The fish and chip shop

Alex Albon is the “real deal” and deserves another shot at a top Formula 1 race seat, that’s according to former Aston Martin strategy engineer Bernie Collins. In his five seasons in Formula 1, Albon has gone through the elation of securing a race seat when he thought the Formula 1 door was shut, the excitement but trepidation of being promoted to Red Bull after just 12 races, and the heartache of being demoted to a reserve role after two years on the grid. Today he’s going through the steps, although it is fair to say in his case leaps, of rebuilding his career with his performances with Williams catching the attention of some of the sport’s top teams. Is Alex Albon worthy of a top drive? Linked to a return to Red Bull, although Helmut Marko has since quashed that, Albon has also been mentioned along with Ferrari. For now, though, he’s a Williams driver. The Thai-British racer has a contract through to the end of next season, potentially even until the end of 2025, but … [Read more...] about ‘Real deal’ Alex Albon tipped for return to top seat after sparkling Williams form

Bentley’s bespoke Mulliner division has inspired the creation of a new six-in-one tricycle for kids. The trike features design details often found on Bentley’s customized Mulliner models, providing children with a premium riding experience. The Mulliner trike features White Sand paint straight from company’s color palette. A five-point harness with magnetic buckles secures the child in the newly designed seat that has soft inserts. The chair features Mulliner’s diamond-in-diamond handmade quilting and the Bentley badge stitched on the headrest. Gallery: Bentley Mulliner Tricycle 5 Photos The Mulliner touches continue with the air-pumped wheels. They have the brand’s self-leveling wheel center cap that keeps the Bentley “B” badge upright and motionless. The trike also has a chrome badge on the front of the frame, a diamond-in-diamond handle bag, and anti-slide metal pedals. Bentley … [Read more...] about Bentley Tricycle Inspired By Mulliner Has Quilted Leather Seat, Five-Point Belt

It's the golden rule of endurance racing: spend as little time in the pits as possible. A driver can pound around chasing tenths of a second to set a perfect lap, but if they get it wrong and damage the car, sitting stationary in the garage undoes any potential gains. It seems odd, then, that within motorsport driver conditioning is arguably the most neglected area of research. Manufacturers painstakingly develop their cars, but that is to embark on a path of diminishing returns if the driver climbs aboard for their third stint and is too tired to perform at their best. The much less expensive route is to focus on the person behind the wheel and ensure they can operate at their peak for much longer - make them consistently faster and less error prone. It's a low-hanging fruit within racing that is yet to be picked. That's why the former senior performance coach at world-renowned Hintsa Performance, Dean Fouache, had his interests piqued by the temperature regulating … [Read more...] about Motorsport’s last low-hanging fruit

Interview with BMW Sauber boss Dr Mario Theissen, The character of the Formula 1 boss is changing. The old guard were the products of the 1970s; grafters, boys-done-good, men who were passionate about racing, who pulled strokes and called in favours to keep their cars in the race. They pulled themselves up by their bootstraps from humble beginnings and then in the 1990s found themselves owning private jets once Bernie Ecclestone’s TV deals started to bring in serious money. This type of team owner, personified by McLaren’s Ron Dennis, the mechanic made good and Sir Frank Williams, the used car dealer has ruled the sport for decades. But now the model is changing. Dennis and Williams increasingly find themselves surrounded at team principals’ meetings by professional managers, corporate men who are in Formula 1 because the manufacturers they represent feel that they have the talents required to put together the winning formula on the race track. The embodiment of this … [Read more...] about Mario Theissen – One step from glory

An extraordinary Grand Prix with one of the most exciting finishes ever has been given a different complexion by the stewards’ decision to penalise Lewis Hamilton for taking an advantage from cutting a chicane. There is not doubt that this is a very big call by the stewards and a lot of unbiased observers among the media and the public will find it hard to understand. It takes a lot to unpick the results of a Grand Prix, especially one which would otherwise probably be long remembered as a classic and a great advert for the sport. I’ve watched the incident many times now and Hamilton cuts the chicane because he was pushed out wide, quite fairly by Kimi, his trajectory makes it hard for him to follow Raikkonen around the corner and, faced with going on the grass, he chose instead to cut the chicane. It’s a deliberate act on his part, amazing speed of thought, but he clearly chooses the least worst option. He is therefore in front coming out of the chicane, but crucially he is on … [Read more...] about An Extraordinary Race ends with a Big, Big Call

I've seen a fair bit of negativity around Williams lately in the media. I guess you can see why on one level, when you look at some of their sponsors; Royal Bank of Scotland, which is 70% owned by the British government, Baugar the Icelandic investment vehicle which was hammered by the credit crunch and Phillips, which recently announced thousands of redundancies. They also burned through a fair bit of cash in the last few years trying to keep up with the front-runners. So on the face of it, they seem to be a target, a team which must be under threat. But Williams is actually quite well placed to weather the F1 recession. Because of the deal it did with Bernie Ecclestone and its long history in the sport, it's share of the commercial revenues is fairly high and as budgets come down, forcing the front running teams to learn how to do it with less, Williams has a head start in the area of running a tight ship. But they need to rediscover the art of building fast cars. The … [Read more...] about What’s with the Williams-bashing?

Will Dron’s hero is his dad. Paternal idealization isn’t a rare thing, sure, but Will’s admiration is well placed. Tony Dron was a racing driver, and the kind of chap who wouldn’t boast about it. To meet him you’d be blown away by how charming, kind, and humble he was. It’s only when you ask him about his adventures racing all over the world in all manner of cars (the Porsche 924 at Le Mans in 1980 was one of many special tales) would you realize he was a truly remarkable human being. “He didn’t have any family history of racing, or cars. He just took to them, and loved it. He went to watch Jim Clark at the Nürburgring with a friend of his from school, he watched him gliding through the forest in the back sections of the Nordschleife and thought: ‘My god, that is the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. I have to do that,’” recalls Will, “He didn’t want to race… he had to race.” Tony passed away in 2021 after years of struggles with chronic pulmonary obstructive disease. A quick … [Read more...] about Pedal Cars At Goodwood, An Adorable Racing Legacy Continues

This brings a new meaning to the phrase ‘margin for error’: 10 paces from the turn-in point to sheer oblivion – somewhere you don’t want to get it wrong. A downhill left-hander following a crest on the fabled Sete Cidades stage of the Azores Rally, and below – way, way below – is the water-filled crater of a dormant volcano. Take a look for yourself at the drop… The steep sides of this basin were formed millions of years ago, part of the process of the Azores’s nine islands rising from the mid-Atlantic – then a sea of fury. We’re on Sao Miguel, the biggest of the archipelago, and that greeny-blue body of water is the Lake of the Seven Cities. Not that you’ll find much metropolis here. A long rally history The Azores has hosted rallying for the past 51 years, and while its humble beginnings produced a local winner Luis Toste in his Fiat 1500, the event has since been won by the likes of WRC stars Juha Kankkunen, Markko Martin, Bruno Thiry and Kris Meeke. It’s a … [Read more...] about Opinion: Does the Azores boast rallying’s most spectacular view?

The Barbados-born Caymanian was signed as a development driver with CGR in May 2022, only two races into his Indy NXT career that already featured a fifth-place finish (Barber Motorsports Park). He ended up finishing his rookie campaign ninth in the overall standings despite switching teams – TJ Speed Motorsports to HMD Motorsports – mid-season. There were already some flashes of potential shown the year prior as Simpson rolled to seven wins, 13 podiums and two poles en route to winning the 2021 Formula Regional Americas Championship. Fast forward to the conclusion of the 2023 Indy NXT season, the 18-year-old’s record included a career-best runner-up result (Mid-Ohio), an additional podium and a pole to finish 10th in the championship standings after competing in 13 of 14 events. The lone event missed, the 1.25-mile oval formerly known as Gateway, was a result of a schedule conflict with his full-time commitment to the European Le Mans Series. He currently sits second in the … [Read more...] about Indy NXT grad Simpson’s path to CGR seat aided by sports car experience