At the start of the 2017/18 Formula E season, not many would have put in the money for Vergne as the winner of the Season 4 considering the form of reigning champion Audi’s Lucas di Grassi and former champion Renault’s Sebastien Buemi in the previous years.

The Frenchman actually did well towards the end of last season and was tipped to be a strong contender sure, but to win the whole thing, it wasn’t very certain especially since Techeetah is eventually a customer team to Renault.

However, here we are after 10 races with Vergne leading the championship as he heads into the season finale double-header in New York. He sits on top with 163 points, with the closest challenger and the only possible contender, Bird is on 140.

They are 23 points apart and there’s 58 points up for grabs in the two races which includes points for pole positions and fastest laps. Such has been the dominance of Vergne and Techeetah that it has blown away even the factory team as Buemi is fourth with 92 points.

Vergne and Bird are absolutely the deserving candidates as well. Both have had a consistent run all-through the season. For Bird, the car hasn’t been a given winner on all the circuits but his knack of taking podiums and points has earned him the second position.

The two along with Mahindra Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist were the only drivers to have any chance after the early part in the season. However, the Swede’s double DNF and patchy results meant he fell away – and now sits even behind di Grassi and Buemi.

At one point, Rosenqvist was leading the championship but he finds himself in fifth with 86 points and could lose the place to Audi’s Daniel Abt who is right behind him on 85. Anyways, that is not the battle to hinder the fight between Vergne and Bird.

The journey:

Bird started the season with a bang after taking a victory in the season-opener in Hong Kong where Vergne finished second. It was then Vergne who finished fourth in the second race of the weekend with the former just behind in fifth.

The British driver kept on the advantage with a podium in Morocco where Vergne was only fifth but a victory in Chile helped the Frenchman to gain the lost points where Bird was only 17th – and as things stand currently, the Santiago ePrix is one of the key differences between the two.

Bird still kept the pressure in the next three races though with three podiums which included a win in Rome, but Vergne’s double win in Uruguay and Paris along with a fifth place in Rome meant he was still the man to beat heading into the closing stages of the season.

It was a back and forth scenario in Germany and Switzerland with Vergne taking third in the former race with Bird in seventh, while the British driver took second in the latter when the Frenchman was only 10th – interestingly, Zurich was the first race in the season where Vernge finished anywhere below fifth.

Statistically, Vergne has more wins with three to his name and two podiums outside it, but Bird has made up slightly with four podiums apart from the two wins he has. Just on the basis of race results, the difference between the two would have been 11 points.

But it is Formula E, where points are awarded for pole positions and fastest laps as well, which is where Vergne has built a good advantage with four poles in the season, helping him to accumulate 11 extra points to Bird’s only one for the fastest lap.

Turning point:

While the victory in Santiago could be termed as the turning point for Vergne in the title battle, but it was the race in Mexico which actually made the difference. Bird entered Santiago with a seven points advantage over Vergne and left the race being 11 behind.

The race in Mexico damaged it even further where Bird scored nothing to Vergne’s 10, thereby making it a 20 points advantage. And Vergne continued on extending his run in the next three races even though Bird managed to finish on podium.

It shot up to 32 but Vergne’s troublesome outing in the last race in Zurich made the difference as Bird managed to trim it down to 23, taking out nine points from Vergne’s lead in the two races. However, the advantage still stays with Vergne.

Even though Bird made it a double in last year’s races in America but the layout has been altered this season which Bird thinks won’t play to their advantage as it will require more efficiency which has been lacking in their car this year.

Vergne wasn’t too bad either in New York last year as he finished second and eighth respectively. But it is still all to play for! For Bird this will be his first chance to take the Formula E title and deservedly though after finishing fifth, fourth and fourth respectively in the last three seasons.

There’s no doubt that Bird has been the most consistent driver outside di Grassi and Buemi in the Formula E series. Vergne with all the team changes he has had, has also been improving having finished seventh, ninth and fifth in the three previous seasons.

One thing is certain though that whoever wins at the end of Sunday, he will be a first-time Formula E champion – following on from Nelson Piquet Jr, Buemi and di Grassi.

Rest of the pack and the teams’ battle:

Behind the Top 2, it will be a close fight in the Top 5 as well. Now both di Grassi and Buemi didn’t have the best of the starts like Rosenqvist. The Swede had two wins in the first four races before he fell apart.

Even Buemi had some form behind in the early part, whereas di Grassi only had his first points of the season in Round 4 in Mexico. And since then, he has gathered five podiums including a victory – thereby shooting himself to third with 101 points.

His arch rival Buemi is behind him with 92 points, but he has no race wins to his name apart from the three podiums. Rosenqvist’s faltered form helped Abt to close in as one point separates the two – the latter scoring two wins as well.

All the four drivers will be eyeing to finish third in the standings. But interestingly, they also have the chance to even topple Bird from second position, at least mathematically. Sixth placed Jaguar Racing’s Mitch Evans with 60 points is long way off from this though.

Meanwhile, the Formula E teams’ championship also has Techeetah on top with 219 points and they are 33 ahead of Audi while 62 from DS Virgin and 103 from early table leaders Mahindra. There’s a good chance for the Chinese outfit to take both the titles.

L'entrada Can Bird stop Vergne from winning Formula E title in New York? ha aparegut primer a FormulaRapida.net.

Knowing that, and having Gasly in F1, the only thing they should do is restructure the younger drivers of the program. After leaving a disapointing Verschoor and Niko Kari, the Red Bull Junior Team remained only with Dan Ticktum who at the end of the season took the win on the prestigious F3 Macau GP, Neil Verhagen who also continues on the program and finally 4 drivers joined the team from karting: Jack Doohan, Dennis Hauger, Harry Thompson and Jonny Edgar.

But, what we must expect from this youngers in 2018? will someone of then arrive to F1? This and other questions hit my mind when I see REd Bull Junior drivers list. To be honest, I’m a bit confused about it. The first think i Though when I saw it when I saw the 2018 list was that Jack Doohan, son of the 500cc champion was that this guy was an image resource for the brand. Anyway, who knows, it’s a young guy, and he is doing a good job at the moment and he could progress in a good way. We must keep an eye on him.

All in all, it’s obvius that there have passed years from tou Young stars like Vettel, Sainz or Max Verstappen who was object of hard negociations from the 3 big teams from F1, so we mean Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull. Finally, the promising kid decided to go the the Milton Keynes based program because, thanks to Toro Rosso, they were the only one team that secured him a F1 seat in a short place period and that’s how Verstappen made his debut in F1 from European F3 and his teammate was a rising star like Carlos Sainz who took the championship of the Formula Renault 3.5 in 2014.

The big surprise from the Red Bull Junior Team is the addition of two drivers who will remain in karting. Without doubts that never happened before in a Young driver program. No one did it before until today and probably this will have a huge impact. We will have to keep an eye on this and see what this guys can do with Red Bull behind them and keep concentrated knowing they have someone like Helmut Marko looking at them carefully. Obviusly, they are title contender son their respective championship.

After that, it would be interesting what can do and what we must expect from drivers like Jack Doohan. Drivers that come from karting with good references – that’s why Red Bull wanted them – or Dennis Hauger. Both will race at the British F4 coming from karting were in 2017 Jamie Caroline won easily because of his great performance and, because of their rivals mistakes who made more easier the championship for the brit. But don’t be cheated. Formula 4 it’s not an easy championship and less in a country were rain could appear without any advice. They will have to show it’s truth performance.

It only remain to analise two of the proimises of Helmut Marko. First of all, the north american Neil Verhagen who made a good debut in Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup last year and he will repeat, this time with Tech 1 and, this time, they will have to improve his results. Something like being on the title fight, if he can improve we will made a huge step forward.

On the other hand there is the big star of the program. The british driver Dan Ticktum who made his GP3 debut with DAMS in 2017 from the Monza weekend, were he could made a points finish in a really atipic weekend were they the organisation had to cancel the main race. The brit finished the season there and this year we can see him on the European F3 with team Motopark to try to impress his bosses and everyone seeing it. The talent is there but… He will achieve his goals? The truth is that the competence will be hard in one of the most prestigious promotion championships. This will be a huge test for Ticktum, also as it was last year in GP3.

Anyway, and knowing that some drivers are promising, teams must made some places for them in F1. On the big team, Red Bull Racing, we have Max Verstappen who renewed his contract, so it’s dificult that the dutch can leave the team earlier. On the oher side we found Daniel Ricciardo who faces an important year because he is searching a contract the secures that he can fight for the championship`on the next years, in what he defined as the most importants years of his career. So, it’s not imposible that the aussie could leave the team and the end of the season.

In Toro Rosso there are more options. Brendon Hartley who comes from the resistance, joined the team at late 2017 to replace Carlos Sainz. It’s an experimented driver that probably will not be too longo n the italian team. Pierre Gasly is the younger of the team, who replaced a frustrated Daniil Kvyat. His future will dependo f what happens with Ricciardo and… Carlos Sainz! The spaniard it’s linked already with Red Bull despite he will spend one year with Renault, because he is in a cession, so Helmut Marko will have the last Word on the spaniard.

And That’s the plannig of the Red Bull Junior team for this 2018. We wil have to keep an eye on multiple championships. Do you trhink that their drivers will suceed?

L'entrada The Red Bull Junior Team long term planning ha aparegut primer a FormulaRapida.net.

Formula E has caught the attention of the media recently due to the presentation of the new car, which will be used to race from season five. However, this Saturday, the 3rd of February, there is an ePrix to be held, and the action comes back to the tracks. We are living a thrilling season beginning a new race on the schedule, like the upcoming Santiago ePrix, is always a bit more interesting.

The track

The Santiago Street Circuit, which was especifically designed for this event, is a 2.46 km track consisting of 12 corners.

“Stretching 1.53miles through the city centre, drivers will line up on the grid along Avenue Santa Maria before crossing the river Mapocho. Once across, they’ll navigate their way around Plazza Baquedano before cutting through Forestal Park to return to the start/finish line.” – Track description at FIA Formula E official website.

Except there is any last minute unscheduled change, every team will line-up the same pair of drivers they did in Marrakech, which means that there will be no new faces on the grid this Saturday.

With three races already contested, some conclussions can already be extracted and some drivers have clearly stood out. Drivers such as Felix Rosenqvist, who has won the last two races and is currently leading the championship, Sam Bird or Jean-Éric Vergne will be some of the favorite drivers to win, but not the only ones. After a disastrous weekend in Hong Kong, everything seemed to come back to normality in Marrakech for Sébastien Buemi, who fought for the win in the last race but will have to push like he has ever done to recover the points he lost in Hong Kong. Rosenqvist‘s team mate, Nick Heidfeld; or the Jaguar cars, whose improvement since last season is clearly visible; should not be ignored.

This same thing can not be said about the other e.Dams driver, Nico Prost, who had a worse race in Marrakech than in Hong Kong and finished outside the points. Something similar happened to the Venturis, which looked promising in Hong Kong but struggled with reliability in Marrakech and were also unable to score points.

But the biggest negative surprise of this season so far is the Audi Sport ABT season. After a Hong Kong ePrix with more downs than ups, the suffered a lot in Morocco. Daniel Abt completed a poor race with a tenth place and Lucas Di Grassi retired again due to mechanical issues. The current champion is still yet to score a point and seems already that he will not be able to regain his title.

Schedule

L'entrada Formula E Santiago preview: The series lands in Chile for the first time ha aparegut primer a FormulaRapida.net.

 The second Marrakech e Prix ever will be held this weekend. The African round, the only one held there in the series’ short history, will be raced at the Circuit International Automobile Moulay El Hassan. The facility, a street circuit created in 2009, is the longest course on the calendar, with 3 kilometres of length.

On its inaugular edition, the Moroccan track saw Felix Rosenqvist, a rookie at that time, clinching his maiden Pole Position, which eventually became his first podium finished as he crossed the line third, behind Sam Bird. The winner was Sébastien Buemi, who scored his second win in a row and it looked like he was gonna win always in a dominant way, something that didn’t get to happen as the season went on.

With only two races completed so far, the expectations and possibilities for Season 3 championship contenders seem to much lower. Renault eDams doesn’t have that mechanical superiority anymore and, after several problems, could get no more than a point in Hong Kong. His team mate, Nico Prost, didn’t struggle with reliability like Buemi, but only managed to get mid-pack results.

On the other hand, reigning champion Lucas Di Grassi can’t say he has a bad car, since his team mate Daniel Abt did in Hong Kong one of the best race weekends of his entire career on the series, despite being disqualified on Sunday. The Brazilian driver, however, had two races to forget on which he struggled a lot and didn’t manage to score a single point.

A completely opposite view may have the drivers that finished season 3 behind the two leaders. Sam Bird, Jean-Éric Vergne and Felix Rosenqvist are respectively on the top 3 positions of the standings and were the strongest during the entire weekend, winning the Brit on Saturday and the Swedish on Sunday. They’ve shown their talent and it seems that they finally have cars that allow them to fight for bigger things, so they’re probably the drivers that most likely will fight for the win in Marrakech.

However, it’s crucial not to forget about drivers that have been on top against the odds. The most remarkable one was, undoubtedly, Edoardo Mortara, who did well on Saturday but shined on Sunday before a silly mistake made him lost the win and had to settle with second place. Nevertheless, he managed to score his first podium, the first for Venturi since Long Beach in season 2. Another surprising driver was Mitch Evans, who was able to give Jaguar its first podium on the series following Abt’s disqualification on Sunday.

But this doesn’t apply to every rookie, Alex Lynn performed well, but way behind his team mate. Actually, who had a really disappointing debut was André Lotterer. The German driver caused the pile-up that brought out the red flag at lap 1 on Saturday and didn’t’ manage to find pace through the whole ePrix.

As for the other two drivers that made his debut in Hong Kong, Neel Jani and Kamui Kobayashi, none of them will be on the grid in Morocco. The Swiss driver has devided to leave the unpromising Dragon Racing project (car is nowadays underperforming and unreliable) to focus on his WEC carrer; and the Japanese will leave his seat to Tom Blomqvist, as it was planned. José María Lopez will come back to the series to replace Jani in Dragon and Blomqvist, who will debut this weekend, will be the official Andretti Autosport driver for the rest of the season.

To sum up, the season has barely begun and the Hong Kong are still not enough to get solid conclusions. There have, however, several drivers that have been stronger than the rest and seem to be the ones that will be on the fight to keep fighting for the wins and, eventually, become the title contenders, but, given how unpredictable this championship is, it’s impossible to make an unarguable prediction.

EPrix schedule (all times local):

L'entrada Formula E Marrakech preview: Looking for consolidation ha aparegut primer a FormulaRapida.net.

Teams and drivers:

The 2017-18 FIA Formula E season grid will have this look:

Renault e.dams: Nico Prost (#8) and Sébastien Buemi (#9)

The winner of all three Formula E Teams’ Championship held until today will line-up the same drivers that have driven for them since the series were born back in 2014. Season 2 champion and seasons 1 and 3 runner-up Sébastien Buemi will be, again, one of the main contenders to win his second title. Nicolas Prost will partner the Swiss and will try to improve to fight for podiums and wins in a more constant way that he did last season. The team is also the favourite to take another Teams’ Championship in what will be its last season before Nissan takes its place next year.

Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler: Lucas Di Grassi (#1) and Daniel Abt (#66)

The only team other than Renault e.dams which has always had the same drivers on its cars. The Brazilian driver Lucas Di Grassi will start as Drivers’ Championship title defender and will fight for his second crown next to Daniel Abt, who is yet to win his first race on the series and will have to improve his performance on the team.

Mahindra Racing: Felix Rosenqvist (#19) and Nick Heidfeld (#23)

After winning its first race and having its best performance in season 3, Mahindra Racing will try to repeat or improve this accolade having the same drivers on the team. Felix Rosenqvist, third and rookie of the year last season with one win in Berlin, could be one of the chosen ones to join Di Grassi and Buemi on the fight for the title. The veteran driver Nick Heidfeld will be next to him. He is also expected to fight for bigger things than on the last three seasons.

DS Virgin Racing: Sam Bird (#2) and Alex Lynn (#36)

The British team, powered by Citroen, will start its fourth season with Sam Bird, who has never failed to deliver at least one win per season to the team, as its strongest driver and a title contender. On the other side of the box, Alex Lynn, who already raced for the team in the New York ePrix last season, will make his full-time debut for the team after taking over Jose Maria Lopez’s place.

Techeetah: André Lotterer (#18) and Jean-Éric Vergne (#25)

The team that appeared on season 3 after Aguri’s withdrawal will use again this season the Renault powertrain that helped it to be competitive on season 3 despite the lack of experience on the series. As for the drivers, Jean-Éric Vergne, who drove successfully for the team in 2016-17 and led it to its first win in Montreal, will stay in the team next to André Lotterer. The iconic WEC driver is one of the two that, with Porsche leaving the Endurance Championship, has decided to continue with his career in Formula E.

NIO Formula E Team: Oliver Turvey (#16) and Luca Filippi (#68)

The team that won the Drivers’ Championship in season 1 with Nelson Piquet Jr. sees how the Brazilian driver leaves the team after two difficult seasons. Now, the re-named team (formerly known as NextEV NIO) will line-up Oliver Turvey for the third consecutive season and rookie driver Luca Filippi, whose last single-seater race the Indy Toronto of 2016, which was part of the 2016 IndyCar season on which he drove part-time with Dale Coyne Racing.

MS&AD Andretti Formula E: Kamui Kobayashi* (#27) and Antonio Felix Da Costa (#28)

Andretti Autosport’s Formula E section will also change one of its drivers after a difficult season 3, on which its car has been really off the pace. Antonio Felix Da Costa will stay on the team for the second consecutive year. Kamui Kobayashi is to make his Formula E debut this weekend in Hong Kong. He is, however, not expected to run the entire season as Tom Blomqvist was part of the full-time drivers list that the FIA released. With these changes, which is sure is that Robin Frijns won’t race at the series this season.

Dragon Racing: Neel Jani (#6) and Jerome D’Ambrosio (#7)

The American team had its worst performance on season 3 and struggled a lot to score points. This season, they will try to change this and return to the top spots. In order to achieve it, the driver that has raced for the team since its creation and has taken its two race wins, Jerome D’Ambrosio, will stay for a fourth season and a rookie, the other driver coming to Formula E after the departure of Porsche from the WEC, Neel Jani, will be his team mate.

Venturi Formula E Team: Edoardo Mortara (#4) and Maro Engel (#5)

The Monegasque manufacturer is another one of those teams whose performance has become worse through seasons. To change this trend, they will continue with Maro Engel, the only driver that drove full-time for them in season 3, and will put a rookie next to him. This rookie driver is Edoardo Mortara, who joins the series following the departure of Mercedes-Bemz from DTM, where he raced this season.

Panasonic Jaguar Racing: Nelson Piquet Jr. (#3) and Mitch Evans (#20)

Jaguar made its Formula E debut last season and, despite the good results took time to arrive, the improvement through the season was clear and they’re now set to continue this progression. Out of the two drivers that were part of the team in season 3, the one who had the best results, Mitch Evans, will stay for the team. On the other hand, Adam Carroll will be replaced by season 1 championship Nelson Piquet Jr., the only driver that changes team for this season.

Schedule:

Season 4 race calendar will consist of 14 races at 11 different venues. The season will start the 2^nd of December of 2017 in Hong Kong and will finish the 29^th of July of 2018 in Montreal.

This will be the complete calendar:

*: Double-header events.

The major changes on the calendar are the discontinuity of the Buenos Aires and Monaco races. There will be new races in Santiago de Chile, Sao Paulo, Rome and Zurich. The Hong Kong race becomes now a double-header and the Berlin race does the opposite change, going from two races to one. The Montreal circuit could change the track.

Rule changes:

Despite the major changes will be seen in season 5, on which the batteries will last an entire race and there will be a brand new chassis, there are also some minor changes to be implemented in 2017-18.

Basically, the maximum power that the cars will be allowed to use during a race will change from 170 kW to 180 kW. Also, the point that a driver is given if he sets the fastest lap of the race will be only given if this driver ends the race on the Top 10.

These are, basically, the main changes of the new season of Formula E. With that, we can only wait until the lights go off in Hong Kong to see who are the drivers that will fight for the fourth FIA Formula E championship.

L'entrada Preview: Formula E Season 4: New drivers, new tracks and the end of the first era ha aparegut primer a FormulaRapida.net.

IndyCar Series has often been a championship in which titles are decided in the last round. The equality between teams, as well as the double scoring in the last race have been essential to keep the fight for the crown alive until the last moment. This year is no exception and there are six drivers that have mathematical options.

Josef Newgarden: 1^st – 560 points

Newgarden has been a solid driver since the year started but, in the second half of the season he’s been the strongest on the entire field. The driver has performed well on his debut in Team Penske and he can win the championship on his first year driving for The Captain.

He started the season in a quite decent way, and it only took him three rounds to win his first race for the team but, a bad month of May and poor performance on ovals left him away from his more constant drivers.

However, this changed dramatically in Toronto, where he took his second win of the season and started a superb four-race streak (three wins and a second place), including a magnificent win in Gateway beating one of his team mates. This put him in a great position to take the title but, an unlucky Pit exit in Watkins Glen has complicated a bit his options.

Despite that, Newgarden is still the leader and depends on himself to take his first crown. He just needs to be ahead of his rivals, specially Dixon and Castroneves, to become champion, and he could even lose a few place to his furthest rivals and still winning it. His previous results at Sonoma, however, haven’t been the best, with tho sixth places in five participations as his best result.

Scott Dixon: 2^nd – 557 points

If Dixon‘s season this year had to be summed up in one word, this would be constancy. Despite having won only once, he has got seven podium finishes and has been in the Top 10 at every single round but the Indy 500, where he took the Pole Positsion but was unluckily involved on a frghtening incident with Jay Howard.

With those results, he’s in a good position to claim his fifth IndyCar Championship as he also depends on himself. If he wins, he will be champion no matter what his rivals do. The kiwi is also known for having a cold temper and managing important situations without making mistakes.

If he wins, it wouldn’t be his first time claiming the title in Sonoma without arriving there on top. He did it in 2015, on a race that he won avoiding getting involved on trouble and gained the title to Juan Pablo Montoya on the tie-break. Apart from this one, he was two more wins and has four podiums a this track.

Hélio Castroneves: 3^rd – 538 points

Castroneves is another driver whose options are alive thanks to the lack of mistakes. His season has been very similar to Dixon‘s one, with only one win, three podiums, and every race but one in the Top 10. He’s also the last contender that depends on himself to get his crown. He needs to win and get the bonus points for leading the most laps and he’ll win the champion no matter what Newgarden does.

The Brazilian driver, however, has never managed well when he had to fight for the title on the last race, as he has arrived to the finale with chances of win the championship and has never achieved it (in some of these ocassions, his chances were actually minimum). This track isn’t also one of his best ones, since he has only won there once and his last podium was in 2011.

But there’s a different feeling this year. Meeting Victory Lane in Iowa for the first time in more than three years, and with an outstanding Indy 500 that left him very close to his fourth win at the Brickyard; it feels like something could be different this week-end, and the 42-year driver could get his crown after so many frustated attempts in what could also be his last season drving full-time in IndyCar Series.

4^th: Simon Pagenaud – 526 points

The reigning champion, despite not having performed as good as last year, can still win back to back titles. With four podiums and one win, his first one in an oval course, his season has also been very constant, but a little bit weaker than Castroneves‘ and Dixon‘s one. His weakest moment was the Indy 500 and the first race in Detroit.

With these results, he will need to push a little bit harder and expects his rivals not to be on top. If he gets all possible points (104), which he did last year in an easier situation to win his first title, he’ll need both Newgarden and Dixon to finish 3^rd or worst to claim his second one. As he shown last year and in his times in SPM, he’s able to do well in Sonoma, but he needs even more than a perfect week-end to have the number 1 on his car in 2018.

5^th: Will Power – 492 points

Power‘s season has been marked by lots of ups and downs. He has won three races, has been strong on ovals and has shown again that he’s the best qualifier on the grid with six Pole Positions.

However, his bad results, some of them caused by his own mistakes (Long Beach, Gateway) and others due to external circumstances (St. Pete, Indy 500); have left him as the worst of Penske drivers and his chances to get his second title are actually low. If he gets all the points, he needs Newgarden to finish 13^th or worst, Dixon 12^th or worst, Castroneves 6^th or worst and Pagenaud 3^rd or worst.

Knowing that, the Australian can only push to win the race without trouble and hope that there is a messed-up race behind him that puts his rivals on trouble, a very difficult task knowing that there are four drivers in front of him.

6^th: Alexander Rossi – 476 points

If it’s going to be difficult for Power to be crowned champion, it’s almost impossible for Rossi to do it. With one win and three podiums, his second season in the Series has been really good, and arriving to the last race with mathematical options is already a great achievement.

Rossi‘s chances are, basically, winning the race and that the 5 drivers ahead of him have problems and finish on the last positions, which is probably an unreachable dream. However, he’s been strong on road courses this season and can try to do his best and hope that luck is on his side.

But this race it’s not only about the title fight, Indy Lights driver Zachary Claman De Melo is set to make his Series debut with RLL. On the other hand, with the Silly Season still going and many places to confirm, it could be the last race (or, at least, the last one drving full-time) for Tony Kanaan, Castroneves and JR Hildebrand. All of this is set to happen on what should be an epic finale, on Sunday 17^th at 3:30 PM local time.

L'entrada Preview: IndyCar Finale: Six contenders and just one trophy ha aparegut primer a FormulaRapida.net.

Today’s main concern in MotoGP paddock before go out on track tomorrow was the new track layout and Michelin asymmetric tyres. How to deal with both factors will be key to be success at Barcelona-Catalunya circuit.

Who was successful last weekend at Mugello is Andrea Dovizioso, who took his third victory in premier-class, his first on dry conditions. The Italian prior to the race was ill, but he managed to win with a dominant gap and in front of his fans as well. Ducati rider recently reported that wining in Mugello is an inflexion point in his career, and he want to repeat that in Barcelona despite all concerns.

But after Italian domination, now is time for Catalan to be up in front. Six Catalan’s (Maverick Viñales, Dani Pedrosa, Aleix Espargaró, Pol Espargaró, “Tito” Rabat and Marc Márquez) will try to win his home grand prix, in front of a 100.000 of spectators.

For Pedrosa, this is not only special because he is racing only 15 km away from his town, it is even more special because he will become the Spanish rider who most grand prix starts did, moving ahead of Angel Nieto with 65 career starts. Honda rider needs a victory if he wants to continue in the championship run, but like his team Márquez -whom is equal in points at rider’s standings, knows that Honda only won four times here since the premiere-class is call MotoGP.

Who is always a one to watch here and one of the favorites is Valentino Rossi. The Italian have 10 career wins in Catalunya, but this time will be harder to fight for the win because he is not at his 100% already.

But in fact, the weekend approach is uncertain, qualifying here is not that much important. The last driver who won from pole position was Rossi back in 2006. This fact is not cool for the best qualifier this season so far, Maverick Viñales. Yamaha rider wants to join the podium here after his 4^th position riding a Suzuki last year. For sure the he is one of the favorites for this weekend.

L'entrada MotoGP Preview: It’s time for the already classic circuit de Catalunya ha aparegut primer a FormulaRapida.net.

Since 2012 and Romain Grosjean, no GP2 Series champion has managed to go straight away to F1 despite the untold promise made by the creation of GP2 as the last stage before F1. GP2 drivers suffered from the reputation of unconscious drivers as showed by Grosjean himself or Pastor Maldonado. This common idea led to a shift in the source of F1 rookies to Formula Renault 3.5 like Daniel Ricciardo or Kevin Magnussen.

Then, Red Bull changed the game first with Daniil Kvyat in 2014 and then, more radically, with Max Verstappen in 2015 by going straight to F1 without going to one of the two main junior series. Despite the death of the Formula Renault 3.5 championship, GP2 Series kept going into its crisis with no F1 driver in 2017 directly promoted from the 2016 GP2 season (that was before the Giovinazzi/Wehrlein gate).

By rebranding the series to FIA Formula 2, the FIA wants to set a new dynamic for the road to F1 from national F4 series. This logical route tends to kills the satellites championship -such as GP3– and could be the best way to avoid jumps from F3 to F1.

Teams and Drivers:

Ten teams are committed into the series for this 2017 season with two drivers each.

Prema Racing: Charles Leclerc (1) & Antonio Fuoco (2)

Prema Racing was last year’s big surprise in their maiden year as they claimed the driver, the team and the rookie title with a 1-2 in the championship. For this season, Prema starts with an unseen status of favourite in F2 with two rookies: Charles Leclerc, reigning GP3 champion, and Antonio Fuoco, third of that same championship. The challenge is double for the drivers who have to prove Ferrari that they are ready to get to F1 next year.

Racing Engineering: Louis Delétraz (3) & Gustav Malja (4)

For a few years now, Racing Engineering appears as the constant outsider which manages to beat historic teams in GP2. This season, the Spanish team decided to trust the reigning runner-up of the Formula V8 3.5 championship Louis Delétraz, and Gustav Malja who claimed several podiums last year with Rapax. If the drivers’ championship seems complicated to claim, Racing Engineering could be the perfect referee again for the championship.

Russian Time: Luca Ghiotto (5) & Artem Markelov (6)

Russian Time has been growing stronger since their internal restructuration in 2014. Today, the team is the third force in the championship and does not hide it’s team’s championship ambitions like in 2013 with Sam Bird and Tom Dillmann. Artem Markelov, as strong team member, reached a new learning curve last year when he claimed his first win and Luca Ghiotto, runner-up of the 2015 GP3 championship, wants to prove his true speed in a faster car than the one he had last year.

ART Grand Prix: Nobuharu Matushita (7) and Alexander Albon (8)

Despite a strong domination in GP3, the 2016 GP2 season did not go as planned for the French team which had the reigning team and driver titles. The repeated mistakes of Nobuharu Matsushita and Sergey Sirotkin overshadowed a promising season as proved by the third place in the drivers’ championship of Sergey Sirotkin. ART GP will try to bounce back with Matsushita in for a third year and Alex Albon, the revelation of the GP3 championship as he finished runner-up with the French team.
DAMS: Oliver Rowland (9) & Nicholas Latifi (10)

Just like ART GP, DAMS went through a difficult season last year despite three victories for Alex Lynn. The French team had to settle for a fifth place in the team championship partly due to the lack of performance of Nicholas Latifi who got a second chance for this year. Oliver Rowland, the last Formula Renault 3.5 champion, leaves MP Motorsport on a good dynamic which might help him to race for the win this season.

Campos Racing: Ralph Boschung (11) & Stefano Coletti* (12)

With only one victory last year, Campos also suffered from the good dynamics coming from the other teams. Furthermore, after Jagonya Ayam’s departure, Campos find itself in a difficult situation with only one driver confirmed for the 2017 season in the name of Ralph Boschung, GP3 race winner. For the first event of the season, the Monegasque driver Stefano Coletti returns to GP2/F2 after two years away.

MP Motorsport: Sérgio Sette Câmara (14) & Jordan King (15)

The Dutch team had its best season to date last year thanks to the duo Rowland/De Jong. This year, MP Motorsport will intend to keep this momentum with the former member of the Red Bull Junior Team and F3 Masters winner Sergio Sette Câmara and Jordan King who leaves Racing Engineering for his third year in the series.

Trident: Nabil Jeffri (16) & Sergio Canamasas* (17)

Last year, Luca Ghiotto was the only driver who brought back solid points with the cruel lack of performance of his teammate Philo Paz Armand. Today, the Malaysian Nabil Jeffri is the only driver confirmed for the whole season while Sergio Canamasas, despite having done the full programme of winter testing and taking part into the first race of the season, has not been confirmed for the whole season.

Rapax: Nyck de Vries (18) and Johnny Cecotto (19)

After a good 2015 campaigned with Sergey Sirotkin, Rapax had a much more complicated 2016 season with Gustav Malja and Arthur Pic. However, winter testing proved that Nyck De Vries had a good pace on the car and should be able to fight in the top with his teammate, veteran Johnny Cecotto who starts his 9^th season in GP2/F2.

Pertamina Arden: Norman Nato (20) & Sean Gelael (21)

For this year, Arden will benefit from the financial support of Jagonya Ayam brought by Sean Gelael in order to climb up into the hierarchy. Frenchman Norman Nato returns to his first GP2 team to continue after his good season with Racing Engineering.

Calendar:

The 2017 calendar has four changes compared to the 2016 calendar: the Sepang week-end has been cancelled due to financial reasons and will be replaced by Bahrain which returns to the calendar. With the cancellation of the German Grand Prix, F2 will have its stand-alone event in Jerez in October alongside GP3.

L'entrada FIA F2 : The last stage before F1 ha aparegut primer a FormulaRapida.net.

While the 2016 mercato had been rather quiet, Nico Rosberg’s retirement sounded like a bomb and completely reshuffled the 2017 grid. If you compare the grid for the 201­6 Australian Grand Prix and the 2017 one, only Ferrari have not changed their line-up.

Five drivers from last year are not returning this year. Apart from Rio Haryanto who left after the German Grand Prix, Nico Rosberg decided to retire from F1 racing and so did Jenson Button – although he is staying at McLaren as reserve and development driver. With Manor’s withdrawal, Esteban Gutiérrez and Felipe Nasr found themselves seatless after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The Mexican is now committed into the Formula E championship but Felipe Nasr remains seatless as we speak. Retired in the first place, Felipe Massa has been called back to replace Valtteri Bottas who left Williams for Mercedes. It is the first year since 1994 that the reigning champion does not take part in the championship – Alain Prost had left Williams after his title in 1993.

When it comes to pure team changes, Nico Hülkenberg left Force India for Renault, Esteban Ocon took his place from Manor and Kevin Magnussen joined Haas F1 Team. Pascal Wehrlein also left Manor for Sauber. Stoffel Vandoorne, after racing one race last year, starts his first full season in F1 and Lance Stroll, the reigning FIA F3 champion, is the only real rookie of the season.

With Jenson Button’s retirement, Fernando Alonso becomes the most experienced driver on the grid with 273 Grand Prix ahead of Kimi Räikkönen and Felipe Masa. Max Verstappen is no longer the youngest driver on the grid as Lance Stroll was born on October 28^th 1998 and is one year younger than the Dutchman. Sebastian Vettel remains the most titled driver with 4 championships, ahead of Lewis Hamilton (3), Fernando Alonso (2) and Kimi Räikkönen (1).

Teams and Drivers

Mercedes: Lewis Hamilton (44) and Valtteri Bottas (77)

Dominant since 2014, the German team has not shown any sign of weakness since pre-season testing despite Rosberg’s surprise announcement. Valtteri Bottas proved himself very fast by beating the track record in Barcelona in the first week. The Mercedes engine also proved great reliability with the record of mileage accomplished during winter testing. Mercedes should shine once again in Australia although Ferrari might be able to challenge them.

Red Bull: Daniel Ricciardo (3) and Max Verstappen (33) – Reserve: Pierre Gasly

As always, no one can really judge Red Bull Racing’s performances just from pre-season testing. Furthermore, the RB13 looks way to quiet to have been thought by Adrian Newey. Max Verstappen even said he was waiting for the European season to judge about their real pace although Daniel Ricciardo admits they will be less than 0.5s off-pace in Melbourne. Red Bull will have high-class targets to show their pace, especially Verstappen who is starting his first complete season in a front-running team.

Ferrari: Sebastian Vettel (5) and Kimi Räikkönen (7) – Reserve: Antonio Giovinazzi

Since 2010, Ferrari has never found itself able to claim the team championship but this year might be the year of change. The team proved a very competitive pace during winter testing in Barcelona. Both Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen managed to get to the top step. If the car seems very quick in qualifying simulations, we are yet to see its race pace among other cars. Since his comeback in 2014, Räikkönen has got more and more confident despite the rumours about his retirement since 2015 and 2017 could be the year he would overcome his teammate.

Force India: Sergio Pérez (11) and Esteban Ocon (31) – Reserve: Alfonso Celis Jr

The big new thing about Force India this season is the livery. Say goodbye to the colours of the Indian flag and hello to pink, the colour of BWT, their new main sponsor. Esteban Ocon is also the new thing replacing Nico Hülkenberg alongside Sergio Pérez. The main goal for the team this year is to keep Williams behind them in the championship and keep their growing momentum.

Williams: Felipe Massa (19) and Lance Stroll (18) – Reserve : Paul Di Resta

Williams went through an odd winter with Valtteri Bottas’ departure and Felipe Massa’s come-back from retirement. Pre-season testing showed a rather reliable Williams with Lance Stroll roughly learning about F1 but having a great determination to do well. Williams will really want to take back their second place in the Mercedes-engined-cars championship, as they are now third and last in this category.

McLaren: Fernando Alonso (14) and Stoffel Vandoorne (2) – Reserve: Jenson Button

After a promising 2016 season, Mclaren seemed to have found the good recipe for good results. Yet, the changes of regulations regarding the engines did not help Honda. Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne saw their hopes being crushed out during winter testing with no less than five power-units used in eight days of running. This year looks like a back to zero for McLaren Honda in the same situation than in 2015.

Toro Rosso: Carlos Sainz Jr (55) and Daniil Kvyat (26) – Reserve: Pierre Gasly

2016 was a difficult year for Toro Rosso with a driver change in the middle of the year and a frozen Ferrari engine from 2015. Yet, Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz managed to get the best from the chassis of the car. Daniil Kvyat suffered more but gathered himself in the end of the season. Today, Toro Rosso carries new colours and a new Renault engine. The unknown remains the drivers’ future as they both enter in their third year with the learning team and with Pierre Gasly waiting for his F1 seat in Japan in SuperFormula.

Haas: Romain Grosjean (8) and Kevin Magnussen (20)

Kevin Magnussen replaces Esteban Gutiérrez for the second year in F1 of the American team. The good Ferrari engine seems to fit the car and the reliability was there in Barcelona. However, Haas’ demons about brakes do not seem to have vanished during the winter especially for Romain Grosjean although Kevin Magnussen suffered less for this problem.

Renault: Nico Hülkenberg (27) and Jolyon Palmer (30) – Reserve: Sergey Sirotkin

After a difficult year of transition from the Lotus–Mercedes, Renault really starts its F1 come back this season with the RS17. The arrival of a top driver like Nico Hülkenberg allows Renault to hope for a come-back in the teams’ top 5 despite internal issues like Frédéric Vasseur’s departure.

Sauber: Marcus Ericsson (9) and Pascal Wehrlein (94) – Reserve: Antonio Giovinazzi

Last year, Sauber got the tenth place in the championship thanks to Felipe Nasr’s two points in the Brazilian Grand Prix. Yet, Sauber decided not to renew the Brazilian and preferred Marcus Ericsson whose main sponsor bought out the team. Pascal Wehrlein will have to spend another year with a difficult car to prove his talent to Mercedes against Esteban Ocon. Sauber will also have to deal with a frozen engine from Ferrari from 2016.

Technical regulations:

One of the main attractions of this year comes from the regulation changes, offering us visually more aggressive cars on track thanks to the lower and wider wings and the biggest tyres. Pirelli will keep using the same system with five compounds over the year and three per week-end.

About aero, some drivers are worried about the difficulties to overtake with wider cars and more downforce on the brakes. Felipe Massa also warned about the little degradation of the tyres which could provide us many one-stop races.

The tokens system for engine upgrades has been given up to let the four manufacturers free to add as many changes as they want, as long as they remain within the limits of the regulations. Finally, the introduction of the Halo system for cockpit protection has been postponed to -at least- another year. Other systems like Aeroscreen are still being developed.

The 2017 calendar:

The 2017 calendar consists of twenty races from Melbourne (Australia) in March to Abu Dhabi (UAE) in November. The main change in the calendar comes from the drop of the German Grand Prix in Hockenheim. This dropping-off implies a less dense summer for the teams who went through four races within five weeks last year. The European Grand Prix in Baku has been rebranded as the Grand Prix of Azerbaijan and does not clash anymore with the 24 hours of Le Mans.

L'entrada Preview F1 : Who to claim Nico Rosberg’s title? ha aparegut primer a FormulaRapida.net.

By the way we have a lot of strong drivers that are promising memorable battles. The main candidate are Maximilian Guenther (runner up in 2016!), but Joel Eriksson, Calum Ilott and Lando Norris are the worst nightmare for the Mercedes AMG DTM reserve driver.

Also two talented but very young drivers David Beckmann and Guanyu Zhou now have the machinery to fight for wins, and who knows if they finally will be battling for the championship. Beckmann, for the first time in his carrer will start to competing the championship since the first weekend, he was too young to start the ADAC F4 in 2015 and FIA F3 last year since the first race. So now the RedBull -backed german will finally start without lack of mileage and this year will be Determining for its future and his aspirations for Formula 1.

And also the Hitech drivers Jake Hughes and Ralf Aron have the talent to demostrate that Hitech GP (with ART GP structure) is a top team. Won’t be easy for Mick Schumacher this season but he aims to be the best rookie driver, he main opponent will be Lando Norris -recently announced as McLaren Junior Driver-, who aims to fight for the championship

The championship will start in April 16th in Silverstone, the same date as WEC Silverstone 6 Hs, and will be ending as support series of the DTM in October 16th in Hockenheim.

L'entrada Only 18 drivers confirmed for the 2017 FIA F3 season ha aparegut primer a FormulaRapida.net.

Two street-circuits (St. Pete and Toronto), five road courses (Barber, Indianapolis, Road America, Mid-Ohio and Watkins Glen) and three ovals (Indianapolis, Iowa and Gateway) will host the Indy Lights contestants this 2017 in order to get ready on their way to race in IndyCar or to become a professional racing drivers.

Once again the field has a high level class, despite it’s not the same as last year, the main Mazda Road to Indy series can be happy with the new drivers that will debut in the series such as Colton Herta, Nico Jamin, Aaron Telitz and Matheus Leist, and with the high-level drivers that continue in the series, such as Santiago Urrutia, Kyle Kaiser, Zachary Claman de Melo and Neil Alberico.

Rookies: A strong opponent

So the combination of three types of tracks will boost the level of these drivers this season. The sensation of the pre-season, Colton Herta is back in the States after two years racing for Carlin in Europe where he achieved the third place in British F4 (2015) and second in EuroFormula Open (2016). The son of Bryan Herta is one of the favorites for the title contention but he need to be aware of his team mate in Andretti-Steinbrenner Racing, Nico Jamin.

The Frenchman despite been a rookie like Herta, finished third last season in Pro Mazda, just behind the other two “dangerous” rookies that must watch closely this season in Indy Lights, Aaron Telitz (Belardi Auto Racing) and Patricio O’Ward (Team Pelfrey) –who will only is sure to be racing in the opening round.

Also will be so interesting to see the BRDC F3 champion, Matheus Leist (Carlin) and the 5^th place finished in Pro Mazda Series, Nicolas Dapero.

Experienced drivers: Urrutia & Kaiser don’t want to lose again

But the series also will have the vice-champion of 2016 edition, Santiago Urrutia who left Schmidt Peterson Motorsports –who left the series, and joined in three-cars team, Belardi Auto Racing who already prove how strong the team is last year with Felix Rosenqvist and Zach Veach. The Uruguayan driver will lead the team with rookie Telitz and junior year driver, Shelbly Blackstock.

Also in his junior year leading Juncos Racing, Kyle Kaiser. The Californian driver always showed a good pace in the series and as well, and most important, consistency. Last year finished 3^rd in the series fighting until the last weekend for the championship, which means that we can’t not forget him at all.

Since his entry in 2015 in Indy Lights, Carlin always has been a team to watch and for these season, Neil Alberico and Zachary Claman de Melo are those who will fight for the championship for the blue team who will have 4 cars this season.

Conclusion: 6 for the win?

So we can say that every team –except Team Pelfrey, seems to be able to clinch the title, but the favorites are probably: Urrutia, Kaiser, Herta, Jamin, De Melo and Alberico. 15 driver’s only one champion.

All of them will start his way to succeed Ed Jones and had the chance to race at least in 3 races of IndyCar in 2018, one of them the Indianapolis 500 miles race.

L'entrada IndyLights Preview: Who will succeed Ed Jones? ha aparegut primer a FormulaRapida.net.

The 2017 season starts this weekend with the IndyCar Grand Prix of Saint Petersburg. New drivers are going to be the protagonists of this website, as well as new series and new people who will be reporting everything you need to know for many series.

Heading this 2017 season, Arnau Viñals the website CEO said:

“We are really ambitious to start this 2017 series definitely. I really want to have plenty of work during the weekends, because off-season has been so difficult for me, especially when you are enjoying your passion (racing) with many other people in this world.

“We have learnt from our difficulties and we are fighting against them. You know we are not a “generalist” website which mainly reports MotoGP or F1. We always focus on junior series instead, which is what viewers mostly like, but this 2017 our crew has been strengthened in order to improve our quality in Formula 1 and also in MotoGP. SuperFormula and British F4 will be the new series that we will report. We are also thinking about Japanese F3, but we haven’t decided anything yet.”

Novelties: Super Formula, British F4, CEV and Red Bull Rookies Cup

The passion for work and desire for more never stops in this team. That’s why we are delighted to announce we are increasing our coverage in Motorbike junior series such as CEV (Moto2 & Moto3) and Red Bull Rookies cup, as well as our Formula 4 reportages with British F4 and also closely following the strong Super Formula grid.

We will do race coverage of all this series, with Super Formula being reported by Guille Moreno in Spanish and Arnau Viñals in English, while CEV and Red Bull Rookies Cup will be reported by the strong Motorbike section.

Growing up: F1 & MotoGP

As far as we know that there is plenty of Formula 1 and MotoGP media’s around, which means these are not a key part of FormulaRapida.net, so we decided to hire more people for this 2017 who will help reach our goals in both main series. Jaime Chico joined the team to be appointed F1 editor, while Quim Ferre, alongside Judith Alcaraz and Guille Moreno, will deal with MotoGP races.

One step back: World Series Formula V8 & WEC

Even though they are great series, we decided not to do a full coverage of WEC, which means that we will only do race report in English, while in Formula V8, the new feeder series of WEC, we will keep doing the same coverage in Catalan, Spanish and English, but not French this time.

Business role of Formula Ràpida

The Catalan project is not a project anymore, as it’s becoming an enterprise of technology development and design. That means we do thinks such as branding, mobile apps, photography, helmets design, press management, overall designs, business cards, team wear, video reportages, community management, and much more!

Team for 2017:

Finally we hope you enjoy as much as us of motorsport racing series for this 2017 season.

L'entrada FormulaRapida.net: #WeLiveForRacing even more ha aparegut primer a FormulaRapida.net.

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Let’s talk about grid boys. The idea was to replace women on the grid but it didn’t please Sebastian Vettel. Do you think it is a good idea to replace women by men here ? Even only to desacralize the image?

Dorothée: It’s only commercial! There is not the idea that the woman only holds a sign. Otherwise we would use kids for that!

Nina: Here we have a good idea!

Dorothée: Showing a man wearing a tight t-shirt and a short has nothing to do with this. It’s only commercial reputation.

Nina: They got rid of grid girls in WEC. However in DTM, there is that strong culture of the grid girl. They wear flashing yellow overalls for the Deutsche Post. There are 2 or 3 photoshoots during the week-end if you want to take pictures with them! You just need to go onto DTM’s twitter account to see how they treat women…

The idea of having kids, like in football, standing next to their role model on the grid is a good idea, although there is still a problem of security.

Chloé: Alongside DTM, there is MotoGP.

Nina: For a moment, Marc Marquez used his brother, Alex, as grid boy.

Dorothée: We interviewed one for FranceRacing. They are only girls who work, and not for a lot of money. Then, it’s all about exploitation of the image of women that is to be questioned. I am not against having women standing in front of a car. What bothers me is when she is half naked, implying she is only here for her body.

Nina: Or to represent a brand like in DTM.

The grid girl is more a marketing tool than a green plant standing there…

Dorothée: In F1, you always have photos of grid girls, especially in Hungary where they are famous for being the most beautiful of the world.

Nina: There are also those who applause in the cool room corridor… they don’t have much utility. A grid girl holding a sign to see the name of the driver and his number, ok. But here I don’t see why…

Dorothée: It’s ridiculous!

Isn’t it a way to show the admiration of the woman for a driver? Like groupies?

Dorothée: That’s it!

Nina: That’s how we are seen.

Dorothée: Here is the problem…

Chloé: Moreover, some of them only learned the name of the driver half an hour before. Most of them to it for the job but some of them are passionate.

Nina: For the Grand Prix of Pau, most of them are local students. In F1, they are models.

Dorothée: If we got rid of grid girls in F1, no one would care. It wouldn’t change anything.

To conclude, if you had to inspire a girl to get interested into motorsports or event to have a career in it, what advice would you give her?

Nina: Don’t give up! No matter what she can be told, if she doesn’t feel legit, she doesn’t have to be! What we have below out belt doesn’t define what we like! If she wants to like motorsports, so be it! If she wants to see a Grand Prix, don’t hesitate! If she wants to work into motorsport, good luck because you’ll need it! She needs to continue, although it’s difficult because once you’re there, it’s awesome!

Chloé: If she wants to cheer up, Susie Wolff made a group with a lot of people [Dare to be Different]. There, we realise there are many women working to motorsports and more girls who want to work here than one may think. This group allows us not to feel alone and to show us that if we keep working, we will succeed.

Dorothée: In general, world doesn’t need to be defined by men. Also, women have their place in motorsports. Just don’t hesitate and go for it. Once everything is settled, you have to say although it’s complicated. The years going by, it will be easier.

Translated from French

L'entrada Women in motorsports pt.5 ha aparegut primer a FormulaRapida.net.

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Let’s talk about women in journalism. We see woman start making their place in motorsports journalism. You are the example of it. We see that women on TV are still in the background [relegated as interviewers and not analysts] either in France or in the UK. Do we actually give women the possibility to show what they are worth of and what they know? Nina, how are you seen in the GP2/GP3 paddock?

Nina: First of all, it’s important to remind that we are not a lot to be accredited only for GP2/GP3 and most of us are women relegated to support series. We are seen as journalists so there is a sort of suspicion about you. I was in Abu Dhabi just before the post-season testing and there is a natural mistrust between journalists and teams. The fact we are women adds to this fact as we sometimes get sexist remarks.

Is there really a sexist approach from team crews?

Nina: The mechanics especially, when they see you walk by, sometimes say some things, especially when it’s hot and you are wearing a tank top. After all, I know how things are in a team as I belong into one. I know mechanics are still quite young in those series.

Chloé, how are you seen during the events of your company?

Chloé: I am seen differently as the questions I will be asked will be different from what men will be asked, although we wear the same clothes. For example, I will be ask to give goodies when my male colleagues will be asked about technical stuff. In people’s mind, a woman is associated with communication although I could have given an insight on the question.

So there is a basic cliché right from the start….

Chloé: Yes, every time. I don’t know if it has something to do with the environment as it happens more in Rallye but yes.

Nina, you were in Hockenheim with Van Amersfoort Racing. Did you go through the same thing than Chloé?

Nina: Hockenheim was the last round of the season so were are not asked technical stuff. We are not here to be asked questions. I know this difference of treatment exists but I didn’t feel it in Hockenheim.

Dorothée, you have been twice to le Castellet, how did you feel?

Dorothée: I am rather discreet so I go unseen. I am not sure I would be taken seriously if I had to make interviews or ask questions as I was in duo with a man. The day I will be confronted to these missions, it will be more complicated as I am discreet so I will have to impose myself and it’s difficult for us to exist professionally speaking.

15 years ago, when written press was more important, we had Anne Giutini in L’Equipe [main French newspaper about sports]. We have women journalists who have a reputation but who sometimes are infamous. Since there is less women in written press, the image takes over and it’s more difficult for women professionally. It should be the other way round but it’s complicated.

Translated from French

L'entrada Women in motorsport pt.4 ha aparegut primer a FormulaRapida.net.

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Let’s talk about the drivers. We saw drivers arriving to key places like Susie Wolff and Simona De Silvestro [conference realised before Tatiana Calderón joining Sauber]. In junior formulae, we have Tatiana Calderon in GP3 and Beitske Visser in Formula V8 among others. Today, we see more and more women battling against men in motorsports.

However, Bernie Ecclestone had the idea of making a 100% women championship. This idea has been criticized a lot. Do you think the best way for a woman to show herself is to fight among men although her performances are not as expected?

Nina: I completely agree with Tatiana Calderón when she says it is a stupid idea to separate men and women. We are in motorsports where both the driver and the car matter. According to me, most women don’t want to battle only against each other. When I talked with Tatiana Calderón, she didn’t care about beating Alice Powell’s points record in GP3. Her goal is to battle, at her level, against the boys in her category. Same for Beitske Visser who focused of her season in Formula V8 and who might not want to be just among women.

I think it’s absurd to want to separate men and women. It’s stupid to want a F1 for women! The mediatisation will be less than men, the budget would never equal F1’s, it would be relegating this category to an under-F1, maybe at the level of F3. If women had the same access to sponsors than men, we would make a great step ahead.

Dorothée: A F1 women idea, I find it completely stupid! But what is not that stupid is to promote women in motorsport. Here is my point: it wouldn’t be that stupid to have women Grand Prix as F1 support series. It wouldn’t be much about separating women but more about promoting them. I see it as a positive discrimination. The idea of a women F1 is not viable on the long run. But, punctually, it might work, especially if the mediatisation is less. Once they have the helmet on, a woman is a driver like any other one.

Chloé: I agree with all that has been said. For a woman to exist in motorsports, she needs to confront herself to men with no differences. There is obviously some criticism but if a women F1 had to exist, they would be among themselves.

In the beginning of the 2000’, in America, we saw many women such as Danica Patrick, Sarah Fisher, Pippa Mann, Simona de Silvestro… Should we say the European part of the sport has a more stopped idea of motorsports?

Nina: I rather agree with that. Simona de Silvestro raced in Indycar and she said it was easier for her to find sponsor in America than in Formula E.

But the budgets are not the same?

Nina: They aren’t. There is just less barriers in America. Danica Patrick is the only woman who ever won in Indycar. There is less clichés about women in the US than in Europe where we still have a very masculine idea of the sport. But then in the US, I feel as if there is not the cult of the driver. They are here for the cars and the show. It’s a different approach between the US and Europe.

Chloé: European mentality is behind when it comes to women.

Let’s talk about endurance racing. We had Natacha Gachnang in ELMS, Ines Taittinger and Christina Nielsen this year in the 24h of Le Mans. Let’s talk about Ines Taittinger. Does she have the possibility to get to LMP1?

Chloé: There isn’t a lot of seats in LMP1. It’s already difficult for a man so image for a woman. As long as she wouldn’t have proved herself, the things won’t change, even with money behind it.

We however seen some men in junior formulae getting to the top thanks to money and not talent. Isn’t it paradoxical to ask for results to women when some men reach F1 only thanks to money?

Nina: This is everyday sexism. A woman will have to provide twice as much efforts than a man.

Chloé: And their incomes would be different!

Nina: I am not surprised as this is how life goes!

Dorothée: Men struggle to understand how difficult it is for a woman to have a career because she will have to provide three times as more efforts. We should leave to the women the right to be as bad as men before asking them to be as good as them.

NEXT PART

Translated from French 

L'entrada Women in motorsports pt.3 ha aparegut primer a FormulaRapida.net.

First part 

You all talk about key roles in a team or an enterprise. In F1 we already provided some examples but there are two women who are team leaders : Monisha Kalterborn (Sauber) and Claire Williams (Williams). The first one is quite criticised but she has a great pedigree. Could both be examples for women to reach higher places despite the problems in Sauber?

Dorothée: I am not a huge fan of Monisha Kalterborn. I think she lacks of competence on certain points despite her course of jurist. There are a lot of things that went wrong, juridically talking.

Like the contracts in Sauber?

Dorothée: Yes, especially that. It was a mess. The good thing is that she is criticised for making mistakes and not being a woman. She did mistakes like Eric Bouiller have done before. But can she represent women in motorsports? I think we need more diversity than just a strong image.

Nina: Claire Williams is often forgotten despite being the heiress of her father. She did a lot for women in F1 as Susie Wolff’s team was Williams. I also think of Simona De Silvestro in Sauber. I think having people like Monisha Kalterborn, as questionable as she is, or Claire Williams have helped women to get to high places in F1 although we still don’t have titular drivers. To have Susie Wolff and Simona De Silvestro as third driver or development driver is, I think, a good thing.

To have women leading F1 teams can’t harm as it gives representation for the little girls who watch F1 and telling themselves “but there are only men” because that is how it was in the beginning of the 2000’: there were only men! No woman around! That is why I did not want to make it to F1 until I was 17 because I thought we could not go there. Representation matters and I am happy to see women in the lead of teams.

Chloé: It is not the image of one woman in particular that will help women to get to F1, but the addition of all women present who have responsibilities over their shoulders, despite their mistakes. A man could make the same. We can also talk about Leena Gade who was at Audi and who claimed a lot of victories. It is a lot of little example which prove that women have the right to be in motorsports.

You talk about Leena Gade who got many victories but she is not as mediatised as in F1. She remained in the background. Do you have to be on a mediatised field to be seen and to talk? We sometimes forget about other women as Sarah Abadie in Tech1 or Caronie Grifnée at e.Dams.

Dorothée: It is not a problem not to be in the spotlights for the sake of being a woman. We should not fall into the excess of pointing out every woman in motorsports. There are categories which are less mediatised. I don’t think it is necessary to point out at every woman who gets responsibility places.

Nina: I agree with what has been said. We talk about the lack of mediatisation of women in junior formulae but it’s also following the lack of mediatisation of those proper formulae. Almost no one knows the name of the team managers of Eurocup teams, unless they are very big teams. We can hardly compare this mediatisation to WEC or F1.

NEXT PART

Translated from French

L'entrada Women in motorsports pt.2 ha aparegut primer a FormulaRapida.net.

This year’s pre-season will start later than usual, which makes it one of the most awaited and with more questions to answer.

Mercedes: Has anything changed?

What everyone has in mind right now is that Formula One is boring because Mercedes always win. The latter is true, although those who say this don’t know much about this sport.

The Anglo-German team faces 2017 with many changes. Without going any further, Nico Rosberg left the team after a personal decision. This has caused many management problems. Despite taking the easy decision (Valtteri Bottas), the bureaucracy has made it complicated. The German is not the only one who has left the team; so has Paddy Lowe, the team’s manager, who has set out for Williams.

Hence, Mercedes seems to arrive with all things in the same place, but with the change of aerodynamic regulation, this is still to be confirmed.

Less overtaking

This year’s cars, according to the analysis, will be up to 5 seconds faster, so we are probably facing the fastest Formula 1 in history. This may be the positive effect, but there are also negative parts.

And that means the overtaking is likely to be reduced because these cars will be very fast both in turns and straights.

The braking will also be key, since the braking distance will be reduced. It remains to be seen what relevance the DRS will have. So, will we get bored again?

Dangerous Rivals

No way! The teams that have been behind Mercedes will take advantage of this change to make a leap forward. Many see Red Bull as the number one rival of the German team, but we can never rule Ferrari or Force India out.

The Anglo-Hindu team wants to reach third place in the championship, and it should be said that they know how to do things well despite being a private team. They have a new driver, but maintain the talent with Esteban Ocon, that will pair with the experienced Sergio Perez.

Red Bull and Ferrari will also have a great pair of drivers: Ricciardo-Verstappen and Vettel-Räikkönen. The fight for the victories and the podium will be very exciting.

Rookies but good

Perhaps the great forgotten of the challengers is the Williams team, probably because of the bad reputation they have taken to “fall asleep” during the year. The British team will have this year’s FIA Formula 3 European champion, Lance Stroll, a 19-year-old who is highly questioned for who he is (family) but little valued for the sporting goals achieved.

Who is recognised worldwide is Stoffel Vandoorne, who has finally become a McLaren driver, sharing team with Alonso. From our point of view, the Belgian arrives very well prepared for the category, and he will surely equal and even surpass the Spaniard during the season. Having a double world champion will be “too positive” for the GP2 Series champion of 2015, as this asset will serve him as Hamilton in 2007 to grow a lot as a driver.

Too many unknowns and only a month to start the season: this is the key moment to define the Formula 1 of 2017.

L'entrada Preview: 2017 Formula 1 pre-season in Barcelona ha aparegut primer a FormulaRapida.net.

Niko Kari and Richard Verschoor, champions in 2015 and 2016 respectively, are in the Red Bull Junior Team, and Jarno Opmeer was recently announced in the Renault Drivers Development,

Niko Kari and Richard Verschoor have been renewed for another year by the Red Bull Junior Team. It is a considerable achievement, since the drivers who have lasted more than a year in the Red Bull Junior Team usually become professionals of a top category.

If they do not reach F1, like the case of Brendon Hartley, Antonio Felix Da Costa, at least they came to the WEC in LMP1 and DTM, a privilege. Pierre Gasly is already also a professional in the Japanese SuperFormula.

In the first year of competition, Niko Kari stood out, and an occasionally competitor Joel Eriksson. Joel Eriksson was recruited by BMW and he aims to be in the DTM, Kari through the agreement of Jota Sport with Arden, could run at LMP2 at Le Mans this year, just as Jake Dennis ran last year.

The 2016 champion, Richard Verschoor, was third in the Toyota Racing Series recently, and finished as the best rookie. Verschoor is aiming for the Formula Renault 2.0 title this year.

The 2016 runner-up Jarno Opmeer is now recruited by Renault, and will once again be a rival to his compatriot Red Bull, on the same team, MP Motorsport.

Even so, for the season 2017 does not know important names of pilots who will dispute for the third title.

L'entrada 2 years of success of the SMP F4 NEZ ha aparegut primer a FormulaRapida.net.

Buemi, the man to beat

With two race wins in the first two races of the season, Sébastien Buemi appears as the man to beat for this first part of the season. Although qualifying sessions have not been the easiest so far for him, he proved how fast and how superior the Renault e.dams car is in this third season of Formula E. With already 22 points more than his closest rival who is Lucas Di Grassi, Buemi can come rather serine to Buenos Aires although he never won in Argentina. Nevertheless, Buemi could build his gap up to 29 points and give him one free e-prix after only three races.

However, the other drivers will want to threaten Buemi on track, especially two impressive rookies this season. Felix Rosenqvist, who will focus on his Formula E season and dropped from DTM, comes back from a pole position and a podium in Marrakech. The fast Swede will undoubtedly show his speed again in Buenos Aires. The other rookie who can have a great week-end is José-Maria Lopez. Despite two difficult races, Lopez has been rather impressive in his Formula E debuts and he will undoubtedly be helped by his home crowd cheering for him and probably awarding him the fanboost.

Welcome to America

Formula E returns to South America and to Argentina. Buenos Aires is the first track of the season that is not new to Formula E and is also the only track featuring in all seasons. The Puerto Madero street circuit is 2.4 km long and features 12 turns. The lap record is hold by Jérôme D’Ambrosio in 1:11.048 with Dragon Racing in 2016.

In 2015, Sébastien Buemi had set pole position but he retired from the race, offering Antonio Felix Da Costa his first victory in Formula E. in 2016, Sam Bird claimed both pole position and race win for DS Virgin which will try to do the same this year and claim their first victory of the season.

This race is the first race of the season hosted on the American continent and, for the first season, the only one in South America, as the Punta del Este e-prix has been removed from the Formula E calendar. Formula E will then flight to Mexico in the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez with Esteban Gutiérrez as guest driver. And after the European season, Formula E will come back to America in July for the two double headers of New York and Montréal.

L'entrada Buenos Aires E-Prix preview : who to beat Buemi ? ha aparegut primer a FormulaRapida.net.

Marta García will make her official debut at the EuroFormula Open, a car she was already testing last year. Marta has only 11 single-seat races, running in F4 Spain, where she was very consistent rolling around the top 5.

Although the Spaniard has achieved several karting titles – she was recently 4 °, in the CIK-FIA category of higher level – jumping to F3 cars is a rather complicated step considering the very little experience in single seater.

Recall that talented drivers such as Dorian Boccolacci and Alessio Lorandi found it very hard to jump early to F3, including former world karting champion Enaam Ahmed, and competed in the EuroFormula Open (he did not manage to climb the podium) after accumulating experience in The SMP F4 and British F4, however decided to continue on the lower rungs, gain experience and then move forward.

By the way, Marta has commented that she has not gone badly in test in the F3, although she recognizes that she has much to learn.

L'entrada Marta Garcia joins Campos Racing for Winter Series ha aparegut primer a FormulaRapida.net.