’m the one who gets to try and hold it down over here for America” DARIAN SANAYEI and effort of the Kawasaki program that will do anything in its collective power to send him to the starting gate with a championshipcaliber factory 250cc race machine.

“I’m still with the same team, Kawasaki is still sticking with me, and I still have Monster Energy support, so I’ll pretty much be running everything that I have throughout my entire career,” he says. “It’s really good for me to not have to worry about switching or even doing anything that differently.

“With my team, we’re working together and talking together and I feel like our relationship is even better. I also think the bike is going to be good and, for sure, I’m going to be good.

To be honest, a few years ago when I was first

even considering coming over to Europe, I wasn’t sure what to make of it all. Now, though, I’m happy that I did it and I’m happy with what I’ve made out of this and I’m excited with what the future holds.”

In 1994, California-born racer Bob Moore won the 125cc World Motocross Championship for Yamaha (see RIGHT). Nearly a decade in the making, Moore, never lost sight of his boyhood dream of becoming a world champion and made it happen. Sanayei, too, is following a dream and has been formulating his future racing plans accordingly.

“I have my plan in my head. I signed with this team for two years, but I have just one year left in MX2 as the age rule is right now,” he says. “You know, for me, if everything goes to plan, I want to kill it this year. Then, after this season, I’ll decide where I want to go.

America is pretty cool and I haven’t raced there. I’m eager to be racing over there in the States, but I just have to see what’s best for me. This year, I’m more excited that I’m the one who gets to try and hold it down over here for America. I can’t wait for Argentina and to be ready to go racing.”

After winning the 1985 AMA 125 West Coast Supercross Championship as an 18-year old, Bob Moore, fully focused on his goal to race the FIM Motocross World Championship, left for Europe, the sport’s spiritual homeland. And fully determined to see everything through, he didn’t come home for a decade.

A runner-up in the World Championship three times – 1990 and ’91 in the 125 Class and 1992 in the 250 Class – it all came right for the Californian on Sunday, Aug. 28, 1994, when he clinched the 125 World Championship in Belgium.

In the almost quarter-century after Moore crossed the finish line on a Michele Rinaldi-tuned Yamaha YZ125, no other American-born racer has been able bring a World Championship back to the States.

“For me, it was simple. Since a very early age, I wanted nothing more than to be a world champion,” says Moore, who today is a successful business agent in MotoGP and MX. “It was just something deep down in my heart, and I knew that to do that I had to go to Europe and race overseas.”

Moore was inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 2017.

(BELOW) Hall of Famer Bob Moore’s determination to be an MX world champion came true in 1992.

MONSTERENERGY.COM

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LUCASOILOFFROAD.COM

WORDS & IMAGES Richard S. James

SECOND-DECADE RESET The Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series gets ready for some exciting changes

W

hen Lucas Oil picked up some of the pieces of what was left of short course off-road racing after the collapse of Championship Off Road Racing (CORR) in 2008, few could imagine where the sport would be 10 years later. What began in ’09 with the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series racing on the West Coast and The Off Road Championship (TORC) in the Midwest now sees the whole sport under the Lucas Oil banner, although not quite yet fully unified.

As the series enters its second decade, moves are in play to bring LOORRS and the Lucas Oil Midwest Short Course League closer together. While a Pro 4 is a Pro 4, the Pro 2 rules had diverged significantly in the last few years, but for 2019, both series share the same tire rule, and a new race format has been devised to allow trucks using either

78 SPRING 2019

series’ engine rule to race competitively.

That’s the first step in closing the rules divide between the two series. To help close the distance divide, the two series will race together for the first time at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo., in June. While the distance between most racers’ home bases in Southern California, Arizona and Nevada and the sport’s spiritual home of Crandon Wis., and Bark River, Mich. is still a far reach for many teams, the first steps toward a true national short course series have been taken. “[Short course racing] has always seemed a little rough around the edges from a stability standpoint,” says LOORRS Series Director Bill Smith, who before he took on that role was a crew chief for some of the biggest names in the sport. “I think Lucas brings stability, brings

ALL YOUR FAVORITES...

For 2019, LOORRS fans will still get to see incredible competion from the Pro 4, Pros 2 and Pro Lites (ABOVE) ranks.

LUCAS OIL OFF ROAD RACING SERIES

Both short course off-road series have their own robust schedule, but that unified race adds spice.

2019 Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series Schedule

A major step in the alignment of both U.S.-based short course off-road racing series comes in Pro 2 (RIGHT) with the adoption of a unified set of tire rules, as well as format tweaks to accommodate each series’ Pro 2 engine regulations.

a business-like approach to make it sustainable.

As we move forward, we have to make sure it makes good sense for the series and for everyone involved. Lucas has been involved for 10 straight years, which is rare in our sport, and they’ve achieved a lot.”

Sustainability is the key reason that the Midwest and West Coast series aren’t ready to come together just yet. With many teams running on a just-enough budget and using part-time or volunteer crews at races, requiring them to make three or four 2,000 mile-plus trips to Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin is a big ask. But the change to a D.O.T. tire and the new format for Pro 2, arguably the sport’s premier class, if not the fastest, allows those who want to cross over an easier way to do so.

“Bringing the spec engine into our series

that’s been used in the Midwest for the last couple of years, and coming up with a creative formula – racing in a sort of Cup-style, with a time-gap separation between the spec motors and the open motors – in Pro2, should help tremendously with the entertainment value and letting people race,” Smith says.

The “Cup”-style format Smith refers to is a race that has become a tradition in short course off-road racing, where trucks from two different classes race head to head in a handicapped race.

The faster Pro 4s, with four-wheel drive and more open-ended rules, start behind the more limited, two-wheel-drive Pro 2s by a gap figured from the time difference per lap multiplied by the number of scheduled laps. The openengined cars will start an appropriate distance behind those with the spec 410cu.in. engines

FOR MORE ON LUCAS OIL MOTORSPORTS AND ITS RACE-PROVEN LUBRICANTS, GO TO LUCASOIL.COM/MOTORSPORTS

March 16 Glen Helen Raceway; San Bernardino, Cal. (night) April 13 Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park; Chandler, Ariz. (night) May 18-19 Estero Beach Resort; Ensenada, Mexico (days) June 29-30* Lucas Oil Speedway; Wheatland, Mo. (days) July 27 Wild West Motorsports Park; Sparks, Nev. (night) Oct. 5 Glen Helen Raceway; San Bernardino, Cal. (night) Oct. 26 Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park; Chandler, Ariz. (day/night) *Unified race with Midwest Short Course League

2019 Lucas Oil Midwest Short Course League schedule June 15-16 Crandon International Raceway; Crandon, Wis. June 29-20* Lucas Oil Speedway; Wheatland, Mo. July 12-13 ERX Motor Park; Elk River, Minn.

Aug. 9-11 Bark River International Raceway; Bark River, Mich.

Aug. 31-Sept. 1 Crandon International Raceway; Crandon, Wis. *Unified race with Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series

RACER.com 79

LUCASOILOFFROAD.COM

LUCAS OIL OFF ROAD RACING SERIES (MAIN) The trip south of the border to Ensenada stays on the LOORRS roster. (BELOW) UTVs will continue to thrive.

MEET YOU IN MISSOURI

Wheatland’s Lucas Oil Speedway is the perfect spot for the first dual-series points race

“We have two other tire companies that have already contacted us that their tire will fit within that D.O.T. tire rule for Pro 2 and wanting to be able to come in and participate in this series,” says Smith. “We hope there will be more on the horizon to come on board to help sponsor teams and supply tires and showcase their technology.”

There are a few other changes for 2019, most notably the addition of the RZR 170 UTV class to the national schedule. The category for junior racers has been exploding on the regional in a standing start. Subsequent restarts will maintain the gap that existed before the caution and also be done from standing.

“I think it will be pretty exciting,” enthuses Smith. “We know from the Cup races in general, even though there’s a pretty big disparity in lap time from a Pro 4 to a Pro 2, they usually prove to be very exciting races.

This should be no different. The disparity in speed should actually be very close when the classes mix toward the last lap or two of a race; you’re going to see some pretty keen racing.”

The new Pro 2 tire rule should open the class to some new tire manufacturers.

Previously, only a handful of manufacturers made “Project” tires, which have no tread and are grooved to each driver’s preferences based on the track and conditions. BFGoodrich, Mickey Thompson, Maxxis, General and Toyo were among the companies that produced such tires. But the number of manufacturers producing D.O.T. off-road tires is huge. Other brands that have been participating in the Pro Lite and Pro Buggy categories, which have always used D.O.T.-approved tires, include the aforementioned brands plus Falken and Kanati.

And many other barnds are out there.

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“The disparity in speed should actually be very close when the classes mix toward the last lap or two of a race” BILL SMITH schedules, and replaces the Junior 1 kart category, which had been poorly subscribed in recent years. It’s another example of the popularity of UTV classes in all styles of off-road racing, and provides another venue for families to race together on a national racing weekend.

The 170s will race at each venue with the exception of Estero Beach in Ensenada.

How all this will play out in the season and what racers the new rules will attract will be seen when the season launches at Glen Helen Raceway, Calif., on March 16. Smith, though, makes it clear that he believes it will bring new drivers and teams, and strengthen the series as it look to keep the sport of short course off-road racing sustainable.

When the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series set out to build a short course off-road circuit on the clean slate of a large plot of land at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo., it brought together the best elements of Midwest- and West Coast-style courses. It had the big, sweeping turns and long straights of the classic Midwest tracks, and the big jumps and other features of the tracks the series had built in California and Arizona.

Between that and the location, it’s going to be the perfect spot to host both the LOORRS racers and the Lucas Oil Midwest Short Course League competitors in the first unified race “This is something we’ve been looking forward to: West vs. Midwest; it’s something we haven’t had in a long time,” says Lucas Oil Off Road Series Director Bill Smith.

Several classes where the rules differ between the two series, such as Pro 2, will have a staggered start.

Competitors will score points based on how they finished compared to the other regulars in their respective series. Purses will be paid based on overall finishing position.

The dual-points race meeting will be held June 29-30, featuring full races on both days. It’s going to be fun.

(ABOVE) Lucas Oil Speedway will be scene of the first unified race in a new era for short course off-road racing.

FOR MORE ON LUCAS OIL MOTORSPORTS AND ITS RACE-PROVEN LUBRICANTS, GO TO LUCASOIL.COM/MOTORSPORTS

2/24/19 11:31 PM

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2/25/19 3:16 PM

SAFETY EQUIPMENT SHOWCASE

RACING SAFE

RaceQuip PRO15 Helmet MSRP $219.95 racequip.com

The PRO15 helmet offers the protection you need at an affordable price. It features a composite shell with a comfort blended Nomex interior. The SA2015 rating means that HANS/FHR inserts are already installed. Find a dealer or order online.

2019 SAFETY GUIDE Whatever the series you race in, or the budget you race with, personal safety equipment should never be a compromise.

Schroth SHR XLT Hans FHR MSRP $1,299

hmsmotorsports.com

Schroth SHR Evo MSRP $449

hmsmotorsports.com In the world of front head and neck restraints, the SHR Evo is hard to beat.

Don’t let the entry level price fool you.

The Evo’s outstanding performance, lightweight body, and included tether plus helmet posts make it one of the best values on the market. The thoughtful design incorporates a sliding tether for extended range of motion, and fixed winglets keep your harness secured in place. The SHR Evo is SFI rated and is available with a 20-degree angle (perfect for most sedan and rally cars).

Stilo ST5 FN 8860 MSRP $2,799 stilohelmets.com

The Stilo ST5 FN 8860 is the lightest full-face, formula-style helmet in the world, at just 2.58lbs.

The helmet includes ear cushions, pre-installed M6 nuts and a clear visor. Optional noise attenuating ear muffs provide a significantly quieter racing environment by aurally isolating the ear. Front, rear and IndyCar aero kits are available as add-ons.

Looking for the best front head and neck restraint out there? The XLT is the perfect combination of beauty, lightweight construction and exceptional performance.

Schroth fought to keep weight down with the new carbon fiber design, and the results are clear. On average the XLT is 25 percent lighter than the previous Carbon Pro model.

Available in both a 20- and 30-degree angle, the FIA-rated Schroth XLT is proving safety doesn’t have to require compromises. Device tether and helmet twist anchors are included.

Stilo HANS Zero MSRP $1,399.00 teamsimpson.com

Simpson in partnership with Stilo Helmets has introduced the HANS Zero. It’s the lightest HANS device ever produced, using aerospace-grade carbon fiber for a device that is 15 percent lighter. The Stilo HANS Zero features a fresh Italian design engineered for extreme lightness, along with HANS proven technology. SFI 38.1 and FIA 8858-2010 certified.

82 SPRING 2019

p82 Safety Guide.indd 82

2/25/19 2:52 PM

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McLaren Racing

A little under 100 days before its return to Indy with Fernando Alonso, McLaren revealed it had formed a technical alliance with Carlin Racing for its entry, which will be based out of Carlin’s Florida race shop.

Logan Whitton/LAT

DIARY SPRING 2019

WORTH THE WAIT

Before the hype of Denny Hamlin’s Daytona 500 victory came what in some ways might have been an even bigger breakthrough: The first NASCAR Xfinity Series victory for Michael Annett after eight years and 230 starts.

“Eight years in the series — this is amazing,” said Annett, who struggled through a 2018 season that failed to produce a single top-five finish but was a winner in the start of his third season with JR Motorsports.

JRM also provided his closest competition, as Annett held off teammate Justin Allgaier’s Chevy to the checkered flag.

July 20 July 28 Aug. 18 Aug. 24 Sept. 1 Sept. 22

Newton, Iowa Lexington, Ohio Pocono, Pa. Madison, Ill. Portland, Ore. Monterey, Calif.

IMSA WEATHERTECH SPORTSCAR CHAMPIONSHIP Jan. 26-27 March 17 April 13 May 5 June 1 June 30 July 7 July 20 Aug. 4 Aug. 25 Sept. 15 Oct. 12

Daytona F. Alonso/K. Kobayashi J. Taylor/R. van der Zande Sebring, Fla. Long Beach, Calif.

Lexington, Ohio Detroit, Mich.

Watkins Glen, N.Y. Bowmanville, Ontario Lime Rock, Conn.

Elkhart Lake, Wis. Alton, Va. Monterey, Calif.

Braselton, Ga.

NTT INDYCAR SERIES

MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP

March 10 March 24 April 7 April 14 May 11 May 26 June 1 June 2 June 8 June 23 July 14

Feb. 17 Feb. 24 March 3 March 10 March 17 March 24 March 31 April 7 April 13 April 28

St. Petersburg, Fla. COTA, Austin, Texas Barber, Ala. Long Beach, Calif.

Indianapolis GP, Ind. Indianapolis 500, Ind. Detroit, Mich.

Detroit, Mich.

Fort Worth, Texas Elkhart Lake, Wis. Toronto, Ontario

CAUTION TO THE WIND The Truck Series opener outdid the Daytona 500 for yellow flags. A record 55 caution laps preceded Austin Hill’s victory on the 11th lap of overtime, with just nine trucks still running.

Daytona Denny Hamlin Atlanta, Ga. Las Vegas, Nev. Phoenix, Ariz.

Fontana, Calif.

Martinsville, Va. Fort Worth, Texas Bristol, Tenn.

Richmond, Va. Talladega, Ala.

FEATURED RACE 103RD INDIANAPOLIS 500 WHEN May 26 WHERE Speedway, Ind. Alonso’s return is just one element of one of the most intriguing Indy fields in years.

EVENT INFO Order race tickets directly at IMS.com

WHERE & HOW Reduce or avoid traffic stress via rideshare or shuttle service.

See IMS.com for details.

May 5 May 11 May 26 June 2 June 9 June 23 June 30 July 6 July 13 July 21 July 28 Aug. 4 Aug. 11 Aug. 17 Sept. 1 Sept. 8 Sept. 15 Sept. 21 Sept. 29 Oct. 6 Oct. 13 Oct. 20 Oct. 27 Nov. 3 Nov. 10 Nov. 17

Dover, Del. Kansas City, Kan. Charlotte, N.C. Pocono, Pa. Brooklyn, Mich.

Sonoma, Calif.

Chicagoland, Ill. Daytona, Fla. Sparta, Ky. Loudon, N.H. Pocono, Pa. Watkins Glen, N.Y. Brooklyn, Mich.

Bristol, Tenn.

Darlington, S.C. Indianapolis, Ind. Las Vegas, Nev. Richmond, Va. Charlotte, N.C. (roval) Dover, Del. Talladega, Ala. Kansas City, Kan. Martinsville, Va. Fort Worth, Texas Phoenix, Ariz.

Homestead, Fla.

NASCAR XFINITY SERIES Feb. 16 Feb. 23 March 2 March 9 March 16 March 30 April 6

Daytona Michael Annett Atlanta, Ga. Las Vegas, Nev. Phoenix, Ariz.

Fontana, Calif.

Fort Worth, Texas Bristol, Tenn.

“I just told him that my team doesn’t pay me to push Joey Logano to a win.

I made a split-second decision on who had the best shot of winning the race...”

MICHAEL McDOWELL after Logano told him they should have teamed up at Daytona

John Harrelson/LAT

Melbourne, Australia Sakhir, Bahrain Shanghai, China Baku, Azerbaijan Barcelona, Spain Monte Carlo, Monaco Montreal, Canada Le Castellet, France Spielberg, Austria Silverstone, Great Britain Hockenheim, Germany Hungaroring, Hungary Spa, Belgium Monza, Italy Marina Bay, Singapore Sochi, Russia Suzuka, Japan Mexico City, Mexico COTA, Austin, Texas Sao Paulo, Brazil Yas Marina, Abu Dhabi

Phillip Abbott/LAT

March 17 March 31 April 14 April 28 May 12 May 26 June 9 June 23 June 30 July 14 July 28 Aug. 4 Sept. 1 Sept. 8 Sept. 22 Sept. 29 Oct. 13 Oct. 27 Nov. 3 Nov. 17 Dec. 1

Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images

F1 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

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Sam Bloxham/LAT

“I have to say it was probably the best Formula E race of my career to date”

Katherine Legge made herself a winner in electric racing, taking the Jaguar I-Pace eTrophy round supporting Formula E in Mexico City.

LUCAS DI GRASSI after catching Pascal Wehrlein at the line for the win in Mexico.

NASCAR GANDER OUTDOORS TRUCK SERIES Feb. 15 Feb. 23 March 1 March 23 March 29 May 3 May 10 May 17 June 7 June 15 June 22 June 28 July 11 July 27 Aug. 1 Aug. 10 Aug. 15 Aug. 25 Sept. 13 Oct. 12 Oct. 26 Nov. 8 Nov. 15

Daytona Austin Hill Atlanta Las Vegas Martinsville Fort Worth, Texas Dover Kansas City, Kan. Charlotte, N.C. Fort Worth, Texas Newton, Iowa Madison, Ill. Chicagoland, Ill. Sparta, Ky. Pocono, Pa. Eldora, Rossburg, Ohio Brooklyn, Mich.

Bristol, Tenn.

Bowmanville, Ontario Las Vegas, Nev. Talladega, Ala. Martinsville, Va. Phoenix, Ariz.

Homestead, Fla.

FIA WORLD ENDURANCE CH’SHIP May 5 June 16-17 Aug. 19 Oct. 21 Nov. 18 2019 March 16 May 4 June 15-15

Spa

F. Alonso/S. Buemi/ K. Nakajima Le Mans F. Alonso/S. Buemi/ K. Nakajima Silverstone G. Menezes/ T. Laurent/M. Beche Fuji M. Conway/J.M. Lopez/K. Kobayashi Shanghai M. Conway/J.M. Lopez/K. Kobayashi

Sebring, Fla. Spa, Belgium Le Mans, France

FIA FORMULA E CHAMPIONSHIP Dec. 15 Jan. 12 Jan. 26 Feb. 16 March 10 March 23 April 13 April 27 May 11

Riyadh A.F. de la Costa Marrakesh Jerome d’Ambrosio Santiago Sam Bird Mexico City Lucas di Grassi Hong Kong, China Sanya, China Rome, Italy Paris, France Monte Carlo, Monaco

FEATURED RACE MEMORIAL DAY CLASSIC WHEN May 24-27 WHERE Lime Rock, Conn.

SVRA historic racing and Trans Am Series action

EVENT INFO Order race tickets directly at tickets.limerock.com

WHERE & HOW Connecticut’s popular road course is within easy reach of Boston, Hartford or NYC.

May 25 June 22 July 13 July 14

Berlin, Germany Bern, Switzerland New York, N.Y. New York, N.Y.

Oct. 23-27 Nov. 14-17

BLANCPAIN GT WORLD CHALLENGE AMERICA March 1-3 COTA, Austin, Texas March 8-10 St. Petersburg, Fla. March 28-30 Monterey, Calif.

April 12-14 Long Beach, Calif.

April 26-28 Alton, Va. May 17-19 Bowmanville, Ontario June 7-9 Sonoma, Calif.

July 12-14 Portland, Ore. Aug. 30-Sep. 1 Watkins Glen, N.Y. Sep. 20-22 Elkhart Lake, Wis. Oct. 18-20 TBA

FIA WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP Jan. 24-27

Monte Carlo

Spain Australia

NHRA MELLO YELLO SERIES

Sebastien Ogier

WINNER WHEREVER Sebastien Ogier seems invincible on any rally team.

After claiming world titles with VW and M-Sport Ford, he won first time out for Citroen in Monte Carlo.

Feb. 10 Feb. 24 March 17 April 7 April 14 April 28 May 5 May 19 June 2 June 9 June 16 June 23 July 7 July 21 July 28 Aug. 4 Aug. 18 Sep. 2 Sep. 15 Sep. 29 Oct. 13 Oct. 20 Nov. 3 Nov. 17

Pomona, Calif.

Phoenix, Ariz.

Gainesville, Fla. Las Vegas, Nev. Houston, Texas Charlotte, N.C. Atlanta, Ga. North Dinwiddie, Va. Chicago, Ill. Topeka, Kan. Bristol, Tenn.

Norwalk, Ohio Epping, N.H. Denver, Colo.

Sonoma, Calif.

Seattle, Wash.

Brainerd, Minn.

Indianapolis, Ind. Reading, Pa. Madison, Ill. Charlotte, N.C. Dallas, Texas Las Vegas, Nev. Pomona, Calif.

TRANS AM BY PIRELLI

McKlein/LAT

Richmond, Va. Talladega, Ala. Dover, Del. Charlotte, N.C. Pocono, Pa. Brooklyn, Mich.

Newton, Iowa Chicagoland, Ill. Daytona, Fla. Sparta, Ky. Loudon, N.H. Newton, Iowa Watkins Glen, N.Y. Mid-Ohio, Lexington, Ohio Bristol, Tenn.

Elkhart Lake, Wis. Darlington, S.C. Indianapolis, Ind. Las Vegas, Nev. Richmond, Va. Charlotte, N.C. Dover, Del. Kansas City, Kan. Fort Worth, Texas Phoenix, Ariz.

Homestead, Fla.

Lime Rock park

April 12 April 27 May 4 May 25 June 1 June 8 June 16 June 29 July 5 July 12 July 20 July 27 Aug. 3 Aug. 10 Aug. 16 Aug. 24 Aug. 31 Sept. 7 Sept. 14 Sept. 20 Sept. 28 Oct. 5 Oct. 19 Nov. 2 Nov. 9 Nov. 16

Feb. 14-17 Sweden Ott Tanak March 7-10 Mexico March 28-31 Tour de Corse, France April 25-28 Argentina May 9-12 Chile May 30-Jun 2 Portugal June 13-16 Sardinia, Italy Aug. 1-4 Finland Aug. 22-25 Germany Sep. 12-15 Turkey Oct. 3-6 Wales, GB

March 1-3 March 29-31 May 3-5 May 24-27 June 1-2 Aug. 1-4 Aug. 8-10 Aug. 22-24 Sep. 5-8 Sep. 20-22 Oct. 4-6 Nov. 14-16

Sebring, Fla. Braselton, Ga. Monterey, Calif.

Lime Rock, Conn.

Detroit, Mich.

Indianapolis, Ind. Lexington, Ohio Elkhart Lake, Wis. Watkins Glen, N.Y. Alton, Va. COTA, Austin, Texas Daytona, Fla.

INDY PRO 2000 PRESENTED BY COOPER TIRES March 9-10 St. Petersburg, Fla. May 10-11 Indianapolis, Ind. (RC) May 24 Clermont, Ind. June 22-23 Elkhart Lake, Wis. July 13-14 Toronto, Ontario July 27-28 Lexington, Ohio Aug. 24 Madison, Ill. Aug. 31-Sep. 1 Portland, Ore. Sep. 21-22 Monterey, Calif.

COOPER TIRES US F2000 CHAMPIONSHIP March 9-10 St. Petersburg, Fla. May 10-11 Indianapolis, Ind. (RC) May 24 Clermont, Ind. June 22-23 Elkhart Lake, Wis. July 13-14 Toronto, Ontario July 27-28 Lexington, Ohio Aug. 31-Sep. 1 Portland, Ore. Sep. 21-22 Monterey, Calif.

F3 AMERICAS CHAMPIONSHIP April 4-7 April 17-20 June 20-23 July 25-28 Aug. 22-24 Sep. 12-15

Barber, Ala. Braselton, Ga. Wampum, Pa. Alton, Va. Elkhart Lake, Wis. Sebring, Fla.

F4 U.S. CHAMPIONSHIP April 17-20 June 20-23 July 26-28 Aug. 8-10 Sep. 13-16 Nov. 1-4

Braselton, Ga. Wampum, Pa. Alton, Va. Lexington, Ohio Sebring, Fla. COTA, Austin, Texas

INDY LIGHTS PRESENTED BY COOPER TIRES March 9-10 St. Petersburg, Fla. March 23-24 COTA, Austin, Texas May 10-11 Indianapolis, Ind. (RC) May 24 Indianapolis, Ind. (oval) June 22-23 Elkhart Lake, Wis. July 13-14 Toronto, Ontario July 27-28 Lexington, Ohio Aug. 25 Madison, Ill. Aug. 31-Sep. 1 Portland, Ore. Sep. 21-22 Monterey, Calif.

RACER.com has the latest racing news, views and features, plus Robin Miller’s answers to your questions. Write to MillersMailbag@racer.com

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TV & DIGEST SPRING 2019

All NTT IndyCar Series practice and qualifying sessions are streamed on INDYCAR Pass from NBC Sports Gold. Visit nbcsports.com to sign up.

MARCH 17

PRISTINE PRIX-VIEWING

Sometimes bad experiences can have unexpectedly positive benefits. Such was the case with last year’s debut of Formula 1 coverage on ESPN. The network opted to partner with the UK’s Sky Sports rather than create its own F1 commentary team. But commercial-free Sky’s telecast was butchered by ad breaks for U.S. viewers. The resulting furore led ESPN to cut all ads from its F1 coverage in favor of presention by Mothers Polish.

That deal has been renewed for this year, to the delight of anyone who suffered through that 2018 Melbourne race.

Steven Tee/LAT

DETAILS 1:00am ESPN: Australian Grand Prix

A WIDER WORLD

SATURDAY, MARCH 9 FS2: FIA Formula E qualifying, Hong Kong, China (SDD) FS1: FIA Formula E, Hong Kong, China (L) FS1: NASCAR Xfinity Series, Phoenix, Ariz. (L)

SUNDAY, MARCH 10 12:30pm

3:30pm

6:00pm

NBCSN: NTT IndyCar Series, St. Petersburg, Fla. (L) FOX: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, Phoenix, Ariz. (L) FS2: Jaguar I-Pace Trophy, Hong Kong, China (D)

ESPN2: Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix practice, Melbourne (L) MOT: FIA World Endurance Championship, Sebring, Fla. (L)

SATURDAY, MARCH 16 2:00am

10:30am

3:30pm

5:00pm

ESPN2: Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix qualifying, Melbourne(L) CNBC: IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, Sebring, Fla. (L) NBCSN: IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, Sebring, Fla. (L) FS1: NASCAR Xfinity Series, Fontana, Calif. (L)

SUNDAY, MARCH 17 1:00am

86

THURSDAY, MARCH 28 2:00pm

3:00pm

7:00am

11:00am

9:00pm

FRIDAY, MARCH 15 2:00am

4:00pm

FS1: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, Martinsville, Va. (L) FS2: Jaguar I-Pace Trophy, Sanya, China (D)

NBCSN: Prototype Challenge Championship, Sebring, Fla. (D) NBCSN: IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge, Sebring, Fla. (D)

FRIDAY, MARCH 29

Richard Dole/LAT

2:30am

3:30am

4:00pm

It’s a new era for the World Challenge with the SRO organization. Expanded coverage on CBSSN is planned this year, so check RACER.com/TV for air times.

2:00pm

6:00pm

ESPN-U: Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix practice 1, Sakhir (L) ESPN-U: Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix practice 2, Sakhir (L) FS1: NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series, Fort Worth, Texas (L)

SATURDAY, MARCH 30

3:30pm

7:30pm

FOX: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, Fontana, Calif. (L) FS1: NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing, finals, Gainesville, Fla. (SDD)

SATURDAY, MARCH 23 2:30am

3:30am

2:00pm

FS2: FIA Formula E qualifying, Sanya, China (SDD) FS1 FIA Formula E, Sanya, China (L) FOX: NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series, Martinsville, Va. (L)

SUNDAY, MARCH 24 1:00pm

NBCSN: NTT IndyCar Series, COTA, Austin, Texas (L)

8:00am

11:00am

1:00pm

SUNDAY, APRIL 7 2:00pm

4:00pm

5:30pm

THURSDAY, APRIL 11 10:00pm

2:00am

7:00pm

ESPN2: Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix practice 2, Shanghai (L) FS1: NASCAR Xfinity Series, Richmond, Va. (L)

VELOCITY TREND

ESPN2: Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix practice 3, Sakhir (L) ESPN2: Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying, Sakhir (L) FS1: NASCAR Xfinity Series, Fort Worth, Texas (L)

ESPN2: Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix, Sakhir (L) FOX: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, Fort Worth, Texas (L)

ESPN-N: Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix practice 1, Shanghai (L)

FRIDAY, APRIL 12

What was the Velocity Channel is now Motor Trend, adding to MT’s extensive library of on-demand motorsports content at Motortrendondemand.com.

SUNDAY, MARCH 31 11:00am

3:00pm

FS1: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, Bristol, Tenn. (L) NBCSN: NTT IndyCar Series, Barber, Birmingham, Ala. (L) FS1: NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing, Las Vegas, Nev. (L)

LAT

ALL TIMES ARE EASTERN (ET); ALWAYS CHECK LOCAL LISTINGS FOR LATEST AIR TIMES

SATURDAY, APRIL 6 1:00pm

FS1: NASCAR Xfinity Series, Bristol, Tenn. (L)

ESPN: Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix, Melbourne (L)

SPRING 2019

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ESPN is once again offering coverage of Formula 2 action supporting GP weekends this season via its ESPN3 streaming channel.

ANNIVERSARIES

SATURDAY, APRIL 13 2:00am

2:30am

3:30am 5:00pm

7:30pm

ESPN2: Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix qualifying, Shanghai (L) FS2: FIA Formula E qualifying, Rome, Italy (SDD) FS1 FIA Formula E, Rome, Italy (L) NBCSN: IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, Long Beach, Calif. (L) FOX: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, Richmond, Va. (L)

SPRING BIRTHDAYS

CLOSER TO THE ACTION New IndyCar video tech

FRIDAY, APRIL 26 5:00am

9:00am

7:00pm

ESPN-N: Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix practice 1, Baku (L) ESPN-U: Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix practice 2, Baku (L) FS1: NASCAR Xfinity Series, Richmond, Va. (L)

2:30am

3:30am

6:00am

9:00am

1:00pm

FS2: FIA Formula E qualifying, Paris, France (SDD) FS1 FIA Formula E, Paris, France (L) ESPN2: Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix practice 3, Baku (L) ESPN2: Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix qualifying, Baku (L) FS1: NASCAR Xfinity Series, Talladega, Ala. (L)

CARLOS REUTEMANN 1976: BRABHAM BT45-ALFA ROMEO

Ford tunes its pony for Cup

SATURDAY, APRIL 27

8:00am

2:00pm

6:00pm

6:00pm

ESPN2: Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Baku (L) FOX: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, Talladega, Ala. (L) FS1: NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing, Charlotte, N.C. (L) FS2: Jaguar I-Pace Trophy, Paris, France (D)

ABC ESPN on ABC CBS/CBSSN CBS/CBS Sports Network CNBC NBC Business News NBC NBC Universal NBCSN NBC Sports Network ESPN ESPN networks ESPN-N ESPN News ESPN-U ESPN University FOX FOX Broadcast Network FS1 FOX Sports 1 FS2 FOX Sports 2 MOT Motor Trend L R TBD D SDD

Live Program Repeat Program Start Time to Be Determined Delayed from Earlier Day Same Day, Delayed

All listings subject to change. Networks may broadcast programs at different times in different time zones. Check local listings.

Curious what goes into the development of a NASCAR body shape? A detailed two-part video from Ford Performance details the process. Find them at RACER.com/videos.

B. 4/19/62

Unser’s legendary IndyCar career, which included a pair of Indy 500 victories in 1992 and ’94 (pictured), faded in the early 2000s as the CART/IRL split sapped his enthusiasm. But “Little Al” has now returned to the IndyCar scene as an adviser to Harding Steinbrenner Racing and mentor to its rookie driver, Colton Herta.

WE REMEMBER

ON TWITTER A rookie season of IndyCar racing is bound to be full of wide-eyed moments, so follow along with @ColtonHerta as he learns the ropes along with his Harding Steinbrenner Racing team.

RACER.com has the latest racing news, views and features, plus Robin Miller’s answers to your questions. Write to MillersMailbag@racer.com

MIKE HAILWOOD 1971: SURTEES TS9-FORD

Chris Jones/IndyCar

SUNDAY, APRIL 28

AL UNSER JR

James Weaver, 3/4/55; Jos Verstappen, 3/4/72; Janet Guthrie, 3/7/38; Brian Redman, 3/9/37; Danny Sullivan, 3/9/50; Teo Fabi, 3/9/55; Colton Herta, 3/20/2000; Johnny Rutherford, 3/12/38; John Andretti, 3/12/63; Lyn St. James, 3/13/47; Greg Anderson, 3/14/61; David Coulthard, 3/27/71; Geoff Brabham, 3/20/52; Kenny Brack, 3/21/66; Scott Pruett, 3/24/60; Danica Patrick, 3/25/82; Mark Blundell, 4/8/66; John Judd, 4/9/42; Jacques Villeneuve, 4/9/71; CARLOS REUTEMANN, 4/12/42; AL UNSER JR., 4/19/62; Felipe Massa, 4/25/81; Bob Bondurant, 4/27/33.

MAKING OF THE MUSTANG

IMS

At Spring Training, the Ganassi team outfitted Felix Rosenqvist’s car with a 3D ‘ball’ camera system utilizing GoPro Heros to create new ways of conveying drivers’ experiences to viewers.

Cannonball Baker, 3/10/60; Ralph DePalma, 3/31/66; Lucien Bianchi, 3/30/69; Peter Revson, 3/23/74; Tom Pryce, 3/5/77; Carlos Pace, 3/18/77; Mike Hailwood, 3/23/81; Mike Mosley, 3/3/84; Bob Wollek, 3/16/01; Paul Dana, 3/26/06; Al Hofmann, 3/20/08; GARY BETTENHAUSEN, 3/16/14; Walt Hansgen, 4/7/66; Jim Clark, 4/7/68; MIKE HAILWOOD, 4/23/81; Rolf Stommelen, 4/24/83; Alan Kulwicki, 4/1/93; Roland Ratzenberger, 4/30/94; Lee Petty, 4/5/00; Michele Alboreto, 4/25/01; Joe Leonard, 4/27/17.

LAT archive

ESPN2: Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix, Shanghai (L) FOX: NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing, Baytown, Texas (L) ) NBCSN: NTT IndyCar Series, Long Beach, Calif. (L) FS2: Jaguar I-Pace Trophy, Rome, Italy (D)

IMS archive

2:00am

3:00pm

4:00pm

6:00pm

LAT archive

SUNDAY, APRIL 14

GARY BETTENHAUSEN D. 3/16/14

Bettenhausen raced in Indy cars from the mid-1960s through ’96, winning six USAC IndyCar races. He made 21 starts in the Indianapolis 500, with a best finish of third in 1980, when he came from 32nd in the 33-car field. However, his strongest showing came in the 1972 race, when he led 138 of the 200 laps, only to suffer a blown engine with 24 laps to go.

RACER.com

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WHAT AMERICA’S FIRST FORMULA 1 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP RACE WHERE SEBRING, FLA. WHEN DEC. 12, 1959

IMS archive

Jack Brabham had little energy left to celebrate his 1959 Formula 1 title after pushing his fuel-depleted car across the finish line at Sebring.

LAT archive

THEORY DASHED...

Fresh from winning the 1959 Indy 500, Rodger Ward entered Sebring in a Kurtis-Offy Midget.

Yes, for an F1 race. His theory that he’d enjoy a cornering advantage over the F1 cars lasted right up until Turn 1...

88

Wolfgang von Trips in Turn 1 (Ferrari selfsabotage is not a new phenomenon) and lost two laps in the pits having the damage assessed – although his subsequent drive back to a sensational third hinted at what might have been. Moss, meanwhile, streaked away at the start, but his chances ended after just five laps when his transmission broke.

End of the drama? With Brabham leading and his two rivals out of the picture, you’d think so. But then his car began to slow two turns from the finish – a gamble to start on a lighter fuel load had backfired. Teammate Bruce McLaren, following behind, briefly slowed in surprise, but sped up again just before the Walker Cooper of Maurice Trintignant caught the both of them. McLaren took the win ahead of Trintignant and Brooks, while Brabham literally pushed his car over the line to secure fourth, and the first of his three F1 drivers’ titles.

For all of the drama, the race was not a commercial success: Sebring was about sports cars, and the F1 crowd was roughly half the size of that which had turned up for that year’s 12 Hours of Sebring. This month, Sebring returns as a world championship venue, but this time, in a fashion more faithful to its roots when it hosts the FIA WEC, March 15.

The 1959 U.S. GP delivered drama from start to finish, but was not able to draw a crowd.

LAT archive

Sixty years ago, promoter Alex Ulmann finalized realized his dream of a Formula 1 World Championship U.S. Grand Prix.

Originally pencilled in as the season-opener, the race at Sebring, Fla., was later shifted to the other end of the season and took place in mid December. This was good news for fans, who were treated to a three-way fight for the title between Jack Brabham, Stirling Moss and Tony Brooks: factory Cooper-Climax vs. Rob Walker Cooper-Climax vs. Ferrari.

Brabham went into the race as the favorite on 31 points with Moss (25.5 points) as his main challenger and Brooks (23 points) essentially needing to win and set fastest lap, and then hope that Brabham was no higher than third. The trio qualified on the front row, with Moss on pole, but Brooks’ slim hopes were dealt a further blow that evening when it was discovered that Harry Schell had actually beaten Brooks’ time right at the end of the session, apparently without anyone having noticed. Amid fierce protestations from Ferrari, the American duly claimed Brooks’s place on the grid, although it was later revealed that he’d taken a short cut!

On race day, the championship was settled quickly. Brooks was rear-ended by teammate

LAT archive

SEBRING SHOWDOWN

In addition to a kiss and a $6,000 purse, Bruce McLaren won a parcel of land near the track.

SPRING 2019

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2/20/19 4:40 PM 2/25/19 11:06 AM

2019 BLANCPAIN GT WORLD CHALLENGE AMERICA SEASON PREVIEW

SPRING 2019 WORLD-CHALLENGE.com RACER.com

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2019 SEASON PREVIEW

WORDS Richard S. James IMAGE Aaron Justus

In 2019, World Challenge is fully aligned with SRO’s vision for global GT racing. With it comes a new title partner in Blancpain, and a revised class structure. What remains is the action-packed racing we’ve come to love.

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BLANCPAIN GT WORLD CHALLENGE AMERICA

TAKING IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL GT4 competitors will once again be able to compete in an all-sprint, single-driver championship if they choose. For GT3, though, the costs of competing make that very difficult; thus, the two-driver formula in what is still essentially a sprint format.

“It makes economic sense to have two drivers. With the cost of second-generation and third-generation GT3 cars, fewer people were able to afford the budget for racing

“Keeping the identity is important. It has heritage. It has followers. And we’re going to celebrate 30 years of World Challenge”

Stephane Ratel

RETURNING CHAMPS For the first time in recent memory, the marquee GT class will have not one, but four former champions vying to expand their personal title trophy case.

Richard S. James

alone. The conversation in the paddock was that people wanted to keep sprint racing, but also understood the economics of having two drivers. We came to the conclusion that we should go to the same format we have in Europe, but its not exactly the same because we have 90-minute races instead of 60 minutes,” Ratel explains, noting that the competitors wanted longer races not just for more track time, but to further differentiate GT3 and GT4.

Changes aside, it’s still World Challenge even if the name is tweaked a bit, and that’s important to Ratel: “Keeping the identity is very important. It has heritage. It has followers. And we’re going to celebrate 30 years of World Challenge.”

Richard S. James

Toni Vilander and Miguel Molina

Alvaro Parente

(MAIN) Among the favorites in the GT class have to be returning champion R. Ferri Motorsports’ Ferrari 488 GT3, along with past champs K-PAX Racing’s Bentley Continental GT3-R and Wright Motorsports’ Porsche 911 GT3 R.

Richard S. James

LAT Photo

Much has changed in World Challenge in the past year. SRO assumed a controlling interest, and the umbrella organization is now SRO America.

The GT category goes from a mix of Sprint and SprintX races to all 90-minute SprintX races under the Blancpain GT World Challenge America banner. And GTS becomes Pirelli GT4 America, consisting of separate Sprint and SprintX championships.

Many of the changes are driven by the needs and desires of longtime competitors, elevating their at-track experience as the series enters its 30th anniversary year are small. And the World Challenge name will spread across the world to other SRO GT3 championships.

“When we invested in the series, we said we’re going to bring World Challenge to the world, and that’s exactly what we’re doing,” says SRO principal Stephane Ratel, who notes that while he could create GT series in many parts of the world, he couldn’t do that in North America. “America is a very mature market, and a very competitive market, so starting something from nothing was not an option. The first asset we get is the people.

The second is a number of existing events that we want to continue to develop. There is also the sprint formula that we have tried to preserve, and will preserve with GT4.”

Patrick Long

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(MAIN) Fifteen-year-old Steven Aghakhani comes to grips with the mighty Mercedes AMG GT3.

For the 2019 season, Blancpain GT World Challenge America has a new 90-minute, two-driver format for all races. That brings refueling into the mix for the first time in World Challenge. And for the first time in several years, there are a crop of former champions going head to head for another title.

The 2018 SprintX championship duo of Toni Vilander (also the overall winner) and Miguel Molina returns in the R. Ferri Ferrari 488 GT3.

The team was incredibly strong in SprintX races last year, so they certainly have to be favorites for the title in the new era. But they’re going to have some formidable competition, starting with 2017 World Challenge GT champ Patrick Long, back with the team he won that title with, Wright Motorsports. He’s paired with Scott Hargrove, who took the 2018 Sprint title, racing a new Porsche 911 GT3 R. Joining them in Porsche machinery is a strong entry in Wolf Henzler and Marco Holzer with Alegra Motorsports.

K-PAX Racing is back with its driver lineup of 2016 GT champ Alvaro Parente and Andy Soucek, plus Rodrigo Baptista and Maxime Soulet, equipped with two brand-new Bentley Continental GT3-Rs. In the previous-gen car, both Parente and Baptista won multiple races last year, and the new GT3-R is another step forward. That’s several exceptionally strong entries in the Pro category with little

94 SPRING 2019

SRO / BC Pix

BLANCPAIN GT WORLD CHALLENGE

(ABOVE) Alegra Motorsports has Porsche veterans Marco Holzer and Wolf Henzler behind the wheel. (ABOVE RIGHT) Acura NSX GT3 returns with Racer’s Edge, driven by Kyle Marcelli and Martin Barkey. (OPPOSITE) GT4 has a pair of BMW GT4s from Fast Track Racing in SprintX, and Ian James’ Panoz in Sprint contending for titles.

SRO

D. Schenkelberg

2019 SEASON PREVIEW

to choose between them.

The Pro/Am category is no less intriguing, starting with the return of Acura as Racer’s Edge moves up from GT4 to campaign a new NSX GT3 Evo for Kyle Marcelli and Martin Barkey. Former GTSA champ George Kurtz partners with Colin Braun in a DXDT Mercedes AMG GT3, alongside Ryan Dalziel and David Askew in a second entry. And further adding to the Silver Star roster, Steven Aghakhani, a 15-year-old Southern California driver, pairs with Richard Antinucci in another AMG GT3.

Porsche is represented by Alegra principal Carlos de Quesada driving with Daniel Morad, plus Anthony Imperato partnering with a couple of different factory drivers in Wright’s second car. Ferrari is in the mix with Matt Plumb sharing with Alfred Caiola in a One11 488.

Both the Pro and Pro/Am divisions are stacked deep, and it may just come down to which team nails the new format first.

For 2019, there are actually four different championships up for grabs – national Sprint and SprintX titles, plus GT4 America East and West. Sprint races will be single-driver, 50-minute races, while SprintX and the East and West championship will be 60-minute races with two drivers.

On the Sprint side, Andretti Autosport comes to the championship with a McLaren 570S GT4 for Jarett Andretti. Nicolai Elghanayan returns for a full season of Sprint in a KTM X-Bow after starting with a partial season last year and winning at Lime Rock Park. Jason Bell also returns in a GMG Audi.

But when it comes to title favorites, one has to consider Ian James and the well-developed Panoz Avezzano. He’s been near the front of the championships for two years now. His most serious competition could come from the always fast Spencer Pumpelly, back with TRG in a 718 Porsche Cayman GT4.

In SprintX, there are several strong pairings. Two BMW M4 GT4s from Fast Track Racing should figure in most races, with Toby Grahovec and Chris Omacht sharing one, and Stevan McAleer and Justin Raphael the other. Flying Lizard has a stout entry with

SRO / BC Pix

PIRELLI GT4 AMERICA

Michael Dinan and Robby Foley in a 718 Cayman. Mathew Keegan partnered with James for several Panoz victories in 2018, but will drive with Preston Calvert this season.

Finally, another promising entry comes from Krugspeed, with 2016 TCA champ Elivan Goulart and Anthony Geraci driving a Ginetta.

Most weekends will feature both Sprint and SprintX races, although some will include only one or the other – St. Petersburg and Long Beach will be Sprint only. GT4 will get to be the headliner at Portland International Raceway for the Rose Cup Races in July.

2019 SCHEDULE New additions are Sonoma Raceway and Road America. Both venues have been on the schedule previously, but this time World Challenge returns to the tracks as the main event. The season will culminate in a Grand Finale at a track new to the series, to be named later.

CIRCUIT OF THE AMERICAS MARCH 01- 03 GT3 | GT4 SX | GT4 EAST | GT4 West | TCR | TC | TCA STREETS OF ST. PETERSBURG MARCH 08 - 10 GT4 | TCR

2019 CLASS STRUCTURE GLOBAL ALIGNMENT Most SRO America weekends will include three main classes competing in four groups – Blancpain GT World Challenge, GT4 America and TC America, which is split into the TCR, TC and TCA classes.

The factorybuilt racecars that compete in this class are all homologated to the international GT3 specification, which allows cars with a wide range of performance characteristics to compete equally over the course of a season. Each race is 90 minutes, with pit stops for refueling, tires and driver changes.

SRO / BC Pix

BLANCPAIN GT WORLD CHALLENGE AMERICA

All the cars in GT4 America, like the GT3 cars, are homologated to an international set of rules.

GT4 America is split into two types of races – single-driver Sprint races of 50 minutes, or 60-minute, two-driver SprintX races. In addition, SprintX racers can compete in national or East and West championships.

TC America consists of the TCR category – like the GT classes, internationally homologated, factory-produced race cars – Touring Car and TCA. TCR includes a sub-class called TCR Cup, for cars with DSG gearboxes. TC and TCA consist of both factory-built and shop-built cars. TC includes BMW 240iRs, Nissan 370Zs and Honda Civic Type Rs, while the entry-level TCA category is made up primarily of the Civic Si, Subaru BRZ, Mini Cooper and Mazda Global MX-5 Cup car. Touring Car runs its own standalone race, while TCR and TCA are combined.

WEATHERTECH RACEWAY LAGUNA SECA MARCH 28 - 30 IGTC California 8 Hours | GT4 West STREETS OF LONG BEACH APRIL 12 -14 GT4 VIRGINA INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY APRIL 26 -28 GT3 | GT4 | GT4 East | TCR | TC | TCA CANDIAN TIRE MOTRSPORT PARK MAY 17 - 19 GT3 | GT4 | GT4 SX | GT4 East SONOMA RACEWAY JUNE 7 - 9 GT3 | GT4 | GT4 SX | GT4 West | TCR | TC | TCA PORTLAND INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY JULY 12 - 14 GT4 SX | GT4 West | TCR | TC | TCA WATKINS GLEN INTERNATIONAL AUG. 30 - SEPT. 1 GT3 | GT4 | GT4 East | TCR | TC | TCA ROAD AMERICA SEPT. 20 - 22 GT3 | GT4 | GT4 East | TCR | TC | TCA GRAND FINALE (VENUE TBC) OCT. 18 - 20 GT3 | GT4 | GT4 SX | GT4 West | TCR | TC | TCA

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BLANCPAIN GT WORLD CHALLENGE AMERICA

SRO / BC Pix

CALIFORNIA 8 HOUR BOLSTERS ITS PLACE IN INTERNATIONAL GT COMPETITION

TC America continues with three classes for 2019 – TCR, Touring Car and TCA. TCR was introduced as a standalone class in 2018 with great success. The TCR cars are as fast as GT4 cars at some tracks, but the front-wheel-drive machines make their speed differently, which makes corners interesting.

Michael Hurczyn and Nate Vincent come to the second season of TCR with the most experience in their FCP Euro Volkswagens, updated to sequential gearboxes. James Walker is a newcomer, having previously raced Ferrari Challenge, and will compete in an Alfa Romeo from Risi Competizione.

Leading the TCR Cup entry for cars with DSG gearboxes are Audis from Michael McCann Jr., Christian Cole and Bryan Putt.

Touring Car will likely evolve during the season, as the updated BMW M240iR is introduced to replace the popular and quick

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TC AMERICA

(TOP) Michael Hurczyn returns to TCR with an updated VW. (ABOVE) Full fields are expected for the second season of TCR. (BELOW) TC has a variety of entries, making the state of play excitingly unpredictable.

M235iR. Look for Fast Track Racing’s Toby Grahovec, plus Johan Schwartz and Steve Streimer from Rooster Hall, to lead the BMW charge. Bimmerworld returns to the series with cars for Cameron Evans and Chandler Hull. Paul Terry will be taking over the Rearden Racing Nissan 370Z in which Vesko Kozarov won the championship in 2018.

Some mid-season entries will bring the new Hyundai Veloster N, and perhaps a Mazda3 and Honda Civic Type Rs as well.

The TCA field is looking at huge growth, with the introduction of Mini Coopers from LAP Racing and a fleet of X-Factor Racing Hondas adding to the TechSport Subaru BRZs and Mazda MX-5s. Keep a watch for PJ Groenke and Nick Wittmer to star for Subaru, X-Factor principal Chris Haldeman and Daniel Soufi to be up front in the Hondas, and Mark Pombo and Nate Norenberg taking those Minis to the front.

The California 8 Hour is part of the SRO’s Intercontinental GT Challenge, a series of manufacturer-driven GT endurance races on five continents. It returns for the third time to WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, Calif., this year as the second race on the schedule.

With eight manufacturers committed for the full season, it attracts a mix of overseas teams and World Challenge regulars.

The event is the only professional endurance race on the West Coast. With the move to March 30, it will fill a perfect gap in the Laguna Seca schedule, away from the saturated fall calendar that befell the race in the past. Plus, coming earlier in the year, participating teams, particularly those from overseas, will be less fatigued.

WAYS TO WATCH The 2019 Blancpain GT World Challenge America will feature an enhanced TV package with SRO graphics and a unified global look to the broadcasts.

In the U.S., CBS Sports Network is expanding its commitment by airing live action from all Blancpain GT World Challenge America events. There will also be as-live broadcasts from the European races and extended highlights from the Asian category, ensuring that every race is available to watch in American homes.

In addition, fans will have even more opportunities to watch thanks to online access. All Blancpain GT World Challenge events will be streamed live or as-live on their respective websites, as well as other online platforms across different territories. Don’t miss a minute!