| By Gary Watkins and Scott Mitchell | Thursday, July 3rd 2014, 15:21 GMT |
Le Mans 24 Hours class winners Toni Vilander and Emmanuel Collard will join a bumper AF Corse Ferrari entry at the Spa British GT round.
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| Thursday, July 3rd 2014, 15:15 GMT |
GP2 team Hilmer Motorsport has hit back at its driver Facu Regalia's claims that he has quit the team due to its lack of competitiveness and reliability
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| By Jonathan Noble and Pablo Elizalde | Thursday, July 3rd 2014, 15:15 GMT |
Kamui Kobayashi says there is no reason to think he will not see out the 2014 Formula 1 season with Caterham despite the change of ownership
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| By Ben Anderson and Jonathan Noble | Wednesday, July 2nd 2014, 15:22 GMT |
Red Bull has ruled out switching to any of Renault's rival Formula 1 engine manufacturers because it believes its chances will be limited if it becomes a mere customer team
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| By Marcus Simmons | Wednesday, July 2nd 2014, 15:28 GMT |
Two of Formula 3's leading teams have given the thumbs-up to the FIA World Motor Sport Council's extension of the current chassis' life by two seasons.
The World Council announced last Friday that the current-generation cars, which were originally scheduled to compete from 2012-15, will go on until the end of 2017.
Carlin boss Trevor Carlin said: "I was quite shocked and pleasantly surprised when they said the cars can go on until 2017.
"Considering the money we spent this year [on the new-spec engines, gearboxes and electronics] it puts us back on an even keel."
Van Amersfoort Racing chief Frits van Amersfoort agreed, adding: "It's a good decision, because the teams need air to start breathing again."
AUTOSPORT has also uncovered more details surrounding the technical changes to the cars to be brought in next season.
Handbrakes (which are used as part of the starting system) will be banned, a rev limiter will be introduced for starts, and there will be a development freeze on dampers.
There will also be further tweaks to the sporting regulations surrounding engine changes, and a revision of the gear ratios allowed using information gained from the first season of racing with the new, larger-diameter 28mm air restrictor.
Carlin had mixed feelings about this: "It [the handbrake ban] won't save a penny because we've already got them, but it should be OK - at least we don't start races on the downhill slope at Spa anymore.
"I feel that someone will just come up with something that isn't a handbrake [and starts a new form of development].
"I think the rule is intended to save money on clutches - people are destroying them by poorly operating the handbrakes.
"And the good drivers will find a solution - I remember when Takuma Sato and Alan van der Merwe [Carlin's British F3 champions of 2001 and '03 respectively] could do 0-60 times of less than three seconds without a handbrake; some drivers now struggle to do that with one."
Van Amersfoort was more enthusiastic.
"I welcome the handbrake ban, but the rev limiter I don't know - we don't have a problem," he said.
"But it's very important that we keep this series under control technically, that no one is putting development into things that will bring us trouble.
"One of the most important things for this championship is that small teams and big teams can survive together - it's vital that we have this combination and that the big teams don't swallow the others up, otherwise it's unhealthy."
| Wednesday, July 2nd 2014, 15:37 GMT |
Red Bull Formula 1 reserve and BMW DTM racer Antonio Felix da Costa will drive for the Aguri team in the 2014/15 Formula E season.
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| By Edd Straw | Tuesday, July 1st 2014, 14:46 GMT |
AUTOSPORT's technical expert, Gary Anderson, has been awarded an honorary degree by the University of Ulster.
Anderson was made an honorary doctor of science in a graduation ceremony at the university's Coleraine Campus on Tuesday.
The doctorate is in recognition of his achievements in motorsport, which make him a role model for students graduating from the university.
Although Anderson embarked on a long and distinguished career in motorsport without any formal qualifications, producing racewinning cars for both Jordan and Stewart, he is quick to stress the importance of education.
"When I was young, education was not very high on my to-do list and at Coleraine Secondary School, to be honest my aim was to leave there as soon as possible," Anderson told AUTOSPORT.
"So it was a great honour to go back to my home town to receive this honorary degree from the University of Ulster.
"In the late 1960s/early 1970s, it was difficult to find work in Northern Ireland and I decided to move to England.
"From leaving school at 15 to starting work for Bernie Ecclestone at Brabham at 22 I had nine different jobs, from a building site dump truck driver to a mechanic on Massey Ferguson tractors
"I have experienced most things but as they say when you get involved in a job that you love you never work again. In a way that's what happened to me but I had to work hard.
"I questioned and listened to everything and in motorsport I had some great tutors, Bob Dance, Gordon Murray and Gordon Coppuck are three that I would like to mention.
"It was through people like this and my determination that I got the opportunities that I did.
"When I moved into the design side of things I was employing people to work for me with vastly higher qualifications than I had.
"I believe that combining education and experience and getting them to work together is a stronger combination than either individually."
As well as his time at Jordan and Stewart/Jaguar as technical director, Anderson has worked for Brabham, McLaren and Ensign in F1.
| Tuesday, July 1st 2014, 14:29 GMT |
The World Touring Car Championship has confirmed it will hold a third race in China this season at the Beijing Goldenport Motor Park circuit on October 5th.
The meeting, round nine on the WTCC calendar, replaces the American event at Sonoma, scheduled for September 14th.
Logistical difficulties have been blamed by organisers for the changes. Key among these was the cancellation of the September 17th departure of a ship carrying WTCC cars and equipment to Shanghai from Oakland harbour.
The next vessel, leaving on September 21, would not have arrived in Shanghai until October 9, thereby jeopardising the Shanghai race on October 12.
"We had to face a logistic challenge, and after consulting with the WTCC stake holders, we went through all possible scenarios, including date changes and air freight," said Eurosport COO Francois Ribeiro.
"But we came to the conclusion that keeping Sonoma on the schedule was unviable.
"The Chinese Touring Car Championship promoter, our partner in China, has quickly reacted to change its CTCC schedule and put together an alternative event at Beijing, the week before Shanghai."
Steve Page, Sonoma Raceway president said: "We are sorry to miss the terrific on-track action that the WTCC has brought to Sonoma the last two years, but wish the best to everyone involved with the series as they pursue this new schedule."
Prior to settling on Beijing, the Guandong circuit had been considered as a potential venue, as revealed by AUTOSPORT in May.
| By Gary Watkins | Tuesday, July 1st 2014, 15:06 GMT |
Former grand prix driver Jarno Trulli's new Formula E team will be run by successful single-seater squad Super Nova.
TrulliGP has signed up Super Nova, which won four Formula 3000 drivers' titles in the 1990s and early 2000s, to run its Spark-Renault SRT_01Es in the wake of the official announcement of the team last month.
Trulli, whose team-mate in the inaugural season of the Formula E Championship will be Michela Cerruti, told AUTOSPORT: "We have reached an agreement with [team bosses] David and John Sears at Super Nova and I am very pleased because I rate the team very highly.
"They are very serious people with a high level of experience, so we couldn't have found a better partner."
David Sears added: "We wanted to be involved with Formula E from the beginning, so we are very pleased and excited about this.
"Running a team commercially is incredibly difficult so this is exactly what we've needed since our sponsor went bust on us and we had to shut up shop in GP2."
Super Nova, which was also a frontrunner in GP2 before dropping out of the series ahead of the 2012 season, joins fellow stalwart British race team Carlin, which is running the Mahindra Racing entries, on the Formula E grid.
Norfolk-based Super Nova has raced in Auto GP since leaving GP2, winning the drivers' title in 2012-13.
Ex-Lotus motorsport director Claudio Berro, who formerly ran GT racing programmes for Maserati and Ferrari, is no longer involved with the team.
SUPER NOVA'S TITLES
1995 Formula 3000 Vincenzo Sospiri
1997 Formula 3000 Ricardo Zonta
1998 Formula 3000 Juan Pablo Montoya
2002 Formula 3000 Sebastien Bourdais
2006-07 A1GP Team Germany
2012 Auto GP Adrian Quaife-Hobbs
2013 Auto GP Vittorio Ghirelli
| Monday, June 30th 2014, 14:27 GMT |
Ex-Toro Rosso Formula 1 driver Sebastien Buemi and Nicolas Prost will drive for the Alain Prost and DAMS partnership's e.dams Formula E team in the electric series' debut season
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