Category: msk_20180401

Ferrari has unveiled its fastest ever V8-powered sports car. Called the Ferrari 488 Pista it is a heavily revised version of the standard 488 GTB and boasts performance figures that challenge the Italian company’s range topping LaFerrari.

The 3.9-litre twin turbo produces 711bhp and 568lb ft of torque giving a top speed of 211mph and a 0-62mph time of 2.85sec.

The car is the latest in Ferrari’s V8 engined special series, following the 360 Challenge Stradale, 430 Scuderia and 458 Speciale. However, the company claims the Pista is a “significant step forward” from previous models in the series in terms of the sporting dynamics and level of technology carried over from racing.

According to Maranello, “The car’s development evolved directly from the company’s involvement in the FIA World Endurance Championship – where it has won five manufacturer titles in the GTE class in the six years since the series’ inception, taking 29 out of 50 race wins – and 25 years of experience in running the Ferrari Challenge one-make series.”

The 488 Pista features an F1-inspired S-duct at the front while the design of the front diffusers feature a ramp angle that was optimised for the 488 GTE to create strong suction for increased downforce.

The underbody vortex generators have also been redesigned, and the rear diffuser incorporates the same double kink as the 488 GTE to increase the air extraction and downforce generation compared to a traditional diffuser. Together these modifications result in a 20 per cent increase in downforce.

Rumours had been rife prior to the car’s launch, with some commentators predicting that Ferrari would dust off the old GTO moniker for the car. In the event it has opted for the Italian word for “track” to reflect the car’s more hardcore nature.

Like the 458 Speciale, the Pista has dropped the kerb weight of the host car by 90kg, thanks to lightweight crankshaft and flywheel, as well as additional features, such as titanium con rods and carbon-fibre intake plenums.

The car will officially be launched at the Geneva Motor Show this month. No price has been announced.

LISTER’S NEW JAG

Lister Cars has announced the first of a series of modified Jaguars it intends to sell to the public. Just 99 Lister Thunders will be made, each based on the Jaguar F-type and selling for £139,950. However with 666bhp from its 5-litre supercharged V8 motor, each Thunder will have 100bhp more than the most powerful official version from Jaguar, the F-type SVR. Lister says it has a 0-62mph time of 3.2sec and a top speed of 208mph and has its own suspension tune with adjustable dampers, bespoke 22in tyres and an exhaust system that not only gave the car its name, but also lops a useful 10kg off its weight. Inside there are bespoke Nappa leather seats with Lister logos, and there’s a carbon-fibre body pack option.

Lister Cars is no stranger to tuning Jaguar coupés – in the late 1980s (and in a previous incarnation with Laurence Pearce at the helm) it produced a number of fast and well built modified XJS coupés before creating the all-new Lister Storm, of which a handful of road-going examples were made before the car’s more famous life as an FIA GT race car.

Lister’s current boss Lawrence Whittaker has busied the business of late selling recreated Knobblies for road and track use, but has made no secret that his ultimate desire is to create a bespoke Lister supercar.

Toyota is teasing images of the car said to be an all-new Toyota Supra, also due to have its global reveal in Geneva this month. The long-awaited first fruits of a joint venture with BMW, the new car will feature a 3-litre turbocharged straight-six engine sourced from its German partner and be not only the first new Supra in 24 years, but also the first road-going Toyota to share its branding with its in-house race team Toyota Gazoo Racing. The plan seems to be to develop the Gazoo brand into a credible alternative to BMW’s M division and Mercedes-Benz’s AMG tuning house.

We must wait until they pull the wraps off for further details but all those who were in Detroit in 2014 when Toyota showed a concept called the FT-1 will hope its appearance is not too different to that. The FT-1 was an unlikely star of that show and was every inch the muscular, curvaceous and purposeful sports car you might hope a modern Supra to be. Power output at present is estimated to be around 340bhp, but that’s very modest for a 3-litre turbo engine these days, so hopefully more sporting versions will offer 400bhp or more. A manual gearbox is possible as an option, but thought to be unlikely.

HIGH AND MIGHTY

Rolls-Royce has confirmed what many suspected for a long time, namely that its forthcoming SUV will use its ‘Cullinan’ internal code-name as its actual title when sales start later this year. Except according to Rolls it’s not an SUV but a ‘high-sided vehicle’ which I’m not sure sounds a lot better given that the only time you usually hear that term is about lorries getting blown over when there’s stiff breeze.

The Cullinan will be based on the brand-new bespoke architecture already seen in the second-generation Rolls-Royce Phantom and likely be powered by a version of BMW’s twin-turbo 6.6-litre V12 engine. Hybrid versions are certain and an all-electric model shouldn’t be ruled out: seven years ago Rolls-Royce produced an electric Phantom and in all regards save range and recharge time, it felt a natural fit for the brand. Technological advances in the interim now mean we should regard all-electric Rolls-Royces, whether high-sided or not, as only a matter of time.

STRATOS UPDATE

Ten years after work began and eight after a prototype was first shown to the public, a modern take on the Lancia Stratos is about to go into exceptionally limited production. Maniffattura Automobili Torino says it will make 25 versions of the new car, costing from around £500,000 depending on specification.

Although light in weight and diminutive in stature relative to modern supercars, the new Stratos is still substantially bigger than the rally legend that won 18 World Rally Championship rounds. Prospects can choose to specify theirs as a track car, a road-going supercar or in rally-inspired ‘Safari’ trim.

Like the original Stratos, power is likely to come from a Ferrari engine, said to produce 550bhp driving through a paddle-shift gearbox to the rear wheels alone. Inside, the cosy two-seat cockpit will retain the original Stratos’s iconic doorbins, designed to hold crash helmets in place during transits between special stages. Apparently right-hand-drive is possible if any owner requests it.

Just as in a race when you are competing against a phantom – a driver many places separate from you but on a different pitstop strategy that will converge with yours at some point to put you on the same piece of track – so it can be in career terms. In this coming season Kimi Räikkönen and Charles Leclerc are rarely, if ever, going to compete wheel-to-wheel, but they will absolutely be fighting over the 2019 Ferrari drive alongside Sebastian Vettel.

Räikkönen, 38 years old, is going into the fifth year of his second stint at the Scuderia, his contract having been extended for one season at a time for the last three years. This time around he’s performed a very different role for the team than in 2007-09. Partly through the effects of time, partly management plan, his second stretch has been one of support – certainly since the recruitment of Vettel in 2015. Kimi was initially brought back to the fold as an insurance against Fernando Alonso leaving at the end of 2013, probably in the assumption that Kimi would be a ready plug-in provider of similar performance. As it turned out, Alonso stayed for one more year, during which he completely annihilated Räikkönen.

That season changed the internal perception of Räikkonen’s value to the Scuderia. He still had one, but it was different to that originally envisaged. The cutting edge of speed he once possessed was dimmed, but he was a seasoned old hand, didn’t make waves, said nothing controversial to the outside world, a team player providing a solid bass line.

If he could be provided with a quick car, he was still comfortably quick enough to back up the number one. In this way, with Sebastian Vettel recruited to replace Alonso, the team could revert to its preferred number one/number two structure. Even though this has never been specifically spelt out, it’s been evident in the way the team has operated, with Räikkönen never on the prime race strategies, often staying out well beyond the optimum stop time in order to be tail gunner for Vettel’s strategy. In the second half of 2016, there were several occasions when Räikkönen was running ahead but pit timing strategy was used to spring Vettel in front. These favours were never reciprocated.

But nothing stays the same forever. Räikkönen’s presence there works as an extension of the dynamic around Vettel. But at some stage Vettel will be gone, too. There needs to be a succession plan, ideally with some overlap. Which is where Leclerc could come in.

It would be no exaggeration to say he has looked fantastic in his junior career, his speed and style marking him out potentially as a ‘special one’. But that was true of McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne too, and in his first full season last year he found out just how tricky F1 can be. He’s probably good enough to come out the other side of that tough baptism, but Vandoorne’s experience highlights the risk of putting a gifted rookie in a top team alongside a top driver in this era of restricted testing. Leclerc’s seat at Alfa-Romeo Sauber, as a Ferrari junior driver, is the perfect introduction. If that special quality is still visible there and he maintains that momentum of perception, he’s perfectly placed to make the switch to the main team in 2019, alongside Vettel – and Ferrari’s succession plan is then in place. As a bonus it would make for a touching story of maintaining the thread with Jules Bianchi, the late Ferrari junior driver who was a close friend of Leclerc’s from childhood and who had been set to follow the Ferrari-backed Sauber path that is now Leclerc’s.

But if Leclerc, against expectations, doesn’t create waves in his Sauber, doesn’t regularly deliver drives that transcend his machinery, what then? Another extension for Räikkönen? Or Daniel Ricciardo, currently in the final season of his current Red Bull contract? There are people in a position to know who stated categorically that Vettel had a number one contract with the veto over team-mate choice. But that was before he’d reached his new three-year deal with the team last year. Do those conditions still hold true? And if they do not, does Ricciardo have a realistic shot at that drive?

The last time they were paired, in 2014 at Red Bull, Ricciardo handily outperformed Vettel over the season and it was noticeable that, as Ricciardo spoke last year of his career choices, he made reference to the fact that Seb probably wasn’t keen on having him as a team-mate again. Were these comments made in frustration? There then followed a few sugar-coated but barbed observations from Ricciardo, the latest of which is that Max Verstappen is ‘the first team-mate to challenge me’. Is this Ricciardo laying down the gauntlet to Vettel?

In many ways Ricciardo is a less ideal fit for Ferrari than if Leclerc shows himself to be imbued with Verstappen-like ability to perform at the top level in his first season. Not only because a Vettel-Ricciardo pairing might be contractually impossible to engineer, but also because it gives a less clear succession. At 28, Ricciardo is only two years younger than Vettel. Leclerc is 20. Besides, from Ricciardo’s perspective, if he wishes to leave a Red Bull team that appears to have aligned its future with Verstappen, there’s probably an easier fit for him at Mercedes than Ferrari. Räikkönen’s been there/done that demeanour probably won’t have him checking upon Leclerc’s Sauber lap times at the end of each race weekend, and each season is a bonus for him at this stage of his career.

But a sequence of eye-catching performances in that Alfa-liveried C37 could be the springboard to Leclerc becoming the next in the Schumacher-Alonso-Vettel lineage of totemic Maranello heroes.

Since he began covering Grand Prix racing in 2000, Mark Hughes has forged a reputation as the finest Formula 1 analyst of his generation

SHORT BREAK

This three-day event, from April 26-28, consists of one sprint and two hillclimbs on closed public roads, attracting a wide array of vintage and classic cars to the island. Jaguars, Frazer Nashes and Bentleys, the GN Spider, modern sports cars and Edwardian entries have starred in the past – and more than 100 entries are expected. Viewing is free of charge, but be aware that many roads and pavements will be closed off.

The event starts with The Sloc sprint on Thursday 26, in the south of the island, with spectacular views the full length of the track, then moves onto Creg Willey’s hill (part of the TT course) on Friday.

Friday also heralds a spectacular finale as drivers tackle Lhergy Frissell – another section of TT course and the longest hillclimb in Britain.

These roads also formed part of the Gordon Bennett Trials route in 1904 and the following year’s RAC TT, so the Classic maintains strong links with the island’s rich, proud motor sport heritage.

The TT Grandstand serves as one of many points to view the trials, but you can also volunteer with the Manx Motor Racing Club and contribute to an organisation that once had the late John Surtees as patron. Find out more at www.manxmotorracing.com.

HOW TO GET THERE

Packages from ferry operator the IoM Steam Packet Company are available with double/twin rooms (from £94 for two nights) and foot passenger crossings from Liverpool or Heysham, with an extra £89 charge for a car or low van.

ALSO GOING ON

The Isle of Man Motor Museum holds a collection of more than 400 exhibits spanning 100-plus years of motoring history, including 200 motorcycles, at former RAF station Jurby on the north side of the island. Admission is £12.50.

DON’T MISS

Marshals were brought in from all over the UK for the 2017 Manx Classic. You could volunteer for the 2018 running, though you’ll need to be present for the Tuesday – an extra night’s B&B might be useful.

APRIL 2018

INTERNATIONAL

Apr 7-8 – FIA Formula 2, Sakhir, Bahrain

The most promising young single-seater drivers face off as the Formula 2 grid lines up in Bahrain. Lando Norris will make his full-time debut, as will GP3 champion George Russell.

INTERNATIONAL

Apr 15 – World Rallycross Championship, Barcelona

About 20 drivers will tear around Circuit de Catalunya for the opening WRX round, as Johan Kristoffersson prepares for his title defence against the likes of double champion Petter Solberg (in the new Volkswagen Polo GTI).

INTERNATIONAL

Apr 15 – Long Beach Indy

Long Beach hosts its 44th GP and its 35th consecutive Champ Car/Indycar race. There have been six winners since 2012 on the 1.968-mile palm tree-fringed circuit.

IN THE UK

Apr 22 – Rally Tendring and Clacton, Clacton-on-Sea

The first rally in England on public roads, under the new Closed Road Motor Sport legislation, will take place on the Tendring Peninsula over 45 miles. More than 100 cars are entered.

INTERNATIONAL

Apr 20-22 – Hockenheim Historic, Germany

This weekend celebrates the life of Jim Clark and commemorates his passing at the circuit. The event marks the 50th anniversary of Clark’s death and also recognises Lotus’s heritage.

INTERNATIONAL

Apr 28-29 – WTCR, Hungaroring, Hungary

The first World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) hits Budapest for its second round. Drivers such as Yvan Muller, Rob Huff, Gabriele Tarquini and 2017 WTRCC champ Thed Björk are confirmed.

Apr 5 WRC France

Apr 7 INDYCAR Phoenix

Apr 8 F1 Bahrain

Apr 14 FORMULA E Rome

Apr 15 F1 China

Apr 15 NASCAR Bristol, Tennessee Apr 28 FORMULA E Paris

“When I look back at 1977,” the American says with a smile, “F3 wins seemed to be shared out between several drivers. I’m not sure if everybody was very good – or if we were all a bit average!”

King took his works March to victory at Cadwell Park that season, but returned home soon afterwards and picked up where he’d left off before his European sojourn, racing in Formula Atlantic and winning the SCCA National title in 1982.

He retired five years later, not long after sharing 12th overall – and second in the GTP Lights class – in the Daytona 24 Hours. In 1993, however, he was lured back by the appeal of historic competition – and 25 years on he’s still active, racing on both sides of the Atlantic in a small fleet of cars that includes an ex-Dan Gurney Brabham BT7 (he was there to watch the American win with it at Rouen in ’64), a March 761 and a March 712.

His adventures have led him to the top steps of podia at events as diverse as the GP Historique de Monaco and the Goodwood Members’ Meeting – and he was also a co-founder of Historic Grand Prix, which continues to sanction old-time F1 races in the States (though King sold his interest a few years ago).

Now 72, he plans to take in another blend of clubbies and celebrated classics during the campaign ahead. “I still absolutely love racing,” he says, “and the people I’ve met along the way have been essential in fuelling my passion to compete. I’ve always considered myself a lucky dog – and that holds true to this day.”

Circuit racing might grind almost to a halt beyond October, with a few honourable exceptions, but the ‘off-season’ contains plenty of weekend alternatives that don’t involve pubs, garden centres or television sets. For instance…

BRANDS HATCH

The rain wasn’t heavy, initially at least, but remained irritatingly persistent. As its volume intensified during the day, the temperature dropped: chill factor, moisture factor… who knows? And yet, throughout it all, a couple of blokes on the spectator banks thought it perfectly acceptable to wear shorts. Fine on the grounds of taste, perhaps, but less so in terms of common sense. They appeared to be enjoying themselves, though, which arguably counts for more than comfort – a perfect snapshot of local resolve.

In truth the day was probably better suited to sitting indoors and listening to goals rattle in on BBC 5 Live with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc to hand, but I have an internal trigger that forbids such indulgence: it’s January, Brands Hatch is stirring, get thee to the A20…

Third round of the 2017-18 Motorsport News Circuit Rally Championship, Chelmsford MC’s MGJ Winter Stages is now well established as part of the circuit’s repertoire. The recipe is tried and trusted – eight stages that blend the regular racetrack with access roads, the pit lane, both paddocks and the undulating course that hosts Brands Hatch’s own rally school – but familiarity doesn’t breed complacency. By the day’s end there were sufficient scars to vouch for both the event’s challenging nature and the commitment of those taking part, though the conditions probably didn’t help. And the pit exit hairpin, a tight squeeze for anything much bigger than a Fiesta, proved as always to be a chaos magnet. One driver stalled there for two consecutive laps, making navigability even more marginal and costing several rivals a second or three.

It says much for the Ford Escort’s emotional pull that about one third of the 80-plus entry were in either Mk2s or Mk1s, most of them with modern running gear (sequential transmission and so forth) beneath a recognisable cloak, but that doesn’t make them any less engaging to behold.

There was also a trio of Ferrari 308s, one destined to end its day in the Paddock gravel, one not especially quick and the other – shared by Lee Jones and Thomas Grogan – taking a worthy sixth overall among the more conventional weaponry,

The winners? Mark Kelly and Andy Baker. In a Mk2 Escort. Obviously.

BROOKLANDS

Some locations retain an aura even when there’s nothing going on – and Brooklands is one such. That the Vintage Sports-Car Club happened to be present, performing antique gymnastics against the clock, was merely a bonus.

Entries for the traditional New Year Driving Tests have dwindled slightly – down from 60-plus in the previous two years to 47 on this occasion – but it remains deeply satisfying to see the extant bits of Brooklands being used, even at speeds significantly south of John Cobb’s 143.44mph record, set as recently as 1935…

The nature of the event had changed slightly, with no reversing tests (the rules used to allow cars without a suitable gear to be pushed backwards) and the banking being used only lightly. Perhaps understandably, given the acclaim surrounding its relatively recent reopening, greater emphasis was placed on a series of exercises on the Finishing Straight.

Eddie Williams (1929 Frazer Nash Super Sports) is a regular front-runner at VSCC race meetings – and he underlined that he has dexterity as well as speed by taking outright victory from class winner Edmund Burgess (1924 Bugatti T13) and Richard Marsh (1929 Austin 7 Ulster). Among the most eye-catching entries were the 1925 Trojan Utility of Frazer Sloan, which just about conquered the Test Hill (with its one-in-four gradient towards the summit), and Katie Forrest’s 1912 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost, which required a three-point turn simply to access said Test Hill but otherwise performed with abundant grace.

And then there’s all the other stuff that was accessible to visitors on the day – the sprawling collection of sheds housing one of the planet’s finest assemblies of subjects automotive and aeronautic, everything from pre-war Grand Prix cars to Concorde via a Morris Eight.

Plus, of course, the on-site café retains its period urinals – strictly not for use, and bereft of graffiti as ‘the right crowd’ presumably didn’t do that kind of thing – but a charming throwback of the kind you simply don’t find elsewhere.

Walking into the new Flight Shed, the first thing one sees is a Sopwith Camel replica, with twin machine guns perched just behind its propeller. It would be impressive today if somebody came up with adequate synchronisation technology to prevent such planes shooting themselves down, but the Sopwith Camel is 101.

STANDLAKE

There is something defiantly grandiose about the word ‘arena’ – a term you might apply with equal certainty to Madison Square Garden or the Camp Nou. You might not associate it with a small plot of land just off the B4449, about 14 miles to Oxford’s west, but Standlake Arena has been a sporting hub since 1972.

Originally a dirt track, it was paved during the early 1980s but that’s about it as far as facilities go. There is raised banking upon which early arrivals may park to obtain a weather-sealed view from the comfort of their car, plus a tea hut, but for the most part it’s a friendly, laidback place carpeted in mud and gravel (with a bit of ice thrown in if you happen to be there for the Heavy Metal Classic – a January staple that once attracted a UK record entry of 266 bangers, though that is now capped at 236).

Standlake prides itself on an old-school approach – only the driver’s door and floorpan may be welded for strengthening, but that’s it. Anything considered to have been too zealously prepared will be rejected at scrutineering. That apart, almost anything goes: the multi-class structure admits Nissan Micras at one end of the scale and Rolls-Royce Silver Shadows at the other, though some things – including Ford Mondeos and Toyota Previas – are barred on the grounds of inherent natural strength. The 2018 entry included an Austin Allegro and two Morris Marinas, though science is powerless to explain why you’d choose either for durability or handling…

Many people remain dismissive of short-oval competition, but in all its forms (banger racing included) it’s a good place to fine-tune one’s car control, peripheral awareness and reflexes.

Standlake calls itself the ‘home of motor sport in Oxfordshire’ – a claim the Williams and Renault F1 teams might validly contest, ditto Brookes University – but for £12 per head (including programme) and with at least 20 races (depending on the survival rate) it provides competitively cheap racing on both sides of the fence.

Welcome to the school of very hard knocks.

HOT TOPIC

A former AC Cobra owner is suing the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency over his car’s apparent loss of value, after it was deemed to be built in 2002 (using old and new parts) rather than in 1964 as originally stated on the logbook. But does he have a valid case?

Julian Seddon claims the change in status on the DVLA’s documents slashed the car’s value from £250,000 to £100,000. His barrister John Black said that his client ‘would not have purchased the vehicle’ had he known that its status as a historic vehicle was ‘liable to investigation’. He explained that the purchase of the Cobra was made in good faith, partly relying on the integrity of its V5C logbook.

The DVLA’s case is that it does not owe a duty of care to buyers, and that the car’s logbook cannot be taken as proof of its age and provenance. The DVLA refused to comment further.

Black also claimed that the DVLA ‘made a conscious decision’ to delay its investigation into the car’s history until after the vehicle had been sold to Seddon. Two months before Seddon purchased the Cobra, the DVLA already ‘had reason to suspect that the integrity was in doubt’, Black said.

Whatever the rights and wrongs, this is not be the first time that a row over the provenance and value of a classic car has ended in court. But this case is unusual in that it is against the DVLA rather than a former owner.

With the values of period road and racing cars heading into millions of pounds, the potential for dispute is growing. Little wonder, then, that prudent buyers go to strenuous lengths to prove a car’s history, sometimes using period drivers, designers and mechanics to verify the car.

The High Court will make a ruling on the case at a later date.

Period competition cars will feature prominently at two Grand Prix weekends this summer as Masters Historic Racing further strengthens its links with contemporary Formula 1.

Against a backdrop of changing race weekend schedules and a push to enhance the appeal of modern F1 events, Masters Historic Formula 1 cars will race at the British Grand Prix and the new Masters Endurance Legends series, for Le Mans prototype and GT cars built between 1995 and 2012, will appear at the revived French Grand Prix.

In recent seasons, European Grand Prix weekends have existed on a staple support race package of GP2/F2 and sometimes uninspiring GP3 and Porsche Supercup races. However, the Silverstone and Paul Ricard race weekends will now feature race action from spectacular bygone machinery, and the quality of the new support races is likely to gain favour with race fans.

Continental European F1 races are now slated to start at 3.10pm rather than 1pm, while the French race will start at 4.10pm to avoid live a TV clash with the Football World Cup. The later starts have come on the back of audience research, both live at the track and on TV, and have opened the door to an increased support race programme.

Historic Formula 1 cars will return to the British Grand Prix weekend at Silverstone ( July 6-8), marking the 70th anniversary of the circuit, and a grid of about 30 cars from 1966 through to 1985 is expected.

Masters Historic Racing founder Ron Maydon said: “The fact that we have been asked to organise a support race at the British Grand Prix certainly reflects the quality of the show we put on at Montréal, Austin and Mexico City last year.”

However, the big surprise was the announcement that the fledging Masters Endurance Legends series, pictured below, had earned a slot at the revived French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard ( June 22-24).

The series, which caters for cars as young as six years old, will have two races at Paul Ricard as the French Grand Prix returns after a 10-year absence. The Paul Ricard circuit has not hosted the race since 1990, when it was won by Alain Prost’s Ferrari 641/2.

“I’m proud that in its first year Masters Endurance Legends will be able to showcase its spectacular variety during the French Grand Prix weekend,” said Maydon. “The Paul Ricard circuit is perfect for these cars and I’m sure we will put on a good show for the crowd.”

WHIZZO WALTZES OFF

Barrie Williams, one of Britain’s best-loved racing drivers, has retired from competition after 60 years.

Once dubbed a ‘whizz kid’ by journalist Andrew Marriott, Williams gained the nickname of ‘Whizzo’ and has thrilled race fans with his sideways style ever since. He made his first start in a Morris Minor at Rufforth, on Easter Sunday 1960.

Williams, who will be 80 in November, is stepping down from racing but will remain involved in the sport through his roles with a number of clubs and organisations.

“I’ve had a bloody good time racing,” he said. “It’s all I’ve ever really done and I’ve got huge memories. But I’ve got to be sensible. I still want to put something back into the sport that has given me so much.”

Williams was renowned for his success in saloon and sports cars and only briefly dabbled with single-seaters in the mid-1960s. The death of Jim Clark in 1968 persuaded him to focus on sports and saloon cars and he raced a works Colt in the BSCC and won a series of one-make titles. In his earlier years he rallied extensively and won the 1964 Welsh Rally in his Mini Cooper – his first experience of forest rallying.

In 1986 Barrie made his debut in historic racing and over the last 25 years competed extensively in historics. He raced ERAs, Jaguar C-types, BRMs and much more and was a regular Goodwood Revival winner. His exuberant style, both on and off the track, won him many friends and he’s always had time for everyone, no matter what their position in the sport.

But now he has decided to call time. “I raced every year for nearly 60 years and it was a way of life,” he said, “but now it’s time to stop.”

LAT

ULSTER REUNION

Walter Röhrl, one of the most respected rally drivers of a generation, will celebrate a landmark performance in Irish rallying when he stars at the Titanic Déjà Vu Ulster Rally reunion on Saturday September 1.

The German star will return to the scene of his dominant win on the 1984 Ulster Rally for Déjà Vu Motorsport’s latest rally celebration, organised to raise charity funds.

Thirty-four years ago Röhrl and Christian Geistdörfer entered the Ulster Rally in their Group B Audi Quattro S4 and decimated the best of the domestic two-wheel-drive opposition, headed by the Opel Mantas of Russell Brookes and Jimmy McRae.

The Ulster event will be based in Belfast’s Titanic Quarter and will include a noncompetitive 150-mile run over classic Circuit of Ireland and Ulster Rally terrain.

Röhrl will head a cavalcade of historic rally cars over famous Antrim stages like Glen Dunn and the spectacular Torr Head coast road. He will be then joined by other rally stars at a gala dinner in Titanic Belfast on Saturday.

“I’m delighted that he has accepted an invitation to headline our event,” said Dr Beatty Crawford from Déjà Vu Motorsport. To date, the Déjà Vu programme has raised £70,000 for charity.

DHF’S FRESH LOOK

The 2018 Donington Historic Festival will feature 14 grids and up to 19 races over three days, taking in some of the UK’s leading historic categories. Races for the May 4-6 event range from the Mad Jack Trophy for Pre-War Sports Cars to the opening races of the season for the Super Touring Trophy. Racing will run throughout Saturday and Sunday after qualifying on Friday.

The 1000Kms race for Group 4 sports cars, which has run in the prime early Saturday evening slot in recent years, is not on the 2018 schedule and a new race will take centre stage as the sun sets on the second day of the festival.

For the first time the HSCC’s Derek Bell Trophy will feature and will bring out a grid of mainly Formula 5000 and Formula 2 single-seaters of the 1970s. The DBT pack will appear twice, with 25-minute races on Saturday and Sunday.

LE MANS CLASSIC

A star-studded entry has been revealed for the 2018 edition of the Le Mans Classic ( July 6-8), including Derek Bell and five other former Le Mans 24 Hours winners.

The Classic features six 50-car grids, which all race several times during a 24-hour period. In addition a Group C race, for the cars of the 1980s and early 1990s, will run as a curtain-raiser on Saturday morning.

Five-time winner Bell will be joined by three-time winners Klaus Ludwig, Henri Pescarolo and Marco Werner for the event, which features cars that contested the Le Mans 24 Hours between 1923 and 1981. Stéphane Ortelli and Jochen Mass will complete the gathering of former 24-hour winners at the biennial celebration.

Bell is provisionally scheduled to race a Porsche 917LH, in a rare racing appearance for the 917 long-tail evolution developed for the 1971 race. Now 76 years old, Bell will race at Le Mans more than 30 years after his final Porsche 962 victory in the 24 Hours and 48 years on from his debut in the race alongside Ronnie Peterson in a works Ferrari 512S. Bell contested the 24 Hours race 26 times in 27 years from 1970 to 1996.

Porsche is using the event to celebrate 70 years of the marque with a special Porscheonly race on Saturday afternoon, ahead of the main event. The promoters are targeting a grid of 70 cars spanning the early 356s to the 2.8 RSR from 1973, along with the short-wheelbase 911s from the new 2.0L Cup race series.

MATHIEU BONNEVIE

F5000 TO STAR AT MM

One of the biggest gatherings of Formula 5000s ever seen in the UK will feature at the 76th Members’ Meeting at Goodwood (March 17/18). As many as 30 of the thundering 5-litre monsters will take to the track for high-speed demonstration sessions to mark the 50th year of the category, which started in North America as Formula A.

Most F5000s have never run at Goodwood and cars are being shipped from the other side of the world to join the celebrations. From the UK will be the ex-Peter Gethin McLaren M10B and several cars from Frank Lyons, including a stunning Gurney Eagle FA74.

Meanwhile, two rare Begg Formula 5000s will be there as Scott and Lindsay O’Donnell are coming from Christchurch, New Zealand, with two of the seven cars built between 1968 and 1974.

“For me it completes a mission of restoring and racing this car over the last 15 years to celebrate the ‘Kiwi ingenuity’ of characters like George Begg,” said Lindsay.

LAT

The next few months are going to be crucial for F1’s future according to McLaren’s chief Zak Brown. Although the new era encompassing different technical regulations and commercial terms doesn’t begin until 2021, Brown believes that a map of what that future looks like needs to be in place some time this year.

“We have a chance to course-correct 2021 now,” he says, “but Liberty and the FIA need to move quickly to minimise the period of negotiations because they will be turbulent and the longer that goes on the more disruptive it becomes. If new engine manufacturers and teams are going to come in it takes a couple of years to gear up – and time is ticking. I’d like to see what 2021 is going to look like by the middle of this season. After that, it begins to get very hard technically… In terms of costs, [Liberty is] talking of a 150 million [euros] cap. We would be in excess of that cap at the moment, some others more so. But we have – as do the others – an automotive business, a technology business and other forms of racing. So if those decisions were made this year, it would give us all enough time to redeploy resources we have today that we won’t need in 2021.”

Brown is effectively challenging Liberty and the FIA to set out its stall early, to give Mercedes and Ferrari the choice of either agreeing – or leaving. Because it’s becoming increasingly clear that the Ferrari/Mercedes position is different to everyone else’s. Whether that’s a difference in fundamental beliefs or one of negotiating position isn’t clear.

There are three basic areas of discussion:

1) ENGINE REGULATIONS

The four current engine manufacturers are in broad agreement on future engine regulations – which is for a continuation of the current hybrid with ERS-h – but the would-be new manufacturers would not countenance coming in under that formula. The independent teams, by and large, favour the presence of at least one independent engine manufacturer – and therefore by default disagree with the continuation of ERS-h. Ferrari’s Sergio Marchionne has been vocal in dismissing the idea of abolishing this technology as ‘dumbing down’ and against Ferrari’s brand values. Mercedes is in broad agreement.

2) REVENUE DISTRIBUTION

Liberty is on record as saying it wishes to create a more even spread of F1 revenues between the teams, but hasn’t publicly stated the scope of the redistribution. Force India and Sauber have recently withdrawn their long-running joint complaint to the European Union about anti-competitive practices, whereby the big teams (but most notably Ferrari) receive disproportionately more than the rest. They withdrew it because of their belief in Liberty’s Chase Carey and his team. “Their approach has brought a new culture of transparency to the sport and illustrates willingness to debate fundamental issues such as the distribution of the prize fund monies, cost control and engine regulations,” read a joint statement from the two teams. Obviously, Liberty isn’t talking about giving its share of the money to the less favoured teams – that money has got to be surrendered by Ferrari, Merc, Red Bull. Not an easy sell…

3) COST REDUCTIONS

The FIA has recently engaged McLaren’s former boss Martin Whitmarsh to help it frame a post-2020 control upon costs, with Liberty having floated the idea of a future team cost cap of about 150 million euros per year.

WHAT’S BEST FOR F1?

“I CAN UNDERSTAND WHY FERRARI AND Mercedes want to protect their position,” says Brown, “but I think we need to ask: if Mercedes wins seven championships in a row, is that good for the sport? Is it healthy for anyone in the sport? On current spend and regs, they are odds-on favourites to win the next three years.”

The imbalanced payments – largely created when previous owner CVC needed the signatures of the top teams as it tried to float the sport on the stock market – are constantly expanding and reinforcing the advantages of the big teams over the small. But even that is being compounded by a highly complex cutting-edge engine that only one, maybe two, manufacturers have truly mastered even after four years. That unfortunate combination has frozen in place a static competitive order – and, if not radically changed at the 2021 opportunity, threatens to freeze things indefinitely. The two main beneficiaries of that competitive order, carrying enormous political weight, don’t want it radically changed.

Liberty’s Carey and Ross Brawn have been at pains not to conduct negotiations in public and have stated they will negotiate for as long as is required to get something that all parties can live with. But the concern that Brown outlines is that this very delay could be what ensures nothing will really change. “I think Liberty needs to focus on what’s best for the sport and what’s best for the fan. If that means a team/manufacturer not supporting that, then I think Liberty and the FIA need to be prepared to recognise you’re not going to make everyone happy. So they need to just centre on what’s best for the sport. If someone feels that’s to the detriment of their team and leaves, I’d rather that than have just two teams that can win.”

So, call the bluff of Ferrari and Mercedes? What if they do leave? “I think that’s highly unlikely but anything’s possible,” says Brown. “So we need to land on a set of rules that allows other teams to enter in the unlikely event of one or the other of the existing ones not continuing. Ferrari is a unique case but we’ve all seen manufacturers come and go in the sport. We have to write rules that are best for the sport, not what’s best for today’s manufacturers.”

So what does Brown hope 2021 F1 will look like? “F1 of all the major sports has the biggest revenue discrepancy from first to last. We’ve got to close that. Costs are totally out of control. We’re probably the only industry in the world, let alone sport, that hasn’t addressed costs in today’s age. I think that’s the highest priority. If people are making more money than others, I’m OK with that, so long as they are not able to spend it to increase this great gap in competitiveness. The engines are obviously complicated, and expensive, and there probably needs to be an independent manufacturer in there to give teams greater choice because the engine situation does get very political. The FIA announced a direction of more simplified engines. We support that. I’m not exactly sure of the FIA’s position on cost cap vs cost containment, but I think cost containment is very difficult and cost cap is the way to go. If you have the money you’ll figure out how to use it. Like the wind tunnel hours restriction. Teams just spent money instead on extracting more data from the more limited running. That’s a good example of how cost containment doesn’t really work.”

So McLaren, like most teams outside the Ferrari/Mercedes alliance but against the current engine suppliers, supports a simplified technical formula that would allow an independent engine supplier and make entry to F1 for new teams easier. This plus a radically tough cost cap of about half the budget of the top two teams. Sailing a smooth path through these troubled waters to 2021 is going to take some feat of diplomacy.

Brown: “It’s going to get pretty aggressive, I think. There’s going to be talk of breakaways. I hope not because a breakaway isn’t feasible, but I’m sort of resigned to the fact it’ll be used as a threat. But hopefully the conversations are more constructive in trying to get a solution and can be concluded quickly.”

HOT TOPIC

The Porsche Curves stand up there with the Esses and Tertre Rouge, the Mulsanne Straight, and the right and the left-hander at Indianapolis as an iconic sequences around the 8.47-mile Circuit de la Sarthe at Le Mans. Some are arguing that the completion of a round of safety upgrades at the four-corner section of permanent track created back in 1972 has robbed them of some of their challenge and much of their character.

The hemmed-in nature of the track, with unyielding walls on either side, helped give the Porsche Curves a flavour of their own. They were traditionally corners in which the best – and perhaps bravest – drivers excelled.

Critics of the changes argue that a bit of what makes Le Mans unique has been eroded. The track was opened up on the outside of the final right-hander for last year’s 24 Hours and the process has now been completed with the addition of new asphalt run-off on the inside for this year.

The character of the final right will inevitably change, but the powers that be at the Automobile Club de l’Ouest argue that improving the safety features around the existing layout was preferable to the alternative. That might have involved a wholesale rejig of the Porsche Curves or, perish the thought, the addition of a chicane.

They point out that the Porsche Curves have survived the latest safety improvements with their route intact. The corners themselves haven’t changed. We should be thankful for that.