The nine-time motorcycle grand prix world champion retired from MotoGP at the end of the 2021 campaign and will switch to a career in GT racing in 2022. Last month Rossi announced he had signed with leading endurance squad WRT to race one of its factory-backed Audi R8s in the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint
GT
A winner on the famously tricky street track in touring cars and GTs, with Alfa Romeo and BMW, Augusto Farfus is well-qualified when it comes to Macau. “Either you love it or you hate it,” he says. And Farfus is firmly in the former camp. “I am a guy who likes flowing high speed tracks,
The Austrian, who took four DTM victories with the German manufacturer in 2015-18, has been named as an Mercedes-AMG performance driver for this season. The move follows Auer’s return to the cockpit of a Mercedes in the new-look DTM last year after a season with BMW in 2020, which followed a brief return to single-seaters
The son of former Minardi and Simtek Formula 1 driver Jean-Marc, Mercedes-AMG factory driver Gounon will replace Yelmer Buurman in the team’s Mercedes-AMG GT3. Gounon rose to prominence in 2017 when he notched victory at the Spa 24 Hours with Audi and claimed the ADAC GT Masters title the same year in a Callaway Corvette.
The Mustang GT3 racer will be developed by Ford Performance in collaboration with long-time Ford partner Multimatic Motorsports. The two previously collaborated on the Ford GT racer that took GTE Pro class victory at the Le Mans 24 Hours in 2016, and twice won the Daytona 24 Hours GTLM class in 2017 and 2018. Multimatic
The 29-year-old Briton, who took the NLS title in 2020 with the Walkenhorst BMW team, has been confirmed as a factory driver by the British manufacturer after being named on the 2022 World Endurance Championship entry list earlier this month alongside the works-run NorthWest AMR entry. He will share the NorthWest GTE Am class Aston
The east coast of Australia is currently dealing with a surge in Omicron cases, New South Wales and Victoria the worst hit with daily cases in the 10s of thousands. On Monday NSW also recorded its deadliest day of the pandemic so far with 18 deaths, while hospital admissions are on a steep rise. The
The 42-year-old retired from MotoGP at the end of the 2021 season, bring to an end a 26-year career in grand prix motorcycle racing that yielded nine world titles across 125cc, 250cc and MotoGP classes and 115 total grand prix victories. Rossi repeatedly stated last year that he would switch to GT racing at the
Teased by Toyota last week, the GR GT3 Concept acts as a precursor to what would be the Japanese marque’s first full GT3 offering under its own brand. It is not based on any particular existing Toyota model, featuring a much longer front end and more aggressive posture compared to the marque’s current top sports
Nicky Catsburg’s choice of the BMW Z4 GT3 as his favourite car should come as little surprise, as it was the machine which launched the BMW factory driver’s professional career. The Dutchman had dominated the Megane Trophy in 2010, and gained GT1 experience in Nissan and Corvette machinery in the 2011 world championship, but had
The British squad has revealed that it will field a pair of McLaren 720S GT3s in the two-weekend Asian Le Mans Series in February and will continue with the new cars for further GT3 campaigns through the year that will be announced at a later date. Garage 59 team principal Andrew Kirkaldy said: “Garage 59
The Kiwi has enjoyed success in Europe in the past, particularly during his time as a factory McLaren GT driver. He won the 2016 Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup with Rob Bell and Come Ledogar for Garage 59, thanks to race victories at Monza and Paul Ricard. That same season he finished third in the
The former Lamborghini factory driver will join an all-Pro lineup as the German-based squad steps up from International GT Open with two McLaren 720S GT3s. Lind will join team regular Christian Klien and 2015 Blancpain Sprint champion Vincent Abril, who took a best finish of fourth in the DTM this year. Team owner Patryk Krupinski
Vosse made the claim after Rossi tested one of WRT’s Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evos at Valencia last week and revealed that he is working towards running the seven-time MotoGP world champion in the Pro class of next year’s GT World Challenge Europe. “Valentino is a legendary rider, but he is also impressive as a
The 27-year-old German has agreed his first manufacturer deal following five seasons of GT racing after calling time on a single-seater career that included two third-place championship finishes in GP3 in 2014 and 2015. His successes in the GT3 arena include a second-place finish in the Bathurst 12 Hours and a GT World Challenge Europe
The announcement from IGTC organiser the Stephane Ratel Organiser on Tuesday follows last week’s postponement of the South African series finale from its 4 December date this weekend as a result of the imposition of international travel restrictions to and from the country. They followed the identification of the new Omicron COVID variant in South
ORECA has won the tender to assemble the new contender under development on an as-yet-to-be disclosed car from Ferrari’s model range, as well as to provide after-sales service. The Paul Ricard-based organisation led by Hugues de Chaunac is taking over from Michelotto, which has built Ferrari’s GT3 challengers since the 458 Italia GT3 that started
To find out what it takes to be a mechanic for a GT3 car, we spoke to Todd Pannell – a Number 1 Mechanic for Jota Sport – to find out how to become a mechanic, what qualifications it takes, and what skills you need to succeed. What is your role? My role as a
The 39-year-old Briton was a mainstay of the DTM for 16 continuous seasons between 2005 and 2020, scoring 17 wins for Mercedes and Audi and finishing second in the standings in 2015. But since his Audi factory deal concluded at the end of 2020, the 2004 Formula 3 Euroseries champion has only raced once for
On Thursday prior to the F1 Brazilian Grand Prix, Norris said he recently sent Rossi a “heartfelt” message ahead of the nine-time grand prix motorcycle world champion’s retirement this weekend in Valencia. Norris revealed that he keeps in regular contact with Rossi – who is the McLaren’s driver’s personal hero – and explained that both have
Ratel’s eponymous organisation will work with the Asian arm of the ACO-owned Le Mans Endurance Management organisation to run the ALMS from the end of next year as part of a wide-reaching agreement. The ALMS and the Stephane Ratel Organisation’s GT World Challenge Asia will combine in the same as the GTWC Europe Endurance Sprint
The McLaren DDP programme, first run in 2018, involves four drivers being placed with a partner team in the British GT Championship’s GT4 division, split into two car crews. The programme was managed in 2018 and 2019 by Tolman Motorsport, then by Team Rocket RJN in 2021 after a one-year hiatus for the scheme during
Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini pair Machitski and Lind held an 18.5-point advantage into the title decider over nearest rivals Ian Loggie and Yelmer Buurman’s Mercedes, and had no success seconds to serve in their mid-race pitstop. Despite an off in Machitski’s qualifying session at the Esses which caused a red flag, the championship leaders lined up
The Bahrain ProAm 1000 set for 11 December is the brainchild of the British-based Driving Force Events organisation that has run the Gulf 12 Hours in Abu Dhabi since 2012. The 1000km event will be open exclusively to amateur and pro-am driver line-ups racing GT3 and GT4 machinery, as well cars from one-make sportscar series
He has put forward a series of changes to the FIA because he believes the current structure threatens the future of his GT World Challenge Europe series as well as some of his other championships. Ratel wants to do away with the distinction between the platinum and gold ratings as it stands today and then
The Australian enduro has been given a March 20 date for 2022, six weeks later than its traditional calendar slot on the first weekend of February. IGTC boss Stephane Ratel said on the announcement of the date during his eponymous organisation’s annual press conference at the Barcelona GT World Challenge Europe round on Sunday: “It
The Italian manufacturer has decided to send the works AF Corse team to the Indianapolis 8 Hour later this month and then the Kyalami 9 Hour in December after winning the series-opening Spa 24 Hours in the summer with the AF-supported Iron Lynx squad. AF will enter a pair of Ferrari 488 GT3 Evos in the
It will be the first time that the second-generation Vantage GT3 has raced on the Nordschleife since the formal debut of the car in what was then known as the VLN in October 2018. The appearance also marks the first time that the Prodrive-run Aston Martin Racing squad has run a car with an all-professional
Do you prefer the McLaren F1 GTR or Panoz GTR-1? Both 1990s cars are now fondly remembered, but you’d probably not have thought twice about which one you’d rather drive heading into the 1997 FIA GT Championship. David Brabham was in that sort of position and it seemed like an easy decision. The short-tailed competition
The M4 GT3, which replaces the venerable M6 that has been in service since 2016, was due to make its debut on the Nurburgring Nordschleife in June but this was postponed after a technical fault caused Sheldon van der Linde to crash in practice. The car had previously appeared at the official Spa 24 Hours test day,