2021

Juncos Hollinger Racing will make its NTT IndyCar Series debut at the Portland Grand Prix with Callum Ilott, the 2020 Formula 2 championship runner-up, Alfa Romeo Formula 1 reserve driver, and Scuderia Ferrari F1 test driver, in its No. 77 Chevy. Ilott traveled to JHR’s base on Monday where he was fitted to the car; next on his list was a visit to IndyCar’s medical staff for the necessary checks ahead of his first track test. “I am pleased and excited to be announcing I will be racing with Juncos Hollinger Racing at Portland,” said Ilott “This will be my first time in the NTT IndyCar Series and running in the United States, which will be a bit of a change from running on the European side. “I am looking forward to working with the team during this first phase of their development. I would like to thank the Ferrari Driver Academy for allowing me to take this opportunity and for Ricardo Juncos and Brad Hollinger for bringing me on board the team.” As Juncos Racing, the Indiana-based team founded by Ricardo Juncos made 15 IndyCar starts from 2017-2019 where it made headlines at the Indy 500 after its largely unsponsored team knocked McLaren Racing and Fernando Alonso out of the field of 33. With the recent addition of former Williams F1 stakeholder Brad Hollinger to the program, the outfit has been renamed and relaunched ahead of a three-race campaign to close the season as it prepares to go full-time in 2022. “We are very excited to welcome Callum Ilott to the Juncos Hollinger Racing family,” Juncos said. “Callum brings a lot of experience and incredible talent to the team. We are confident that he will transition well into the NTT IndyCar Series when we get on track for our final test before making our official debut together at Portland next week.” The 22-year-old from England has been among the most coveted European open-wheel talents in recent years who, like many of his top junior open-wheel rivals, continues to wait for an F1 race seat to open. In the absence of a grand prix drive, Ferrari has kept Ilott busy with his first foray into sports cars. On his debut in August at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Ilott landed on the podium with the Iron Lynx team, placing third in a Ferrari 488 GTE Evo. More importantly, it was Ilott’s run to second in F2 last year with five poles, three victories, and six podiums that caught the attention of the F1 paddock. With Ilott made available for the September 10-12 Portland race, he’ll give JHR its first chance to evaluate talent to hire before the team moves onto the penultimate race at Laguna Seca and the season finale at Long Beach with the No. 77 Chevy.

Kimi Raikkonen has announced his retirement from F1 at the end of the season. The Finn won the 2007 world championship with Ferrari and has since become the most experienced driver in F1 history with 342 race starts. He has driven for Alfa Romeo since leaving the Scuderia at the end of 2018 and has failed to make an impression on the midfield this season, earning two points to sit 17th in the standings. In a post on Instagram, Raikkonen said: “This is it. This will be my last season in Formula 1. This is a decision I did during last winter. “It was not an easy decision but after this season it is time for new things. Even though the season is still on, I want to thank my family, all my teams, everyone involved in my racing career and especially all of you great fans that have been rooting for me all this time. “Formula 1 might come to an end for me but there is a lot more in life that I want to experience and enjoy. See you around after all of this! Sincerely Kimi.” Alfa Romeo said in a social media post: “Truly the end of an era for our sport. “Thank you for everything, F1 won’t be the same without you. Kiitos, Kimi.” F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali, who worked with Raikkonen at Ferrari, added: “Kimi is an incredible part of our sport, a personal friend and a true champion. “I had the privilege of working with him at Ferrari and know the fantastic person he is. We will all miss him & his unique style and wish him and his family the best for the future.”

As always the Thursday will be dominated by the FIA press conferences and also this time we can see some nice duos. Max Verstappen will kick off this weekend’s press conference together with former teammate Carlos Sainz. The two drove together at the former Toro Rosso team, now known as AlphaTauri. Verstappen can expect a lot of attention during his home race. Verstappen and Sainz are not the only former teammates who will form a duo on Thursday. Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo, who drove together at Red Bull Racing, will also appear together in the press conference. Another notable duo is George Russell and Lando Norris. The two are good friends, so we can surely expect a lot of jokes between the two drivers. Lewis Hamilton will take place next to Antonio Giovinazzi. The press conference will start at 11:30 UK time.

The ongoing impact of the coronavirus pandemic has left F1 in a tricky situation of having to be flexible with its calendar over the second half of the year. Although events in Singapore and Australia have had to be ditched because travel restrictions have made it impossible for them to go ahead, F1 chiefs were able to find replacements. A second race in Austria was held in July to take one of the slots, and F1 is set for a November event in either Qatar or Bahrain to take the other. However, after Japanese authorities decided that its October race in Suzuka could not happen, F1 has accepted that there will not be replacement, which will reduce the number of events to 22. This change in the race number has triggered a clause in F1’s cost cap rules that means team will still get an extra spending allowance in the cost cap for the event going ahead, even though it has been ditched and they won’t have to face the expenditure of going. For this season, F1’s budget gap is based around a $145 million limit, although there are certain exclusions such as marketing, driver wages, engine development and travel. That $145 million figure is set if there are 21 races per season, with Article 2.3 of F1’s Technical Regulations stating that for every extra event added teams will be allowed another $1.2 million. That means for this year’s originally scheduled 23-race calendar, the limit will be $147.4 million. However, thanks to a clause in the rules, teams will be able to stick to that higher figure even though the schedule is being cut back and their outgoings will be reduced. A clause in the same rule states: “If any Competition in a Full Year Reporting Period is cancelled less than three months prior to the proposed start date of that Competition (or, where applicable, any rescheduled date), such Competition shall be deemed to have taken place in the applicable Full Year Reporting Period.” With the Japanese GP only being cancelled earlier this month, well within the three-month window, it means teams can still run to the higher $147.4 million budget. While the difference may not impact the majority of teams much, big spending outfits like Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes are operating right at the limit and any saving they can make will be welcome. The difficulties of operating within the budget cap limit had prompted those teams to seek some form of exemption for mounting crash damage – especially when accidents are caused by other drivers. Red Bull said that Max Verstappen’s British GP crash had cost it $1.8 million, while Ferrari’s damage bill for the first half of the year was $3 million. McLaren team boss Andreas Seidl has been unmoved by rivals calling for extra leeway because of damage – and he says the financial boost everyone gets now from the Japanese GP cancellation should silence the matter. “We should not forget, which is why I think some of the comments are quite ridiculous, the mechanism that is in place, especially for this year with the budget cap at the moment, that with every race that gets cancelled up to a certain point of time, the budget cap actually gets lifted because that can cause extra costs,” he said. “In real life, it [a cancelled race] triggers some extra costs but not a lot. So the benefit you get from that, and the increase of the cost cap already by that, is already huge. It is bigger than any of the crashes we have seen so far this year.”

Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz has called for a Belgian double-header in 2022 to make up for the “absolute nonsense” of this year’s event. Fans were left disappointed when only two laps could be run under safety car conditions after a three-hour delay despite weather radars suggesting the rain would not abate through the afternoon. Lewis Hamilton was critical of the handling of the event and called for fans to be refunded, although F1 has so far dismissed these calls. Asked what could be done to make it up to fans, Sainz said: “I don’t know, maybe give them a double race next year or something like that. “There was nothing we could do. I am really sorry for them because they are the first ones that deserve to have a show. “It has been a tough couple of years with Covid, last year it was [behind] closed doors. This year you could get to Spa, maybe a full crowd. It would have been great to give them a show but trust me, we just couldn’t do it. “We could have done it Monday maybe, but we have to go to Zandvoort. I am really sorry for everyone but I don’t see a window or a way to solve this than for next year to give them a double race or something.” Sainz finished 10th and picked up half a point after the two laps behind the safety car enabled scoring to be allowed, despite only one lap being shown as completed in the final classification. Cynics have suggested the laps were run purely to allow for the scoring. Sainz claimed: “If it was done with the intention just to give points, I think it is absolute nonsense. “I don’t think we should do any kind of laps to alter the final result of the race. “If it was done with the intention of actually running and restarting the race then yes, which brings me to the next point. “How far into the race do you call it a race and if there was actually now race laps and competition, why should points be given or any result be given because there was no race? “Basically, I didn’t race, so I didn’t deserve half a point so I don’t know why I get half a point.”

It seemed to be a recipe for a spectacular Sunday at the legendary circuit of Spa-Francorchamps: a rain race. Unfortunately for the fans, especially those who were present at the circuit, the race was cancelled. After Lando Norris crashed into the wall during qualifying on Saturday, the stewards and drivers didn’t dare to race on Sunday because of the spray. According to Pierre Gasly, a solution to the problem must be found quickly. Speaking to Motorsport.com he says: “I think we need to work on reducing the spray behind the cars, because that’s the real problem. When I looked at the medical car, of course it went at a much lower speed, but the spray is a lot less than what we do with our cars.” “So I think that’s an area F1 needs to focus on for the next few years. If you reduce the spray and you have better visibility, okay, then the conditions can be tricky, you can have aquaplaning, you can have a lot of sliding, you can be very slow, but then it’s up to us drivers to be at the limit of the grip we have. But at least then we can see enough, because visibility was the problem on Sunday,” said the AlphaTauri driver. The Frenchman therefore agrees with the decision not to race: “Unfortunately I don’t think any other option was possible. If a car stops on the track or crashes for any reason and there are many other cars right behind it, we know what the consequences are if a car is hit. We have seen enough terrible things here at this circuit.”

Sergio Perez says it was “incredible” how Red Bull banded together to repair his car at Spa, both his and Max Verstappen’s mechanics doing the job. Perez earned the ire of Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko when he crashed his RB16B on the way to the grid for the start of the Belgian Grand Prix. But with the rain still chucking down, the Mexican driver was handed a get-out-of-jail-free card as the start was delayed by more than two hours with F1 race director Michael Masi clearing him to take the start. That gave his mechanics, along with Verstappen’s, the time needed to repair the RB16B which the team had said had suffered “extreme” damage. “The lap to grid was my mistake, the conditions and visibility were extremely poor and I just went on the kerb and lost it,” Perez stated. “I always knew there was a small chance we could get the car back out and the team was pushing hard, really showing the spirit of Red Bull, which was nice to see. “My team did what they do best and they repaired the car so quickly it was incredible.” Unfortunately with the grand prix nothing more than a two-lap procession behind the Safety Car, Perez, who had to start at the back of the field, was classified P20. “I really wanted to repay them for their hard work during the race but that didn’t happen,” he added. “Luckily we are racing again in a few days.” Ultimately, however, Perez’s mistake cost him his P7 grid slot, with the Red Bull driver – who, it was announced at the start of the weekend, will remain with the team in 2022 – starting from the pit lane before ultimately being classified P19 after the race was red flagged following two laps behind the Safety Car, costing him what would have been three points – half those usually awarded for a seventh-place finish. “The conditions were extremely hard,” explained Perez of the crash, “and with these wet tyres, things are very, very tricky, very slippery. It was my mistake, but it could well have happened to anyone out there. Red Bull team boss Christian Horner applauded the team’s efforts to repair Perez’s car. “Following Checo’s unfortunate trip into the barrier on the initial out lap it was incredible to see our mechanics in action under pressure once again, fixing his car in the time they did, giving him every opportunity to race should we have been able to get out from behind the Safety Car,” he said. “It was a massive job as both sides of the suspension and the steering rack were damaged but it was very rewarding to see the teamwork with both sides of the garage working together to get it fixed.” Red Bull walked away from Spa with an additional 12.5 points with pole-sitter Verstappen awarded half points for his race win.

The cancellation of the Belgian Grand Prix was not only a disappointment for the fans and Formula 1 teams, also Vanessa Maes was very disappointed with the situation. The organiser of the event will try to find a way to give back to the fans. Maes had been working with the team for months to keep the race going with the restrictions due to the corona measures, so she was proud of her people. However, heavy rain in recent days made it impossible to start the race this weekend, so the hard work proved to be for nothing. poster“Spa GP wants to express its deepest disappointments with the result of the GP, for my team the conclusion of a year’s work in which we overcame all the obstacles,” she said in an interview with Dhnet.be. “But unfortunately the weather is something you can’t control. I have always said that the health of our public is of the utmost importance. Also the health of the riders.” The fans along the sidelines did not get to see a race, however, so she will be looking at what she can do for them in the coming period. “In the coming days, I will discuss with Formula 1 management how we can compensate our spectators after this force majeure situation.”

Lewis Hamilton does not like the way things went in Belgium on Sunday afternoon. The Mercedes driver saw the start of the race being postponed time and time again, while according to him it was already clear that the weather conditions would not improve. “Today was a farce and the only people to lose out are the fans who have paid good money to watch us race,” Hamilton said on his Instagram. The seven-time world champion does not hide his opinion. “Of course you can’t do anything about the weather but we have sophisticated equipment to tell us what is going on and it was clear the weather wasn’t going to let up.” The fact that the drivers then had to drive behind the safety car for around ten minutes on the Spa-Francorchamps circuit does not sit well with Hamilton. We were sent out for on reason and one reason only. Two laps behind a safety car where there is no possibility to gain or lose a place or provide entertainment to the fans isn’t racing.” The 36-year-old Briton closed by saying that he finds it incomprehensible that the FIA chose this approach. “We should have just called it quits, not risked the drivers and most importantly refunded the fans who are the heart of our sport,” said Hamilton.

The 2021 Belgian Grand Prix has been abandoned and Max Verstappen declared the winner amid torrential rain at Spa-Francorchamps. Half points were awarded to the drivers in qualifying order — less Sergio Perez, who dropped to last thanks to a crash on the reconnaissance lap — after two laps were completed behind the safety car to satisfy the regulations to produce a classification, short of the 75 percent required to award full points. Rain had lashed Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps all day and intensified in the lead-up to the race. By the time pit lane opened grip was so low that Sergio Perez slid off the road at Les Combes and embedded himself in the barrier, leaving him unable to make it to the grid. The race start was subsequently suspended for 25 minutes before the grid departed for a series of formation laps behind the safety car, but after two exploratory laps race control called off the start procedure and threw a red flag. “I already can’t see anything, guys,” Hamilton radioed his team from third place, complaining about the density of the spray with only Verstappen and George Russell ahead of him. “I have to leave a little bit more space to the safety car because I can’t see anything,” Verstappen said, though the Dutchman added he felt the track was otherwise raceable notwithstanding the lack of visibility. The grid returned to pit lane to wait for a break in the weather, and race control paused the three-hour time limit on the total duration of the event in the hope the rain would abate before sunset. After a suspension of almost 200 minutes, the weather subsided enough to contemplate a race, which got underway with a 60-minute time limit behind the safety car. But visibility was little improved when 20 cars returned to the track, and after two laps shrouded in mist the race was red flagged and eventually called off altogether. Verstappen was classified the winner ahead of Russell, who scored his first podium, and title leader Hamilton whose lead was cut to three points as a result. Daniel Ricciardo finished fourth ahead of Sebastian Vettel, Pierre Gasly, Esteban Ocon, Charles Leclerc and Nicholas Latifi and Carlos Sainz as the points scorers.

Red Bull’s Sergio Perez will start from the pitlane following a crash on his installation lap before the race. Things looked grim for the Mexican driver who had lost control as Les Combes and shunted into the barriers. His Red Bull suffered extensive damage to the front wing and right corner and the team did communicate to the FIA to declare that Perez was unable to participate. With the extended delays due to the adverse weather, the team has been able to repair the car in time with Michael Masi of the FIA confirming to the team via radio that Perez is able to start the race from the pitlane. Should the team be able to repair the car in time, then Perez will be able to participate in the Grand Prix. The race however, is still not underway as adverse weather has halted proceedings. The cars were able to get going under the safety car, but the race was immediately red flagged and the drivers had to come into the pitlane.

Lando Norris is undergoing precautionary checks in a hospital in Spa following his dramatic crash in the final segment of qualifying at Spa. The session started under changing but predominantly wet conditions but worsened at the start of Q3. Just after complaining on his team radio on his out lap about aquaplaning, Norris was caught out by the slippery track in Spa’s daunting Raidillon, where the McLaren slid off in the middle of the corner, hit the tyre wall on the left before rebounding onto the track. As the heavily damaged McLaren grounded to a halt further up the hill, an oncoming Sebastian Vettel stopped near the stricken to check on Norris who gave the German a reassuring thumbs up. “Sorry boys,” quipped Norris as he reported back to his team. “We should have had a good one there. I let you down, my bad.” The incident logically triggered a red flag which many – including Vettel – believed should have been deployed earlier, while Norris stepped out of his stricken car holding his elbow. The Briton was taken to Spa’s medical center for an initial assessment per F1’s mandatory requirement after a high-speed crash and was then transferred to hospital for additional checks and a precautionary X-ray of his elbow. Although Norris was officially classified P10 in the session, should he be fit to drive, a pitlane start for Sunday’s race is most likely in order for the 21-year-old as McLaren will need to build up a new MCL35M chassis for the Briton.